Brewer's first start ranks among best Big 12 performances

While not the defining moment of Baylor’s 38-9 win over Kansas, Charlie Brewer’s first career catch is an important piece of the whole picture.

Running a play near-identical to Texas’ receiver-reverse passes last week, Jared Atkinson found Brewer down the right sideline for 20 yards. It was the first play after Rajah Preciado forced a Kansas fumble following the Bears’ 21-point run in the second quarter. That sort of unconventional play calling was only afforded by that string of events, finally able to expand the playbook while holding Baylor’s largest lead of the season.

Of course, there’s the argument that this was against Kansas. This game was a fight to avoid last place. But even against the worst scoring defense in the league, Baylor’s first-half performance authored by Brewer is one for the books.

Before today, Baylor had scored three consecutive touchdowns just once. That 23-0 run against West Virginia has been the most significant series of the season- a shining moment for Brewer who stepped in for a banged up Zach Smith. Now in his first start in place of a once again injured Smith, Brewer gave Baylor its second string of three touchdowns of the season.

After getting rattled early on with a non-existent run game, getting sacked twice, Brewer connected with Gavin Holmes on a perfect 26-yard back-shoulder pass to go up 7-3. A 56-yard pass to Denzel Mims jumpstarted the drive and the offense.

From there, the offense ran as smooth as any Big 12 team this year.

That’s not an exaggeration.

Texas Tech and West Virginia’s were the only Big 12 offenses with three straight touchdown drives against Kansas. TCU had a 20-0 run on Kansas thanks to a punt return TD. Had Connor Martin’s 36-yard field goal gone through the uprights, Baylor would have been the first offense all season to score on four consecutive drives since West Virginia opened conference play.

While Brewer wasn’t the only playmaker, he was at the center of it all. His pinpoint pass to Holmes was a veteran-level throw, placing the ball where cornerback Kyle Mayberry had no chance to tip it. The following drive gave Jordan Feuerbacher his first touchdown of the season, a 25-yard floater just out of reach for Kyron Johnson after Brewer rolled out on a play action, showing off the pro-style offense that was promised.

Brewer was pitch perfect even on drives he wasn’t directly responsible for the score, showing rare poise in the pocket and continuing to show he’s capable of extending plays.

He was 2-of-3 for 52 yards to set up Holmes’ 4-yard rushing TD for Baylor’s third score. Brewer later orchestrated a 10-play drive going 5-of-5 for 45 yards including a pivotal third-down conversion to Mims that led to Terence Williams punching in to take a 28-9 lead.

In total, Brewer ended 23-of-29 for 315 yards and 3 TDs. Notably, he completed 10 passes over 15 yards. It took just eight plays for Baylor to make up 77 percent of its 289 yards in the first half where most of Brewer’s damage was done.

More of a sign of play calls coming through, Brewer was also responsible for the first two tight end touchdowns of the season. Ish Wainright had his first career reception on a 9-yard fade in the end zone in addition to Feuerbacher’s first score.

Though it’s not as flashy a performance as the five-touchdown performance Kenny Hill had for TCU in a 43-0 rout against the same defense, Brewer’s first outing as the starter is impressive enough to trust that “trust the process” won’t be around much longer under his watch.