Recap: Baylor's Special Teams Shine in 23-13 Win over Colorado to Open Conference Play

WACO — Baylor football navigated its way through plentiful of landmines to come out with a 23-13 win against Colorado to open Big 12 play on Saturday afternoon at McLane Stadium.

Despite special teams giving the Bears an overwhelming field-position advantage, the offense scored just 13 points through the first three quarters.

Punter Palmer Williams (Sr.) was busy, but efficient, booming seven kicks and averaging over 50 yards per punt.

On the receiving end, Jayden McGowan (5Sr.) had a day in returns, returning seven kicks for 130 yards, good for 19 yards per return. Kicker Rhett Armstrong (So.) drilled all three attempts, including a career-high 54-yarder, to give the Bears a 10-point lead in the fourth.

In his first game at McLane Stadium, quarterback DJ Lagway (Jr.) completed 19 of 39 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns to one interception.

The Bears overwhelmed Colorado in the final ten minutes of the game, outscoring them 10-0 and outgaining the Buffs 146 to 22.

Baylor went straight toward the Buffaloes’ strong run defense on the first drive with a pair of first-down runs through Dawson Pendergrass (5Sr.). However, two false starts killed the drive.

After a quick Colorado punt, a 38-yard punt return from McGowan got the crowd into it to begin its following drive, but a three-and-out was all the offense could do.

The Buffs went into their bag of tricks with a double reverse pass on their second drive, with Joseph Williams throwing to a wide-open Kaneal Sweetwyne for a 49-yard pitch-and-catch. The defense kept Colorado out of the end zone, forcing a 24-yard field goal for the game’s first points with 3:22 left in the first quarter.

Baylor got a jolt of energy from Ryelan Morris (Fr.), to go with a 27-yard pass to Hawkins Polley (Jr.) on a critical third down at the beginning of the second quarter.

The Bears just got to the edge of the red zone before stalling out and Armstrong connected on a 35-yard field goal. Since his first miss against Auburn, Armstrong has been six-for-seven on field goal attempts.

The two most-penalized teams in the Big 12 showed it and favored Baylor en route to the game’s first touchdown. Safety Micah Gifford (Sr.) stuffed a 4th-and-1 run near midfield to give the Baylor offense good field position.

On a pass intended for Taz Williams (Fr.), Colorado was called for pass interference. Later in the drive, the Buffs were tabbed with an illegal hands-to-face call that put Baylor at the Colorado 10.

Two plays later, Baylor found the end zone for the first time, with Lagway hitting Gavin Freeman (5Sr.) on a fade in the back corner of the end zone for a 3-yard score to make it 10-3 with 7:04 left in the half.

Lagway converted a 3rd and 10 with a 23-yard pass to Dre’lon Miller (Jr.), but a pair of incompletions on second and third down ended the drive.

Baylor got yet another stop and a full minute to see if they could add points before halftime. Instead, Lagway threw an interception to give Colorado the ball from their own 35-yard line.

The Bears got a sack from Daniel Cobbs (Sr.) and a tackle for loss from Devon Jordan (Jr.) to end the half.

Lagway was 12 of 23, with 107 passing yards and a touchdown to an interception in his debut first half at McLane Stadium. The teams combined for 11 penalties and 101 yards.

Quarterback Issac Wilson began the half under center for the Buffaloes and converted a third down and 11 to Williams, but that's all they could do. McGowan had another good return, this one of 26 yards, but the offense had the ball for just over a minute before giving it back.

The Colorado offense stalled, and McGowan gave the Bears excellent field position once again with a 22-yard return to put the Bears at Colorado’s 47.

Colorado committed a penalty, and Lagway hit Louis Brown IV (5Sr.) for a 23-yard gain, but the Bears settled for a 27-yard field goal to make it 13-3 with 7:14 left in the third.

Wilson got the offense going as after a facemask by Hosea Wheeler (5Sr.), he got a pair of first-down completions to Williams, including a 28-yard gain to get inside Baylor’s 25.

Colorado finally found the end zone, with an emphatic, 12-play, 95-yard drive that took over four and a half minutes off the clock and leaked into the fourth quarter. It ended with an 18-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to Williams to tie it up at 13 with 11:04 left in the game.

The Baylor offense immediately responded, with maybe its most fluent drive of the game, a five-play, 65-yard effort. After a first-down run, Lagway hit Freeman, who hurdled over a man, kept his balance and stumbled his way to another 10 yards.

One play later, Jaden Porter (Jr.) beat his defender on a go-route, and Lagway hit him in stride for a 33-yard touchdown toss to make it 20-13 with 9:02 left in the game.

The defense immediately forced a three-and-out that took just 58 seconds off the clock.

The Bears finally found a consistent ground game, beginning with a 16-yard run by Pendergrass. They got a couple more first downs to scoot the ball to the Colorado 35, but stalled. Armstrong connected on his third field goal of the day, a career-high of 54 yards, to give Baylor a 23-13 lead with 4:28 left in the game.

The defense came up critical as Colorado put the ball on the ground with Garrick Ponder (Sr.) forcing it, and it was recovered by linebacker Kyland Reed (Jr.).

Baylor will have its first true road test against Arizona State on Oct. 3 at 9:30 p.m. CST and will be televised on ESPN.

Passing

Rushing

Receiving

Defense