After a 35-24 victory against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at AT&T Stadium this past Saturday, the Baylor Bears are going bowling.
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Baylor’s running backs averaged 4.97 yards per carry against Texas Tech.
The Bears knew that the season finale would determine the fate of their season with an opportunity to go to a bowl game on the line. They would need to deliver one of their best performances of the year under pressure if they wanted to cap off their drastic improvement from their one win season a year ago.
They were able to do just that.
While there was a struggled to find a rhythm to close the first half after two 75-yard scoring drives and finding themselves trailing 17-14 at half, Baylor dominated the second half by outscoring the Red Raiders 21-7. Their performance in the second half was exceptional and came at just the right time for the team.
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Sophomore quarterback Charlie Brewer threw for 308 yards while completing 22 of his 30 passes for three touchdowns against a tipped pass that led to one interception. With a QBR of 82.2, it’s safe to say that he had one of his better performances of the year. Brewer completed passes to 10 different players which goes to show how he was able to spread the ball around and not rely on a single target to carry the offense.
Senior Chris Platt came up with the most yardage out of the Baylor receivers in his first big game this season, catching six passes for 114 yards. Junior Denzel Mims also added five catches for 65 yards for two touchdowns.
With JaMycal Hasty out, the Bears leaned on John Lovett where they knew they were going to have to rely heavily on the running game. Lovett ran the ball 28 times for 125 yards and a touchdown.
While there were clearly a lot of positives for the Bears in all facets of this game, the key to this game and the stat that mattered was that the ability to carry ball 51 times for 170 yards, including 38 carries for 189 yards by the Baylor running backs.
“The offensive line,” Lovett said of having a career high day. “They did everything they needed to do. And I just ran right behind them. It was wide open every time.”
Now, before you scroll down to the comments and question how simply running the ball for 3.3 yards per carry overall can be the stat that mattered, hear me out.
“I thought we ran the ball really well. Not a ton of big runs, but we were getting five and six and chunks almost every time. I think, whenever you do that, then you do a little play action and it makes it easier to get over the top.”
- Baylor QB Charlie Brewer
In Baylor’s system, running the ball represents controlling the game. They possessed the ball for 60 percent of the game for a total of 36:04 to the Red Raiders’ 23:56, all thanks to their ability to run the ball and move the chains consistently. In fact, the Bears totaled 28 first downs, a total that ranks third among their games this season. These are the kinds of stats that Matt Rhule day dreams about.
Other than this past Saturday, the most rushing attempts the Bears had all season came against the Kansas State Wildcats. On 48 rush attempts they ran for 261 yards, overall a much more efficient rate than their game against the Red Raiders. Other than those two games, the Bears averaged just 35.7 rushing attempts on the season.
In 2017, the Bears never ran the ball more than 46 times, as they found themselves in a lot of games out of their control and had to fight back with the passing game. The last time the Bears ran the ball more than 51 times was back in 2016 in a hard-fought loss against the Texas Longhorns (68 carries)
All in all, controlling the ball and the clock with 51 rush attempts opened up a lot of opportunities in the passing game and allowed the Bears to keep the Red Raiders’ offense off the field. As a result, the Bears were able to dominate this game in the second half and clinch a bowl game.
“You know, I think that that stuff really gets set up by the way we run the ball,” Charlie Brewer said of the explosive plays they found in the passing game Saturday. “I thought we ran the ball really well. Not a ton of big runs, but we were getting five and six and chunks almost every time. I think, whenever you do that, then you do a little play action and it makes it easier to get over the top.”
The fact that the Bears were able to bounce back from a one win season by coming back the next season with a chip on their shoulder and securing a spot in a bowl game is something to be proud of. Going forward, this win against the Texas Tech Raiders could be a pivotal point in the future of the Baylor football program.
Hopefully the Bears will deliver the cherry on top to the season with an exceptional performance in their bowl game.
