Baylor Football
Baylor loses second-straight week 62-22 to TCU
WACO, Tx. —- Baylor fans remember the last time TCU rolled into town very well. All that needs to be uttered is 61-58, and anyone bleeding green and gold remembers the Bears 21-point comeback. 62-22 is much less likely to be remembered. Most fans would rather forget that rather quickly as the 17th-ranked Bears lost by that score Saturday afternoon.
“That was disappointing. I really thought we had a good week of practice,” head coach Jim Grobe said. “I really felt like coming out of the locker room today that we were ready to play. But, obviously not. And I would like to give a lot of credit to TCU’s kids. I thought they played really, really good.”
However, initial spirits were much different after Seth Russell connected for an 81-yard strike to Ish Zamora after a failed attempt to KD Cannon on the opening play of the game. Those feelings lasted all of a minute as TCU responded with its own touchdown drive following an unsportsmanlike penalty on cornerback Ryan Reid getting tangled with a TCU wide receiver before a third down situation.
Following the success of the first drive looking deep, it took Baylor six play before attempting its first run with Russell looking for another home run. Russell was sacked twice during the second drive with TCU collapsing the pocket.
TCU’s following drive followed a similar arc getting stopped behind the line and punted after cornerback Jameson Houston broke up a touchdown pass to Emmanuel Porter. The next drive ended in a field goal but was once again saved by a broken up touchdown pass, this time by safety Chance Waz in the back corner. Waz also finished the day with a team-leading an career-high 10 tackles. Linebacker Raaquan Davis finished second with eight and K.J. Smith and Taylor Young ended with one sack each.
Down three points, Baylor’s turn to more conservative play calling ended prematurely by tight end Sam Tecklenberg’s false start on fourth down, a trend that would carry over the next couple of possessions.
After TCU pinned itself inside its five-yard line thanks to offensive penalties, Houston was called for a 15-yard facemask that incited an 88-yard touchdown drive rather than a potential turnover on downs. In the first half alone, Baylor committed four 15-yard penalties with three unsportsmanlike calls after right guard Blake Blackmar’s foul nullified a first down completion to Cannon that led to another punt —— one of nine for Baylor.
Taking advantage of Baylor’s change of possession was two-fold for TCU as a converted Hicks fourth-down touchdown was immediately followed by a pick-six from TCU cornerback Ranthony Texada to start nailing Baylor’s coffin up 31-7.
“Offensively we sputtered,” Russell said. “ It gave them, I gave them an easy touchdown, it was a pick six and that kind of put us behind the eight ball a little bit more than we already were.”
Baylor began to take out that nail after stringing together a 19-play drive for a Russell rushing touchdown, his first of two. Gary Patterson’s team returned the favor with Hicks’ third touchdown of the game with 0:07 remaining set to receive the ball after halftime followed by another Hicks score to open the second half.
“It’s really disappointing,” Reid said. “You ask me, just being a leader on defense, we played horrible. We have to pick it up. There’s nothing to it, there’s nothing to sugar coat.”
The Bears’ trend of getting the ball back into the Horned Frogs’ hands didn’t change much thereafter. It took three more drives before the scoring again and one drive even ended on a 4th and 31 punt thanks to another 15-yard personal foul and Russell being sacked. He was sacked three times and Baylor finished the day with 11 penalties for 121 yards.
“We had penalties, and I’m not going the right things on the offensive side of the ball,” Russell said. “We kept shooting ourselves in the foot. Started out first and ten and then we get a procedure penalty, it put us back first and 15. Then we get 14 yards on the third down on that drive but we can’t get the first down. THat’s just us.”
That lack of forward progress was also accelerated by a lack of consistency on the ground. Terence Williams finished the day as the leading rusher with 68 yards on 18 carries. Shock Linwood added 27 yards on six carries. Thanks to -11 yards from Russell’s sacks, the team finished with just 133 yards on the ground compared to Hicks’ 192 yards alone and five touchdowns for TCU taking advantage of poor cuts and alignment from Baylor.
“It just takes one guy not going with everybody else,” Grobe said. “If it’s not in sync, then it creates a little bit more seam. So I think that we got to look at it really, really hard. . . . But I think we’re asking our secondary guys to help us in run support and the combination, trying to play the pass and the run can be hard sometimes.”
The passing game was rarely injected, either. Only two passes went for over 20 yards. First being the Zamora touchdown and then a 45-yard diving completion to Chris Platt before the end of the third quarter. Heading into the game, Baylor had 18 passes over 20 yards in seven games. But it was a much-needed completion as Platt’s catch set up a Russell touchdown and two-point conversion to Pooh Stricklin to bring the game to 48-22 with 13:41 remaining.
But the offense’s spurt of energy could not carry over to the defense as it let up another touchdown to Hicks, his fifth of the day to virtually end any hope of a miracle comeback like 2014.
With TCU leading 55-22 with under 10 minutes remaining, Baylor continued to struggle stringing together a successful drive and turned the ball over on downs on a Russell incompletion after a failed draw. He finished the day 20-of-36 for 275 yards with one passing touchdown and ground scores.
From there, it was true check-clock mode for TCU as it put together a seven-play, 3 and a half minute drive ending in Sewo Olonliua’s first collegiate touchdown to go up 62-22 with under four minutes remaining.
“I have a lot of faith in these guys,” Russell said. “We’ve been through the ringer and we’re still in it. We’re not going to get out of it until after December 3rd. We still have a lot of games coming up.”
“That was disappointing. I really thought we had a good week of practice,” head coach Jim Grobe said. “I really felt like coming out of the locker room today that we were ready to play. But, obviously not. And I would like to give a lot of credit to TCU’s kids. I thought they played really, really good.”
However, initial spirits were much different after Seth Russell connected for an 81-yard strike to Ish Zamora after a failed attempt to KD Cannon on the opening play of the game. Those feelings lasted all of a minute as TCU responded with its own touchdown drive following an unsportsmanlike penalty on cornerback Ryan Reid getting tangled with a TCU wide receiver before a third down situation.
Following the success of the first drive looking deep, it took Baylor six play before attempting its first run with Russell looking for another home run. Russell was sacked twice during the second drive with TCU collapsing the pocket.
TCU’s following drive followed a similar arc getting stopped behind the line and punted after cornerback Jameson Houston broke up a touchdown pass to Emmanuel Porter. The next drive ended in a field goal but was once again saved by a broken up touchdown pass, this time by safety Chance Waz in the back corner. Waz also finished the day with a team-leading an career-high 10 tackles. Linebacker Raaquan Davis finished second with eight and K.J. Smith and Taylor Young ended with one sack each.
Down three points, Baylor’s turn to more conservative play calling ended prematurely by tight end Sam Tecklenberg’s false start on fourth down, a trend that would carry over the next couple of possessions.
After TCU pinned itself inside its five-yard line thanks to offensive penalties, Houston was called for a 15-yard facemask that incited an 88-yard touchdown drive rather than a potential turnover on downs. In the first half alone, Baylor committed four 15-yard penalties with three unsportsmanlike calls after right guard Blake Blackmar’s foul nullified a first down completion to Cannon that led to another punt —— one of nine for Baylor.
Taking advantage of Baylor’s change of possession was two-fold for TCU as a converted Hicks fourth-down touchdown was immediately followed by a pick-six from TCU cornerback Ranthony Texada to start nailing Baylor’s coffin up 31-7.
“Offensively we sputtered,” Russell said. “ It gave them, I gave them an easy touchdown, it was a pick six and that kind of put us behind the eight ball a little bit more than we already were.”
Baylor began to take out that nail after stringing together a 19-play drive for a Russell rushing touchdown, his first of two. Gary Patterson’s team returned the favor with Hicks’ third touchdown of the game with 0:07 remaining set to receive the ball after halftime followed by another Hicks score to open the second half.
“It’s really disappointing,” Reid said. “You ask me, just being a leader on defense, we played horrible. We have to pick it up. There’s nothing to it, there’s nothing to sugar coat.”
The Bears’ trend of getting the ball back into the Horned Frogs’ hands didn’t change much thereafter. It took three more drives before the scoring again and one drive even ended on a 4th and 31 punt thanks to another 15-yard personal foul and Russell being sacked. He was sacked three times and Baylor finished the day with 11 penalties for 121 yards.
“We had penalties, and I’m not going the right things on the offensive side of the ball,” Russell said. “We kept shooting ourselves in the foot. Started out first and ten and then we get a procedure penalty, it put us back first and 15. Then we get 14 yards on the third down on that drive but we can’t get the first down. THat’s just us.”
That lack of forward progress was also accelerated by a lack of consistency on the ground. Terence Williams finished the day as the leading rusher with 68 yards on 18 carries. Shock Linwood added 27 yards on six carries. Thanks to -11 yards from Russell’s sacks, the team finished with just 133 yards on the ground compared to Hicks’ 192 yards alone and five touchdowns for TCU taking advantage of poor cuts and alignment from Baylor.
“It just takes one guy not going with everybody else,” Grobe said. “If it’s not in sync, then it creates a little bit more seam. So I think that we got to look at it really, really hard. . . . But I think we’re asking our secondary guys to help us in run support and the combination, trying to play the pass and the run can be hard sometimes.”
The passing game was rarely injected, either. Only two passes went for over 20 yards. First being the Zamora touchdown and then a 45-yard diving completion to Chris Platt before the end of the third quarter. Heading into the game, Baylor had 18 passes over 20 yards in seven games. But it was a much-needed completion as Platt’s catch set up a Russell touchdown and two-point conversion to Pooh Stricklin to bring the game to 48-22 with 13:41 remaining.
But the offense’s spurt of energy could not carry over to the defense as it let up another touchdown to Hicks, his fifth of the day to virtually end any hope of a miracle comeback like 2014.
With TCU leading 55-22 with under 10 minutes remaining, Baylor continued to struggle stringing together a successful drive and turned the ball over on downs on a Russell incompletion after a failed draw. He finished the day 20-of-36 for 275 yards with one passing touchdown and ground scores.
From there, it was true check-clock mode for TCU as it put together a seven-play, 3 and a half minute drive ending in Sewo Olonliua’s first collegiate touchdown to go up 62-22 with under four minutes remaining.
“I have a lot of faith in these guys,” Russell said. “We’ve been through the ringer and we’re still in it. We’re not going to get out of it until after December 3rd. We still have a lot of games coming up.”
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