Five quick thoughts: Farewell to Baylor
Texas is now 81-28-4 against Baylor in the all-time series, which is probably a surprise to anyone who started following college football in the last decade, but this season saw a regression to the mean in this series. In what’s likely to be Texas’ last trip to Waco for a long time, the Longhorns blasted the Bears 38-6 in a game more reminiscent of the ’90s or 00’s than the more recent history in this series.
This was a brutal loss for the Bears, who had the chance to play a primetime contest with the Longhorns in their 113th and final (for a while at least) battle with Texas. Instead, a decade of positivity was erased as the Longhorns dispatched the Bears in a fashion more akin to this series in the years prior to 2011.
For Texas it was a strong win, despite a few hiccups, where they demonstrated the “John Wick mentality” they’ve talked about since Big 12 Media Days in which they hunt all the Big 12 teams who are hunting them for big farewell wins.
Quick thought no. 1: Texas’ D-line dominated
Texas had one surefire path to eliminating any chance of a Baylor upset or competitive showing, which was to dominate the Bears on 1st down. If Baylor couldn’t run the ball and use up clock there was virtually no chance of them remaining competitive in this contest.
In the first half, where the game was basically decided, Baylor mostly attempted passes on 1st down because their run game had nothing. They had five 1st down runs in the first half which yielded a total of four yards at 1.3 ypc. Multiple plays yielded negative yardage. On the day the Bears ran the ball 31 times for just 60 yards at 1.9 ypc with zero touchdowns.
It looks slightly better for Baylor if you remove the sack yardage from Texas’ five sacks, but it certainly doesn’t make the performance of the Longhorn D-line look worse. Byron Murphy paced the effort with two sacks and another tackle for loss but T’Vondre Sweat was prominent on a big 4th down stop and both Alfred Collins and Vernon Broughton gave the Bears fits in their 12 personnel (two tight ends) packages by setting hard edges with help from Sam linebackers Jett Bush and Morice Blackwell in his first appearance.
This Texas D-line is one of the very best in the nation and is essentially spotting the Longhorns a big advantage in every game they play this season. There simply aren’t many offensive lines on the schedule (if any) who can prevent Texas from seizing sizable advantages from the play of their defensive front.
Quick thought no. 2: Another clean performance on offense
Quinn Ewers came awfully close to throwing a pick-6 at one point in this contest when he pump faked to the running back, looked down field, then came back to a covered running back. Baylor’s defense couldn’t quite snag the interception though and on the next play everyone watching witnessed impressive feats of athleticism and strength from left tackle Kelvin Banks and Ewers himself on a 29-yard touchdown run.
Make sure you watch Banks on the replay, who turned an outside rusher inside and threw him into the path of a blitzing linebacker, effectively taking out two Bears and freeing up the scramble path for his quarterback.
Ewers was 18-23 on the day for 293 yards at 12.7 ypa with one passing touchdown, zero picks, and his third rushing touchdown on the season.
The RPO game continues to be a big bread-winner for this offense as well, demonstrated on this amazing one-hander by Ja’Tavion Sanders running down the seam on the backside of a sweep play.
Texas’ skill talent was putting on a show in their opportunities in this game as the Longhorns compiled 503 yards of total offense at 8.5 yards per play.
Steve Sarkisian clearly had a plan for the Baylor offense designed to give the Longhorns a chance to dominate on offense if they’d needed to. They didn’t, but it was a strong performance all the same.
Quick thought no. 3: Jonathon Brooks‘ time to shine
Texas has a number of talented running backs on campus and two players not named Jonathon Brooks who were blue chip recruits out of high school in Cedric Baxter and Jaydon Blue. Both of those former blue chips ran well in this game, combining for nine carries, 38 yards, and a touchdown, but Brooks ran the show.
For the second straight week the Hallettsville produce went over 100 yards with 106 total on just 18 carries at 5.9 ypc with two rushing touchdowns and another 18 yards when he corralled a lofted throwback screen from Ewers and took the ball down inside the 10 yard line.
He’s bringing some toughness and balance on inside runs this season to accompany his pre-existing ability to glide and accelerate across the field for big plays.
Texas liked this misdirection Duo run, which hearkened back to how they manhandled Baylor a year ago with the scheme, and this run by Brooks was the first they put on the board in this blowout win.
Baxter and Blue give Texas great depth but Brooks is a star player this season and has a chance to put together an All-Big 12 season if he can maintain his current pace.
Quick thought no. 4: A good game to be bad on special teams
Texas had an embarrassing outing on special teams which limited the extent of Texas’ margin of victory. They gave away two possessions on muffed returns, both on punts, and also missed one of the easiest field goals you’ll ever see from 26-yards out after an 11-play, 74-yard drive.
Their coverage and returns were otherwise strong, the punting game from Ryan Sanborn was solid, and “Sideshow” Bert Auburn made a 37-yarder earlier in the contest. However, to waste a 74-yard drive and give away two possessions deep in your own territory with muffed returns are all pretty egregious offenses for a special teams unit.
It didn’t matter in this contest as Baylor couldn’t make anything of those opportunities with their own woebegone offense, but it was still unbelievably sloppy. The Longhorns will need to clean some of those mistakes up in future contests or risk giving away a game they shouldn’t with poor play.
On the other hand, if Texas was going to have a day where their special teams were poor enough to throw a game this was a good day for it to happen. Baylor was completely outclassed in this game and the degree of errors here simply didn’t matter for anything other than whether Texas could get time to put Arch Manning on the field late.
Quick thought no. 5: A symbolic win
This was a really big win for Texas from a narrative sense. Texas hasn’t been ranked this high since 2009 and have endured a decade-plus journey in the wilderness trying to find their way back to nationally competitive football.
This program went into the tank during the 2010 Rose Bowl when a revitalized Alabama program in their third year under head coach Nick Saban knocked Colt McCoy out of the Rose Bowl and seized the National Championship. Texas reversed that outcome when they defeated Alabama in Tuscaloosa and gave Nick Saban his first non-conference home loss since 2007.
In the following decade, Baylor emerged as Texas languished and the Bears won a Heisman Trophy in 2011 and Big 12 Championships in 2013, 2014, and 2021 while playing for another in 2019. Over that period of time until now, the Bears also went 6-7 against the Longhorns head to head. Not great, but a lot better than they’d traditionally done in this series.
A “Texas is back” season should necessarily include saying farewell to the Bears with a final crushing defeat on their own turf in primetime. Anything less than that would have been unbecoming for Texas if they’re truly re-establishing themselves as the kings of the Lone Star State. This was another big win for Texas in setting a proper tone for the 2023 season and their imminent departure to the SEC.
Next up on the farewell and good riddance tour? Kansas…
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