On the football field, Baylor is still Baylor.
After cruising through its non-conference slate, the 16th-ranked Bears opened Big 12 play in impressive fashion, knocking off Oklahoma State 35-24 at home to improve to 4-0 overall. Seth Russell threw for 387 yards and four touchdowns while the Bears defense, despite being on the field for more than 40 minutes, forced four turnovers and limited the high-powered OSU offense to 20 points below its season average.
The game was sloppy early with the teams turning it over a combined four times — two fumbles, an interception and once on downs — on the first six drives. The game was tied 7-7 after one quarter but the Bears pulled ahead with two Russell touchdown passes to Ishmael Zamora in the second quarter to take a 21-14 halftime lead.
The Cowboys tied things up at 21 midway through the third and Baylor responded quickly when Russell hit Chris Platt for an 89-yard score two plays later. Oklahoma cut the lead to 28-24 with a field goal and had a golden opportunity to go ahead early in the fourth, but the Baylor defense came up with a huge goal line stand to keep the score at 28-24.
A Baylor punt followed, and OSU again had a chance to take the lead. This time, Baylor forced another turnover, a fumble from Justice Hill at the 1-yard line. From there, Russell and the Bears offense had their best drive of the night, marching 99 yards in nine plays to put the final nail in OSU’s coffin with another touchdown pass to Platt on 3rd-and-goal from the 15.
With the win, Baylor joins West Virginia as the only unbeaten teams in the Big 12. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State already have two losses a piece while TCU and Texas are 3-1 and 2-1, respectively.
The next month for Baylor should be a breeze, too, with a pair of bye weeks and games with conference bottom-feeders Iowa State and Kansas. The Bears should be 6-0 and perhaps the only Big 12 team on the College Football Playoff radar heading into an Oct. 29 trip to Austin to play the Longhorns.
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