By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
AUSTIN, Texas - Even against a reeling Texas team that had dropped four of its last five games, you can't leave the door open.
With four chances to turn a nail-biter into a two-score game in the last 18 minutes, the eighth-ranked Baylor Bears turned it over once inside the 10-yard line, settled for two field goals and then went backward on a drive that stalled inside the Longhorns' 30.
Seemingly headed to its first home loss of the season and fifth overall, Texas gladly walked in that open door.
The Longhorns pulled within two on Shane Buechele's seven-yard TD pass to tight end Andrew Beck - the first fourth-quarter points Baylor has given up all year - and then won it, 35-34, on Trent Domingue's pressure-packed 39-yard field goal with 46 seconds left.
"It's obvious this is a game we could have won," said Baylor coach Jim Grobe, whose team fell to 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the Big 12. "We just didn't play well enough to get it done. I have to give Texas credit for that. Their kids played really good down the stretch. I don't think our kids played necessarily bad, we just came up short."
On a day when West Virginia, Nebraska and Boise State also fell from the ranks of undefeated, and Washington and Clemson pulled out tight road wins, this one should never have come down to Domingue's kick or a last-ditch Baylor drive that never even got as far as midfield.
"It's what we always talk about: finish strong. And we didn't," said quarterback Seth Russell, who threw for 226 yards and two touchdowns and added a season-high 138 yards rushing and another score. "We gave them a chance, and they took that chance and ran with it."
Texas running back D'Onta Foreman certainly ran with it, tallying 250 yards and a pair of TDs on 32 carries and topping 1,000 yards for the season, the first Texas back to do that since Jamaal Charles in 2007.
But, it was his twin brother Armanti that came up with arguably the play of the game when he hauled in a 38-yard pass from Buechele down to the Bears' 26-yard line. Four plays later, Domingue split the uprights with his kick from 39 yards out.
"I'm just thankful that Coach (Charlie) Strong had the confidence in me to make that play," said Domingue, a transfer from LSU who was 9-of-13 on field goals and 26-of-30 on extra points coming into the game. "Even through all the misses and blocks, he's had my back, and he's told me how confident he is in me. And the same with everybody. They've always had confidence in me, and it's really helped me get through whatever."
After trailing by as many nine in the first half, Baylor pulled to within 23-21 at the break when Russell hooked up with KD Cannon for a 15-yard TD with just nine ticks left on the clock.
"Anytime you get a touchdown, it's huge, especially at the end of the half," Russell said. "You know they're going to get the ball back (to start the second half). So, if they get a stop, it kind of puts momentum in their hands, and (the touchdowns) kind of forced momentum back to our side before halftime."
Blistered for two touchdowns in the first four minutes of the game, the second following a tipped interception, the defense seemed to get a better handle on things the rest of the half. And then, after a 40-yard burst by Foreman, the Bears held Texas (4-4, 2-3) to a 25-yard Domingue field goal on the opening series of the second half.
Sophomore running back Terence Williams, who had just five touches in the first half, broke off back-to-back runs of 25 and 26 yards in Baylor's opening drive of the third quarter and finished it off with a two-yard run that put the Bears up, 28-26.
Williams had a career-best 180 yards rushing on 24 carries, giving the Bears a pair of 100-yard rushers and helping the team rush for a whopping 398 yards.
After a quick three-and-out by the defense, Baylor got the ball back at its own 19 and marched 71 yards in 13 plays and took better than four minutes off the clock.
Russell hit tight end Jordan Feuerbacher for an 11-yard gain to the 8. But on first-and-goal, he was flagged for intentional grounding when his intended receiver broke off his route. Three plays later, kicker Chris Callahan booted a 27-yard field goal that extended the lead to 31-26.
In what could have been the play of the game, nickel back Travon Blanchard appeared to wrest a one-handed interception away from intended receiver Jacorey Warrick at the Longhorns' 20-yard line. But, the replay booth overturned it the call on the field and changed it to an incompletion, with the Longhorns punting from their own 10.
Tony Nicholson had a 12-yard punt return to set up the Bears at the Texas 41, then Russell gained 25 yards on a keeper down to the 16. On the last play of the third quarter, Williams went for another four.
But, with a chance to punch it in and take a double-digit lead, redshirt freshman JaMycal Hasty coughed it up on just his second carry of the night with both Williams and career record-setting running back Shock Linwood on the sidelines.
"We thought Shock was having some problems with his hamstring," Grobe said of Linwood, who carried it just once in the second half after rushing for 65 yards on 16 carries in the first half. "We wanted to keep both backs fresh, and we like JaMycal. It's not a deal when we put him out there that we don't feel like he can get the job done. Speed-wise, we feel like he can do some great things for us, (but) we're obviously disappointed that he lost the football down there."
Again, the Bears got the ball back, when the defense stuffed short-yardage quarterback Tyrone Swoopes for no gain on a third-and-five near midfield.
And Baylor put together another lengthy, time-consuming drive, going 69 yards in 11 plays and taking another 4:20 off the clock. Russell hurdled safety Dylan Haines on a nifty 28-yard run down to the Longhorns' 6.
Grobe said he worries about Russell taking those kinds of chances "all the time" after he missed the last six games a year ago with a fractured neck, "but we've seen him take enough hits that we feel pretty confident that he's full speed."
Back in for another goal-line situation, Hasty picked up four yards on first-and-goal from the 6, but Callahan was called on for a 25-yard field goal this time after Russell and Hasty lost four yards on the next two plays.
"(Williams) was doing great," Grobe said. "But at the time, (running backs coach) Jeff Lebby felt like it was good to have JaMyc in to kind of help T-Dub stay fresh down the stretch."
Callahan's field goal extended the lead to 34-26 with 8:54 left, but the door was still open.
Baylor's defense came up with a big stop, with Blanchard and linebacker Aiavion Edwards stuffing Swoopes on a two-point conversion try from just a yard and a half after the Bears were flagged for substation infraction following the Beck TD grab.
Edwards said going to a four-man defensive line "worked really well in some situations, but I think maybe making adjustments threw us off a little bit."
Russell hooked up with Cannon for a 39-yard pass play into UT territory, then Williams picked up another first down with a five-yard run to the 29. But from there, defensive end Bryce Cottrell took a six-yard loss on a blindside sack by defensive end Bryce Cottrell, Hasty lost another two yards and then Russell overthrew Cannon on what would have been a walk-in touchdown.
"When you have chances to make things happen earlier in the game, and you don't, sometimes that catches you," Grobe said. "We certainly had opportunities on both sides of the ball. We had opportunities to get off the field on defense and certainly opportunities to score more points. It will be a good lesson for our football team."
It was a painful lesson, though. The Bears suffered their first loss of the season despite rolling up 624 yards total offense, averaging nearly six yards per rush and getting two defensive turnovers.
"It's not something we sit here and mope about," said Edwards, who finished with a game-high 13 tackles. "We have a big one coming this next week, so there's not much time to sit around and mope about this loss."
Both teams came out on fire, combining to score 28 points on 21 plays in the first 5 ½ minutes.
Russell got it started with a career-best 50-yard run, stutter-stepping to get by Haines down the left sideline, and then Armanti Foreman hauled in an equalizing 40-yard TD catch from Buechele.
After Texas cornerback P.J. Locke III picked off a tipped pass, D'Onta Foreman burst up the middle and was off to the races for a 37-yard TD run that gave the Longhorns their first lead. And then right at a minute and half later, the Bears tied it up at 14-14 with Russell's 20-yard TD strike to Zamora.
Just that quickly, though, the faucet changed to a slow trickle with the defenses coming up with 10 straight stops, including a Ryan Reid interception and fumble strip and recovery by cornerback Jameson Houston.
Houston, subbing for freshman Grayland Arnold when he left with an apparent neck injury in the first quarter, made a great hustle play by chasing down Armanti Foreman at the end of a 51-yard pass play. But, on the very next play, Baylor offensive lineman Blake Blackmar was called for a holding penalty in the end zone for a safety that gave the Longhorns the lead back.
D'Onta Foreman, who gave the Bears fits all day, capped off a six-play, 66-yard drive with a nine-yard TD run that pushed Texas' lead to 23-14.
"He's a good inside runner, very physical, but he's also got pretty good foot speed. He gets out on the perimeter," Grobe said. "You make a decision, defensively, to try to hunker down inside to try to stop the inside run. And two or three times, when we really sold out to get inside, he really bounced out and had some nice runs. He's a good football player with a good offensive line."
Arnold, carted off the field following his injury covering a kickoff return, returned to the locker room after the game after undergoing a CT scan and MRI that came back negative.
"It put tears in my eyes. He's like a little brother to me," Reid said. "Man, I just hope the best for him. I just played with a lot of emotion out there after that."
The Bears will be back home to face TCU (4-4, 2-3) at 2:30 p.m. next Saturday, Nov. 5, at McLane Stadium. TCU lost to Texas Tech in double-overtime Saturday, falling 27-24 on Clayton Hatfield's game-winning 37-yard field goal.
