By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
NORMAN, Okla. - Watching his fifth-year senior quarterback carted off the field with a dislocated and possibly fractured left ankle, Baylor coach Jim Grobe wasn't even thinking about "losing that production and that talent at quarterback."
Seth Russell, who made a miraculous recovery from a fractured neck to start the Bears' first nine games, missed the last 20 minutes of Saturday's 45-24 loss at No. 9 Oklahoma and will likely miss the remainder of his senior season.
"It's heartbreaking, because he's worked so hard to come back from the neck injury," Grobe said after the Bears dropped their third in a row and fell to 6-3 overall and 3-3 in the Big 12. "It's just like having one of your own children hurt. It just breaks your heart to see a really, really good guy get hurt like that. The good news is I think he'll heal up just fine. The bad news is he probably won't be able to get back this year."
In what could be his last collegiate game, Russell struggled against the Sooners (8-2, 7-0), hitting just 15-of-31 for 148 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions and rushing for 70 yards on 12 carries.
Linebacker Jordan Evans picked off a Russell pass at the goal line, when the Bears had a chance to make it 14-7. And then in the third quarter, Evans returned his second interception of the day 23 yards to set up a one-yard TD run by Samaje Perine that made it 35-10.
"It was really critical," Grobe said of the goal-line interception near the end of the opening quarter. "The other one that was critical was when we had to settle for a field goal because of the (personal foul) penalty. I was still proud of our guys, because we didn't give up and we go in 21-10 with some momentum with a good drive near the end of the half. I really thought we had an opportunity to do some damage."
On the heels of getting blown out 62-22 by TCU at home, the Bears actually showed signs of life and even promise in a difficult road test against a top-10 Oklahoma team.
The defense had as many stops in the first half as it had the whole game last week against TCU, forcing three punts and getting a turnover on Orion Stewart's fifth interception of the year.
"Just take away a few mistakes, and we're looking at trying to come back and win this game," said senior cornerback Ryan Reid, who helped limit receiver Dede Westbrook to four catches for 88 yards. "I feel like it takes just one person to set off the tempo and make a big play, get everybody going. Every time we get something going, we shoot ourselves in the foot."
After getting blistered for a season-high 431 yards rushing and 688 yards total offense the week before, the Bears kept the potent 1-2 punch of Joe Mixon and Perine in check until some big fourth-quarter runs that padded their totals.
Baker Mayfield completed 20-of-25 passes for 300 yards and two touchdowns and also rushed for a score. But, Mixon and Perine were held to a combined 224 yards on 37 carries.
"We just made it a little bit simpler and focused on fitting where we needed to," linebacker Aiavion Edwards said. "Not try to do too much - blitzing-wise and everything - and I think it paid off, for sure."
Early on, it looked like the Sooners might blow it open, scoring on two of their first three drives and going up 14-0. Mayfield scored on a 15-yard TD run and then found Dede Westbrook, who somehow stayed on his feet and inbounds for a 29-yard TD.
The Bears looked like they would answer, driving from their own 33 to within about a yard and a half of the goal line. But on third-and-one from inside the 2, Russell tried to squeeze a pass into Blake Lynch that was picked off by Evans.
A little over five minutes later, Perine capped off an impressive 11-play, 91-yard drive with a four-yard run off right tackle. Austin Seibert's extra point made it 21-0.
"We know the team we've been putting on the field the last three weeks isn't the team we are," Edwards said. "We know we have to get better. . . . The coaches put us in a great position today, but we didn't make the plays we needed to when we needed to. I think it just boils down to us focusing a little bit more and just being able to execute the game plan."
The sellout crowd of 86,249 probably expected the Bears to just fold it in at that point, but they didn't.
Converting four times on third down, Baylor's offense stuck mainly with its ground attack and moved from its own 25 down to the Sooners' 7. But the Bears' Achilles' heel reared its ugly head with a snap infraction penalty on center Kyle Fuller and a much costlier 15-yard personal foul on guard Ishmael Wilson.
That pushed them all the back to the 18, with Chris Callahan getting the Bears on the board with a 35-yard field goal.
"I told the guys today, we can be a really good football team," Grobe said, "but we can't make the mistakes we did today. Oklahoma is a really good team and belongs in the top 10, but so many of the things we did today were self-inflicted. Things we did to ourselves that we can clean up."
Forced into running back duty when Terence Williams went out with an injury, redshirt freshman receiver Blake Lynch picked up 47 yards on three carries to spark an eight-play, 80-yard drive that got Baylor in the end zone for the first time.
Lynch, who finished with 58 yards on just six totes, broke off a 20-yard run on fourth-and-two from the Sooners' 44. And then Russell connected with KD Cannon on the very next play for a 24-yard TD that made it 21-10.
Baylor had another scoring opportunity late in the half after the Stewart interception, but Russell turned it back over on a fumble with the Bears knocking on the door at the OU 34.
Penalties also proved costly on Baylor's first two series of the second half, with a 29-yard pass to Pook Stricklin wiped out by an ineligible receiver and a 23-yard run by JaMycal Hasty nullified by a holding penalty on tackle Patrick Lawrence.
The Sooners started pulling away again with another Mayfield-to-Westbrook TD connection for 40 yards. And then the real back-breaker was Evans intercepting a tipped pass and returning it 23 yards, setting up the 1-yard TD run by Perrine and a 35-10 lead.
"If we had gotten off the field, we would have come away feeling a little bit better about ourselves defensively and had a chance to win," Grobe said.
Those comeback chances got even slimmer when Russell was carted off the field with 5:48 left, his left ankle wrapped in a protective boot and seemingly popped back in place. Leaving to a standing ovation by the home crowd, an appreciative Russell waved as he left.
"More than anything, you just felt sick, because you know how much he's put in and how dynamic and how much he means to our team," said tight end Jordan Feuerbacher.
Reid said Russell's injury "hit us pretty hard. When one of our brothers go down, it's always going to hit us pretty hard. But, we knew we had to keep playing."
And they did.
Finishing off a drive that Russell started, freshman quarterback Zach Smith hit tight end Sam Tecklenburg for a 23-yard pass on fourth-and-seven and then got his first career rushing touchdown on a keeper from inside the 1.
"I was kind of shocked, (Russell) is like a brother to me," said Smith, who completed 6-of-15 passes for 144 yards. "Knowing what had happened last year, I had just prepped myself for that situation. Nerves were really high, as usual, but I was prepared for it."
The defense's dam finally burst with a 56-yard TD run by Mixon at the start of the fourth quarter, but Smith hooked up with Cannon for a 62-yard touchdown pass and then came up just short at the end of the game on a fourth-down pass to Stricklin down to the OU 1.
"I really like what he did against a really good football team and a big crowd on the road," Grobe said of Smith, who was seeing his first extensive action in a Big 12 game. "I thought he came in and was very comfortable and made some great throws. . . . I know Zach Smith, he's really disappointed Seth got hurt, there's no question about that. At the same time, it's his opportunity to step up, so he should be excited about that."
Baylor returns home to host Kansas State (5-4, 3-3) next Saturday, Nov. 19, for the final game of the season at McLane Stadium, with kickoff time and TV info expected to be released by Sunday. The Wildcats are coming off a bye after falling at home to Oklahoma State, 43-37, last week in Manhattan.
