By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
           
This wasn't Charlie Brewer's Heisman moment, and it wasn't against the No. 5 team in the country.
           
But, for a Baylor football program trying to claw its way back up the Big 12 ladder, Brewer's game-winning six-yard touchdown pass to Denzel Mims with seven seconds left on the clock was just as big as Robert Griffin III's game winner to Terrance Williams to beat Oklahoma back in 2011.
           
After sitting out most of the first three quarters, the sophomore quarterback led the Bears to an exhilarating 35-31 come-from-behind victory over the Oklahoma State Cowboys Saturday afternoon before a Homecoming crowd of 43,492 at McLane Stadium.
           
Down by 10 with less than nine minutes left in the game, Brewer hit Jalen Hurd for a 36-yard touchdown pass that brought the Bears (5-4, 3-3) back within three. And then, after a defensive stand that included junior safety Chris Miller's first career sack on a fourth-down play, Mims grabbed the game-winner for his first and only catch of the day as the stadium erupted.
           
"He's one-on-one, and I think he can catch the ball over anyone in the country," Brewer said of Mims, who has now caught a pass in 20 consecutive games. "I'm really comfortable throwing to him to give him a shot, and he's the one who made the play."
           
Head coach Matt Rhule said the thing about Brewer is that "when the game comes down to the end, Charlie is not rattled. He's not too high, he's not too low, and he just keeps playing."
           
In concussion protocol all week after last Thursday's 58-14 loss at 12^th-ranked West Virginia, Brewer was 4-of-8 for 56 yards and two touchdowns and added 28 yards on six carries for a Baylor offense that rolled up 247 yards on the ground and 402 yards total against the Cowboys (5-4, 2-4).
           
"As a quarterback, you've got to be ready for everything," Brewer said. "We go over those situations. We went over it last night. We go over it every night before the game – two-minute situations and certain plays."
           
This was the third time in the last four games that it's come down to the wire. Brewer led a late drive for a field goal in a 37-34 win over Kansas State in the Bears' last home game on Oct. 6, then had three shots at it from 17 yards out in a 23-17 loss at Texas.
           
"I honestly didn't think about it," Brewer said of the three incompletions at Texas. "I just knew I wanted to be the guy to make the play."
           
And he certainly wasn't alone. There were a lot of guys that made plays in what is arguably Rhule's best win in two seasons at Baylor.
           
"To me, this game is 1,000 percent about our players," Rhule said. "I know you're going to talk about this guy and that guy, but I thought it was a complete and total team effort."
           
It came down to Brewer throwing to Mims, but the Bears would have never got there without the performances of a roster full of players like grad transfer quarterback Jalan McClendon making his first career start; Jalen Hurd getting 123 yards on 16 touches; John Lovett recording his second career 100-yard day with 104 yards on just six carries; Trestan Ebner hitting a big 16-yard run on the game-winning drive and scoring on Christian Morgan's blocked punt; linebacker Clay Johnston recording a career-high 17 tackles; and five different players combining on the defense's four sacks.
           
"I think it shows as a defense, as an offense and a whole team, we fight," Johnston said. "We can beat anyone we play if we do our job and trust these coaches. It was just a well-fought team effort, and I'm just so thankful. . . . Just to see Coach Rhule's face and the joy at the end of the game, it makes you want to keep doing it more, playing for the man and all these coaches and players."
           
McClendon led potential scoring drives on the first two series of the game, but he threw an end zone pick to kill the first drive and then Connor Martin missed a 26-yard field goal into the wind. The Cowboys got on the board first with a six-yard TD run by quarterback Taylor Cornelius.
           
OSU had a chance to extend the lead when the replay booth overturned a targeting call on receiver Tylan Wallace on a blindside hit of safety Verkedric Vaughns. The Cowboys drove inside the 30, but a 47-yard field goal try by Matt Ammendola was partially blocked by Bravvion Roy.
           
Baylor answered midway through the second quarter with a six-play, 69-yard drive, capped by McClendon's one-yard keeper that tied it up at 7-7.
           
The game-changer came right before the half when Morgan blocked a punt that Ebner scooped up and scored to give the Bears their first lead, 14-10.
           
"I wanted them go go out there and play fearless and not worry about the results, but just go do what they are capable of doing," Rhule said. "You saw a lot of guys make a lot of plays, and they made plays, too. Some of them were small, some might just be a pass break, some might be something little. But, I thought we made a lot of plays today, many more than we have."
           
With the wind at its back in the third quarter, Oklahoma State went up 24-14 with a pair of touchdowns by Wallace, a six-yard run and eight-yard catch.
           
That's when Rhule decided to turn to Brewer.
           
"I just thought, 'You know what, this is the time,''' Rhule said. "It had nothing to do with Jalan. Just thought that this is the time that maybe we needed a spark, and maybe him running around would make some plays, and it certainly did. He extended a lot of drives there with his feet and certainly made the plays at the end."
           
Lovett made the first play, breaking a run off tackle and going 75 yards for the longest touchdown of his career.
           
"Linemen did exactly what they needed to do, left a huge lane. Anybody could have run that. It was wide open for me," Lovett said.
           
Driving into the wind, OSU went back up by 10 on a two-yard TD run by Justice Hill, who finished with 119 yards on 18 carries. The Cowboys went 79 yards in 15 plays and took more than six minutes off the clock.
           
Brewer answered with an eight-play, 86-yard drive, capping it with the 36-yard TD strike to Hurd, who tight-roped down the right sideline.
           
"(Hurd) ran the wrong route. He was supposed to run a post, and Charlie just adjusted and threw it to him," Rhule said. "But you know what, good players make good plays."
           
After Rhule burned his last timeouts, the defense came up with the stop it had to make, sacking Cornelius on fourth-and-2 from the Bears' 36.
           
"I was honestly surprised that the quarterback kind of kept it," Johnston said. "I don't know exactly what happened, but when he extended that play, I was so thankful. We rallied to the ball, and it paid off. We were fired up. We got the stop, got off the field, and we knew it was up to the offense from there on."
           
Taking over from his own 45 with no time outs and 1:31 left on the clock, Brewer picked up a first down with his feet, followed by the 16-yard run by Ebner that put the Bears in field goal range at the 23. But, they weren't satisfied with a field goal and overtime, they went and won it.
           
On the touchdown grab, the 6-foot-3 Mims got inside leverage on cornerback A.J. Green and hauled in the pass from Brewer before getting mobbed by his teammates.
           
"Two plays before that, I overheard them on the sidelines talking about throwing it to me, so I knew going into that last play that I was going to get the ball," Mims said. "So, I was like, 'I just have to make the play.' And that's what I did. And when I did, it was an exciting moment for me."
             
And for everyone else wearing green and gold.

Baylor goes on the road to face 24^th-ranked Iowa State (5-3, 4-2) at 2:30 p.m. next Saturday in Ames before returning to play TCU (4-5, 2-4) in the home finale at McLane Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 17.