DOMINANCE STARTS WITH THE ‘D’
10/6/2019 11:40:00 PM | Football
Bears Record 6 Sacks, 15 TFLs in 31-12 Win at K-State
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Bravvion Roy knew that the 21 fourth-quarter points the Baylor defense gave up in last week's 23-21 win over Iowa State was "unacceptable."
"So, we just wanted to come out here today and prove a point," said the 6-foot-1, 333-pound nose tackle, a senior from Spring, Texas.
Point made.
Not only did the defense not give up a touchdown until the last seven minutes of a 31-12 road win at Kansas State, the Bears racked up six sacks, 15 tackles for loss and held a Wildcat team that came in averaging 241.5 yards rushing per game and 5.3 per attempt to just 123 yards on the ground and 3.1 per carry.
And it still wasn't good enough for Roy, a dominant force at nose tackle who was in on one of the sacks and recorded a career-high 3 ½ tackles for loss.
"It can be even more," he said. "We didn't play up to our full potential, and people look at that as a big game. . . . We know what we're capable of. Our confidence is high. We just have to eliminate our mistakes, and we'll be better next week."
That's a scary thought. The six sacks tied a Baylor program record for a Big 12 game (vs. Missouri, 1996; and at Oklahoma State, 2015), and the 15 tackles for loss are the most for the Bears against a Big 12 or FBS opponent since at least 2000.
Junior defensive lineman James Lynch led the sack party with three, the most in program history in a Big 12 game. Lynch and Roy combined on the last sack of SkylarThompson to seal the deal with 3:16 left in the game.
Head coach Matt Rhule said the key with the three-man defensive line has been the ability to rotate freshmen Gabe Hall and TJ Franklin, sophomore Chidi Ogbonnnaya and junior college transfer Niadre Zouzoua to give the starters breathers.
"(Defensive line coaches) Joey McGuire and Frank Okam have done a great job of coaching them all year," Rhule said. "Really, the big thing with the defensive line is our young guys. . . . They're playing well enough where we don't have to play the three starters every time and wear them down. We knew it was going to take a lot of people to play today against Kansas State. Those guys stayed in there and battled."
One of the biggest differences in Saturday's game was the Baylor defense's ability to stiffen inside the red zone. Twice, the Wildcats had to settle for field goals, a 31-yarder in the first quarter and then a 29-yarder late in the third when a touchdown would have made it a one-possession game.
Even on the Wildcats' one touchdown, Baylor stopped them three times inside the 10 before Thompson connected with Dalton Schoen for the TD pass on fourth-and-goal from the 5.
"We had a goal-line stand there at the end and thought we had a chance of maybe making that play," Rhule said. "Credit to those guys, because they really got pressure. We were playing a lot of man coverage, just a really nice job by our defense overall. (Defensive coordinator Phil Snow coached to the very end."
While the offense has remained steady with Charlie Brewer and company, averaging 465.6 yards and 38.8 points per game, Snow's defense has made phenomenal strides. The Bears are the only team in the Big 12 that hasn't given up more than 21 points in any game and rank first in the league in both points allowed (15.4 per game) and total defense (306.2 yards per game).
Baylor also leads the Big 12 and ranks 14th nationally with 18.0 sacks, compared to last year when the Bears had just 25 sacks in 13 games. Lynch, with 14.5 sacks for his career, needs just 3.5 more to break the school record.
Off to a 5-0 start, Baylor cracked the polls this week at No. 22 by the Associated Press and 23rd by the coaches. The Bears will host Texas Tech (3-2, 1-1) for Homecoming at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, in a game that will be televised by FS1.
Tech, coming off a 45-35 upset of then-No. 21 Oklahoma State, will play in McLane Stadium for the first time and is making its first trip to Waco since a 38-7 win over Baylor on Nov. 3, 2007.
"We have a lot of momentum," said redshirt freshman quarterback Gerry Bohanon, who came off the bench to lead a pair of fourth-quarter drives. "We're excited, but we're not satisfied. . . . We don't want to get ahead or focus on what happened in the past. We just want to keep moving forward and take it one team at a time."
Baylor Bear Insider
Bravvion Roy knew that the 21 fourth-quarter points the Baylor defense gave up in last week's 23-21 win over Iowa State was "unacceptable."
"So, we just wanted to come out here today and prove a point," said the 6-foot-1, 333-pound nose tackle, a senior from Spring, Texas.
Point made.
Not only did the defense not give up a touchdown until the last seven minutes of a 31-12 road win at Kansas State, the Bears racked up six sacks, 15 tackles for loss and held a Wildcat team that came in averaging 241.5 yards rushing per game and 5.3 per attempt to just 123 yards on the ground and 3.1 per carry.
And it still wasn't good enough for Roy, a dominant force at nose tackle who was in on one of the sacks and recorded a career-high 3 ½ tackles for loss.
"It can be even more," he said. "We didn't play up to our full potential, and people look at that as a big game. . . . We know what we're capable of. Our confidence is high. We just have to eliminate our mistakes, and we'll be better next week."
That's a scary thought. The six sacks tied a Baylor program record for a Big 12 game (vs. Missouri, 1996; and at Oklahoma State, 2015), and the 15 tackles for loss are the most for the Bears against a Big 12 or FBS opponent since at least 2000.
Junior defensive lineman James Lynch led the sack party with three, the most in program history in a Big 12 game. Lynch and Roy combined on the last sack of SkylarThompson to seal the deal with 3:16 left in the game.
Head coach Matt Rhule said the key with the three-man defensive line has been the ability to rotate freshmen Gabe Hall and TJ Franklin, sophomore Chidi Ogbonnnaya and junior college transfer Niadre Zouzoua to give the starters breathers.
"(Defensive line coaches) Joey McGuire and Frank Okam have done a great job of coaching them all year," Rhule said. "Really, the big thing with the defensive line is our young guys. . . . They're playing well enough where we don't have to play the three starters every time and wear them down. We knew it was going to take a lot of people to play today against Kansas State. Those guys stayed in there and battled."
One of the biggest differences in Saturday's game was the Baylor defense's ability to stiffen inside the red zone. Twice, the Wildcats had to settle for field goals, a 31-yarder in the first quarter and then a 29-yarder late in the third when a touchdown would have made it a one-possession game.
Even on the Wildcats' one touchdown, Baylor stopped them three times inside the 10 before Thompson connected with Dalton Schoen for the TD pass on fourth-and-goal from the 5.
"We had a goal-line stand there at the end and thought we had a chance of maybe making that play," Rhule said. "Credit to those guys, because they really got pressure. We were playing a lot of man coverage, just a really nice job by our defense overall. (Defensive coordinator Phil Snow coached to the very end."
While the offense has remained steady with Charlie Brewer and company, averaging 465.6 yards and 38.8 points per game, Snow's defense has made phenomenal strides. The Bears are the only team in the Big 12 that hasn't given up more than 21 points in any game and rank first in the league in both points allowed (15.4 per game) and total defense (306.2 yards per game).
Baylor also leads the Big 12 and ranks 14th nationally with 18.0 sacks, compared to last year when the Bears had just 25 sacks in 13 games. Lynch, with 14.5 sacks for his career, needs just 3.5 more to break the school record.
Off to a 5-0 start, Baylor cracked the polls this week at No. 22 by the Associated Press and 23rd by the coaches. The Bears will host Texas Tech (3-2, 1-1) for Homecoming at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, in a game that will be televised by FS1.
Tech, coming off a 45-35 upset of then-No. 21 Oklahoma State, will play in McLane Stadium for the first time and is making its first trip to Waco since a 38-7 win over Baylor on Nov. 3, 2007.
"We have a lot of momentum," said redshirt freshman quarterback Gerry Bohanon, who came off the bench to lead a pair of fourth-quarter drives. "We're excited, but we're not satisfied. . . . We don't want to get ahead or focus on what happened in the past. We just want to keep moving forward and take it one team at a time."
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