By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            AMES, Iowa – Baylor was able to flip the script from the previous three games, jumping out to a 14-point lead in the first quarter and going in at the half up 21-10 on 17^th-ranked Iowa State Saturday night at Jack Trice Stadium.
Things didn't go as well in the second half, though, as the Cyclones (5-2, 5-1) ripped off 28 unanswered points and then withstood a furious rally by the Bears (1-4, 1-4) to escape with a 38-31 win in a back-and-forth battle that went down to the wire.
            After struggling to get anything going in the third quarter, Baylor's offense got the lift it needed when Charlie Brewer hit Trestan Ebner for a 58-yard touchdown pass on a gutsy 4^th-and-8 call that made it a seven-point game with 8:43 remaining.
            That stopped a 28-point scoring spree by the Cyclones that included three Brock Purdy touchdown passes and a 17-yard TD run by Breece Hall, the nation's leading rusher, who finished with 133 yards on 31 carries.
            The defense, which had three first-half interceptions that resulted in 21 points, came up with a stop at midfield when Hall was dropped for two-yard losses on back-to-back plays and a pressured Purdy overthrew tight end Charlie Kolar.
            Taking over at his own 15 with 4:01 left, Brewer put together one of his stereotypical fourth-quarter drives and put the Bears in position to tie or take the lead late. He completed six of his first seven passes for 55 yards and picked up another first down with a 16-yard run.
            Camped at the Cyclone' 14 with 61 seconds and two timeouts left, Brewer tried to hit RJ Sneed on a post route over the middle, but outside linebacker Mike Rose came off his man and picked it off in front of Sneed to end Baylor's valiant comeback attempt.
            After getting off to slow starts in the last three games, the Bears came out on fire on both sides of the ball.
            Cornerback Kalon "Boogie" Barnes got it started off the right way when he intercepted a deep ball that Purdy underthrew.
            Brewer hooked up with Jared Atkinson for the senior receiver's career-long 62-yard catch, then finished off the six-play, 69-yard scoring drive with a nine-yard TD toss to Sneed, who finished with six catches for 93 yards.
            Iowa State was poised to answer right back, but cornerback Raleigh Texada picked off a pass that was tipped by tight end Chase Allen and returned it 56 yards before getting knocked out at the 36.
            Freshman tight end Drake Dabney made his first career reception on the first play of the drive, then capped it with another nine-yard TD strike from Brewer.
            Set up by a Brewer interception, Iowa State got on the board with a 14-yard TD run by Hall that cut the deficit in half, 14-7.
            Unfazed, the defense took matters into its own hands when Jalen Pitre jumped on a pass to Kolar and raced in for a 30-yard touchdown on his first career interception to push the lead to 21-7.
            Baylor, which had scored 17 first-half points combined in its previous three games, took a 21-10 lead into the locker room at the half.
            The Bears grabbed their third 14-point lead of the game early in the second half when John Mayers nailed a 36-yard field goal after deep snapper Gunnar Royer recovered Greg Eisworth's muffed punt return at the Cyclones' 21.
            With Brewer completing 22-of-33 passes for 295 yards, the Bears actually finished with a slight edge in total offense, 366-362, and scored 24 points on Iowa State's four turnovers.
            Baylor goes back on the road to face Texas Tech (2-5, 1-5) at 3 p.m. next Saturday, Nov. 14, on their first trip to Lubbock in 12 years. The Red Raiders fell on the road at TCU, 34-18.