Box Score By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Dave Aranda has seen his 16^th-ranked Baylor football team grow up in the matter of a few weeks. 
            Four weeks ago, the Bears couldn't handle adversity and didn't make the adjustments they needed to make in a 24-14 loss on the road at Oklahoma State. 
            This time, they did. 
            Overcoming a double-digit second-half deficit, Baylor scored 21 unanswered points and defeated the Texas Longhorns, 31-24, on a sun-splashed Saturday afternoon before a crowd of 45,834 at McLane Stadium. 
            "You saw guys today battle adversity," said Aranda, whose team improved to 7-1 overall and tied for second in the Big 12 at 4-1, "whereas a few weeks ago, we saw the same kind of adversity and didn't handle it well. To see guys handle adversity today, individually, those were some big battles. For us to come out on top with that, I credit the coaches, credit the players. 
            "I think getting punched in the face by a really good Texas team, that was anticipated. It was good that we were able to get our hands back up and throw some punches of our own. I'm proud of this team."
            It was an eerily similar refrain for the Longhorns (4-4, 2-3), who gave up a double-digit lead for the third-straight time after back-to-back losses to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State going into last week's bye.  
            Not that they were going head-to-head, but Baylor running back Abram Smith got the best of UT sophomore Bijan Robinson, who came in as the Big 12 leader and ranked third nationally with 132 yards rushing per game. 
            While Baylor's defense held Robinson to 43 yards on 17 carries and a career-low 2.5-yard average, Smith punctuated his fifth 100-yard game with a nifty 32-yard touchdown run that looked like something out of the Trestan Ebner highlight reel. 
            "I pulled out a few moves out of Trestan's book," said Smith, who finished with 113 yards on 20 carries. 
            After spinning out of a defender's grasp right at the line, Smith reversed field, found a crease and then outraced safety B.J. Foster to the far pylon to score the touchdown that gave the Bears a 31-21 lead with 7:59 left in the game. 
            "As soon as I got into open space, I saw a receiver out there (blocking)," Smith said. "And after running the ball so hard, I didn't think the safety was going to get the angle. It gave me that crease. And I just took it and ran with it."
            Texas did cut it to a one-score game, 31-24, with Cameron Dicker's 27-yard field goal with 4:40 left. And the Longhorns got the ball back with 2:07 left, but out of timeouts. 
            Hounded by Baylor's pressure up front, UT quarterback Casey Thompson threw four-straight incompletions, including breakups by safety JT Woods and cornerback Kalon Barnes that sealed it. 
            "I think the crowd had a lot to do with that, to be honest," Aranda said. "Just McLane kind of waking up, and how it was, and the juice. I felt it, just kind of standing there on the sideline. But, I know on the field, it was very much felt. It aided in the rush, for sure."
            Echoing that sentiment, Smith said it "gave me chills" to hear the crowd erupt on the fourth-down stop. "It was really great to hear them again."
            After throwing just one interception in his first seven starts – and that one came two weeks ago against BYU – quarterback Gerry Bohanon was picked off twice in the first half as the Bears trailed 14-10 at the break. 
            The Longhorns cashed in on the first one, having to go just 31 yards after a Foster interception. Thompson hooked up with Joshua Moore for a 10-yard TD pass on a quick slant over the middle to give UT the early 7-0 lead. 
            Baylor answered with an 11-play, 75-yard drive and scored on receiver Tyquan Thornton's six-yard TD pass to a wide-open R.J. Sneed on an end-around play called by offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes. 
            "Grimey has had that," Aranda said. "I think the last time we tried some trick plays was Oklahoma State, and it didn't end up like the ones today. I think he had been working back up the ability to call those plays. I'm glad we did. I think what it does is give us some juice, and it probably (makes them mad) on the other side. But, it gives the sideline some energy."
            The Bears took their first lead on a 38-yard field goal by freshman Isaiah Hankins, but Texas scored just two plays later when Thompson hit freshman Xavier Worthy for a 63-yard TD pass. 
            When Bohanon was picked off again late in the half, this time by linebacker Luke Brockermeyer, Woods answered with a tipped-ball interception that he returned 40 yards. 
            "I was like, 'OK, JT's gone. He's a track runner, he's going to score,''' senior safety Jalen Pitre said. "Then, I saw them cut him off, and I'm like, 'JT, pitch it back.' But, it's so loud in there that he didn't even hear me."
            There was no panic on the Baylor sidelines, not even when Texas took the second-half kickoff and drove it 75 yards on 14 plays, scoring on a 1-yard run by Robinson to go up, 21-10. 
            Like they did in the first half, the Bears answered. 
            Shrugging off his first-half showing, Bohanon was 3-of-4 for 60 yards and capped off a 75-yard drive with a six-yard keeper to pull Baylor back within 21-17 with 4:45 left in the game. 
            "Some of those throws early on were bang-bang throws. The receiver catches it (smack). Tight end catches it to the field (smack), a guy is right on him," Aranda said. "I think that spooked Gerry. He was trying to be perfect with stuff, and I don't think you can live or play with that type of approach. . . . For him to push (through) that, it allowed our offense to take that next step."
            After the defense forced a punt, Bohanon engineered a 14-play, 80-yard drive that gave the Bears the lead back, 24-21, early in the fourth quarter on a one-yard TD run by tight end Ben Sims in another "Grimey" special. 
            Smith, who was stopped short on the two plays before that, said Grimes "is running all kinds of jets. When you see that, it doesn't surprise me at all."
            Baylor also wasn't surprised when the Longhorns ran a fake punt from midfield with 9 ½ minutes to play and trailing by just three. Dicker looked to throw a pass on 4^th-and-11 from the 49, but the receiver was covered, and he was stopped by Sneed and Byron Hanspard after a short two-yard run. 
            "I'm just glad it didn't work," Aranda said. "We had worked on that quite a bit, so we were calling that out prior. Guys were communicating, and guys were on it. I give (special teams coordinator Matthew Powledge) a lot of credit for that. Griffin Speaks was on that unit, and he's communicating it. It's really cool to see the work you've put in work out that way in a critical spot like that."
            Just three plays later, Smith took it the house with his Ebner-like run, giving the Bears a 31-21 lead. 
            "I think guys are letting themselves be coached, guys are listening, guys are feeling connected," Aranda said. "It's special when stuff like that happens."
            Thompson finished 23-of-38 for 280 yards and two touchdowns with an interception, while Bohanon overcame the rough start to hit 18-of-31 for 222 yards and added 27 yards on the ground. 
            With Ebner adding 66 yards on 12 carries, Baylor outgained Texas, 199-102, on the ground and finished with a 427-382 edge in total yards. 
            The Bears go back on the road to face TCU (3-5, 1-4) next Saturday, Nov. 6, with a 2:30 p.m. kickoff in Fort Worth. TCU lost its third in a row and fifth in the last six games, falling to Kansas State, 31-12, in Manhattan.