By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Sometimes, the numbers just don't matter. 
            The 14^th-ranked Iowa State Cyclones had nearly twice as many rushing yards, finished with a 479-282 edge in total offense and had 85 fewer penalty yards than the Baylor Bears. And lost. 
            Getting a big lift from Trestan Ebner in the kick return game and another solid outing from quarterback Gerry Bohanon, the Bears (4-0, 2-0) pulled out a 31-29 win over the visiting Cyclones Saturday afternoon at McLane Stadium when safety JT Woods picked off Brock Purdy's two-point try with 24 seconds left. 
            "The whole second half, I felt like it was a couple of games," said Baylor head coach Dave Aranda. "I look at the stats and I see the penalties (9 for 100 yards) . . . to be on the wrong side of both of those things and still come out with a win just speaks to how tight this team is. How much they fight for each other, how much they believe in one another, just the culture of the team."
            Even after the failed two-point try, Iowa State (2-2, 0-1) got two shots at recovering an onside kick. After an offsides call on the Bears, Ebner turned in another huge special teams play by recovering an Andrew Mevis kick that finally sealed it. 
            "That's my proudest play," Ebner said. "It's just one of those plays that you've got to make, whether you get hit or not. No matter what happens, you've got to try to put the team on your back and not doing anything special, just make that play."
            Off to a 4-0 start for the sixth time in the last nine years, Baylor knocked off a ranked team for the first time since beating 10^th-ranked North Carolina, 49-38, in the 2015 Russell Athletic Bowl. 
            "We're not shocked," Ebner said. "We expected to come into this game and win. We respect them. They're disciplined and tough, and we knew it was going to be a hard game. But, we're not shocked. We've been ready for this moment. I'm just proud that we came out and executed."
            In a way, Ebner really did put the team on his back. After the offense scored touchdowns on its first three series and took a 21-13 lead at the half, the Bears gained just 70 yards in the second half, most of that coming on an opening drive that ended with a Bohanon fumble at the Cyclones' 23. 
            Iowa State inched closer with Mevis' third field goal of the night, this one from 39 yards out, making it a 21-16 game halfway through the third quarter. 
            But, in the blink of an eye, Ebner returned the ensuing kickoff 98 yards for his third career kick return touchdown that pushed the lead back to 28-16. 
            "We talked about special teams being a big factor in this game," Aranda said. "We'll go through about seven things every game, these are the particular things to think about. The kicking game was a major one in this one. . . . The return game, we wanted to show our ability to be electric. I'm glad that Eb was able to follow through with that for us."
            Ebner, who scored on two kick returns in last year's opener against Kansas, found a seam on the left side of the Cyclones' kick coverage and then just turned on the after-burners to outsprint the last defenders all the way down the sidelines. 
            "I think the guys did an incredible job of straining," Ebner said. "Once I cut it back up, I saw a double team that just pushed a guy out of my face. I made a cut, I think everybody stuck on their block and we were able to win with speed. It wasn't super open, but with them straining, I was able to hit it and score."
            Hitting three big plays of 24 yards or longer, the Cyclones got it back to a one-score game late in the third quarter when Breece Hall capped off a five-play, 85-yard drive with his second two-yard TD run. Hall, who also scored on a 16-yard TD pass from Purdy before the failed two-point try, finished with 190 yards on 27 carries and 51 yards on five catches. 
            Particularly with All-Big 12 linebacker Terrel Bernard going out with an apparent knee injury, the Bears had problems fitting the gaps against Iowa State's running game. 
            "It certainly gets harder when they bring in extra tight ends, because there are extra gaps," said linebacker Dillon Doyle, who had a team-high nine tackles, including two stops behind the line. "If it's a multiple-choice test, it goes from A, B or C (gaps) to A, B, C, D and E. It's something we have to keep working on, obviously, because we're going to face it in the future."
            Again, Ebner came to the rescue. After the defense forced just its second three-and-out of the day, Ebner fielded a line-drive punt and returned it 41 yards back to the Cyclones' 16-yard line. 
            While Baylor wasn't able to capitalize and punch it into the end zone, freshman Isaiah Hankins connected on a 34-yard field goal that proved critical in those closing seconds. 
            Iowa State put together an impressive 13-play, 75-yard drive, with a TD pass to tight end Charlie Kolar nullified by an ineligible receiver downfield. On the very next play, though, Purdy avoided a blitz and hit Hall with the 16-yard TD pass that made it a two-point game. 
            Pressured again with an outside edge rush by Garmon Randolph, Purdy couldn't find a receiver on the two-point try that was picked off by Woods. 
            "I was concerned about crossing routes and getting rubbed off of them," Aranda said. "It was a battle of how fast that could happen and how fast our edge pressure and penetration could happen. We were able to come out on the right side of that particular battle."
            In the first half of what was expected to be a defensive battle, the two teams traded blows for 30 minutes. After Hall capped off the Cyclones' opening drive with a two-yard TD run, Bohanon answered with an eight-yard scoring run to tie it up. 
            Bohanon also found Tyquan Thornton for a 21-yard TD pass in the second to give the Bears the lead for good, then connected with a wide-open Ben Sims for a 33-yarder before Mevis drilled a 38-yard field goal right before the half to make it 21-13. 
            "The guys are a confident bunch," Aranda said. "There's a good, healthy amount of ego there, and there's a good amount of love for their brother. The thought with the team would be, whatever is in front of us, we're going to try to knock it down. For us to be able to take the next step from this is to be able to do the little things with really strong discipline. When we take the next step, it's going to be winning that penalty and turnover battle."
            Going back on the road, the Bears will face Oklahoma State (4-0, 1-0) at 6 p.m. next Saturday, Oct. 2, in Stillwater, a game that will be televised by ESPN2. Spencer Sanders passed for 344 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for another in the Cowboys' 31-20 win at home over No. 25 Kansas State.