Box Score

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            LUBBOCK, Texas – When Joey McGuire was on the Baylor staff, he implemented a "Take 3" philosophy for the defense to try to get three takeaways every game.
            Facing McGuire's first-year Texas Tech team, Baylor's defense took it even further, picking off three different quarterbacks a total of five times as the Bears handed the Red Raiders (4-4, 2-3) their first home loss of the season, 45-17, Saturday night at sold-out Jones AT&T Stadium.
            "I look at the emphasis on the takeaways, I look at the emphasis on being physical with the ball," Baylor head coach Dave Aranda said. "To see it transfer over to a game was pretty cool, because it hadn't really happened so far like that this year. This has been a team where we can all tell them the stove is hot, but they have to touch it. I'm hoping we don't have to touch the stove anymore on certain things."
            Coordinator Ron Roberts' defense completely shut down Tech's high-powered offense in the first half, then picked off four passes in the second half. A.J. McCarty put a bow on this one when he intercepted quarterback Tyler Shough's first pass of the night and returned it 18 yards for a pick-six with 4:04 left in the game.
            "A lot of the credit goes to Ron Roberts and that staff," said Aranda, whose team improved to 5-3 overall and tied for third in the Big 12 at 3-2. "There were probably more early-morning and late-night meetings this week. I credit the players, because they went out and really had a chip on their shoulder and played with an edge."
            The Bears' offense also played with an edge, finishing with over 200 yards both rushing and passing in a balanced attack that produced 442 yards and controlled the clock for more than 40 minutes for the second-straight week.
            Freshman Richard Reese posted his second-straight and third 100-yard rushing game of the year with 148 yards and three touchdowns on 36 carries, while quarterback Blake Shapen was 19-of-20 for 211 yards and one touchdown with no turnovers.
            Baylor's ball-control offense helped silence the crowd of 60,705 and slowed down a Tech offense that came in averaging right at 500 yards per game. The Red Raiders had just 125 yards and three points at the half and finished with just 308 yards total.
            "Anytime you're facing an offense as explosive as Tech, you want to physically impose your will, you want to pound the rock and you want to limit their possessions," Aranda said.
            After squandering chances late in the first half and the opening series of the second half in a 35-23 win over Kansas, the Bears flipped the script this time.
They scored twice in the last four minutes of the half on touchdown runs of 1 and 2 yards by Reese to go up 17-3 at the break, then capitalized on a Mark Milton interception with Shapen's nine-yard scoring toss to Hal Presley to open the second half.
"It was good to see," Aranda said. "It was good to see just a calmness and not forcing things. . . . If you don't allow the distractions in, you find that all I need to be is be me. And that all our team needs is for us to be our team, not really go outside of ourselves. That's a great illustration with that two-minute drive (at the end of the second quarter). That was great patience and confidence that you can't fake."
             Jumping out to a 17-point lead early in the third quarter, Baylor seemed to be in total command. Tech made it a one-score game late in the period, though, getting a one-yard TD pass from Behren Morton to tight end Henry Teeters and then an eight-yard keeper by Morton on a fourth-down play after Baylor's only turnover of the game.
            "I will say that it got closer than it should have been," Aranda said. "All of that is still growth for us. We have to have a chip on our shoulder and our standards should be higher. Coaches have to hold everyone to that standard, and we're fighting for that."
            Baylor's response was an 11-play, 75-yard drive that Reese capped with another one-yard TD run, extending the lead to 31-17 early in the fourth.
            Any hopes of a potential comeback were squashed with safety Al Walcott intercepting Donovan Smith and then McCarty's pick-six off Shough. Running back Qualan Jones provided the exclamation point with a 17-yard touchdown run after the defense sacked Shough three times.
            In the first half, the Bears got on the board first with a season-long 48-yard field goal by John Mayers to go up 3-0 with 4:39 left in the first quarter after a fourth-down stop by the defense. Tech had 94 yards total offense late in the second quarter before a 31-yard run by Tahj Brooks on the last play.
            Trying to answer right back, the Red Raiders drove from their own 25 to the Baylor 32, but safety Devin Lemear came up with an interception at the goal line on a pass intended for J.J. Sparkman.
            After Trey Wolff tied it up with a 33-yard field goal, the Bears drove 75 yards in 10 plays and went back on top with a one-yard TD plunge by Reese.
            When the defense forced a quick three-and-out with its second sack of the night, Baylor took all but 13 seconds off the clock with an 11-play, 74-yard drive and made it 17-3 with a Reese touchdown from two yards out.
            Back on the road, Baylor will travel to face Oklahoma (5-3, 2-3) at 2 p.m. next Saturday, Nov. 5, at Memorial Stadium in Norman. The Sooners defeated Iowa State, 27-13, on Saturday for their second-straight win after a rare three-game losing streak.