No. 9 Bears Fall in Double-OT at No. 21 BYU

Saturday, September 10

Provo, Utah

9:15 PM

Baylor

BYU

No. 9 Bears Fall in Double-OT at No. 21 BYU

9/10/2022 7:05:00 PM | Football

Box Score Final Game Book Season Stats (.pdf)Baylor Postgame Notes (.pdf)

Qualan Jones finished with 84 yards on 19 touches

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            PROVO, Utah – Something had to give Saturday night at sold-out LaVell Edwards Stadium.
            Baylor was trying to win its first non-conference road game against a ranked team since upsetting defending national champion and No. 12 Colorado, 16-14, in 1991. And BYU hadn't beaten a top-10 team at home since the Cougars took down No. 1 Miami, 28-21, in 1990.
            On a crazy day that saw two other top-10 teams lose at home, the No. 21 BYU Cougars pulled out a 26-20 win over the ninth-ranked Bears, 26-20, on Lopini Katoa's three-yard touchdown run in the second overtime period.
            "I'm very proud of their effort and their heart," said Baylor head coach Dave Aranda. "I told them, there were plenty of opportunities for . . . a lot of teams to either quit or turn it down or to not continue to give effort and fight. Right up until that last play, that fourth down, I think everyone on our sideline was thinking we were going to win."
            The last play was a fourth-and-goal from the 12-yard line – following two procedure penalties against the offensive line – when Blake Shapen's pass sailed over Seth Jones in the back of the end zone.
            A game that was in and out of Baylor's grasps several times was suddenly over as BYU fans stormed the field and the Bears (1-1) walked off dejectedly with their first loss since Nov. 6, 2021.
            "When you get into tough spots, it's easy to see it like you're looking out of a straw," Aranda said. "But, if you open up the vision a little bit, you can see that this is all part of it. We've got some youth that got rattled, and we'll be better for it."
            BYU (2-0) had a couple chances to end it earlier, but kicker Jake Oldroyd missed a 35-yard field goal with eight seconds left in regulation, then pulled a 37-yarder wide left in the first overtime period after Baylor kicker Isaiah Hankins missed a 43-yarder wide right.
            "It always gets your heart pumping, no matter what it is or which side it is," said Baylor senior cornerback Mark Milton. "Like Coach Aranda says all the time: this game is a game of random events, so you never know what could happen. But, you bank on controlling the controllables. What we can control is not beating ourselves, so that when we get in those situations, we hopefully can execute."
            Ultimately, it was beating themselves that got the Bears. After the first no-penalty game in program history in last year's 38-24 win at home over BYU, they were flagged 14 times for 117 yards. One of the most costly was when linebacker Dillon Doyle was called for targeting, forcing him to miss the last 8 ½ minutes of regulation and both overtimes.
            "Disappointed in our lack of discipline," Aranda said. "We've got to be able to play through downs and not have a pass interference on critical downs. We had 14 penalties, which is way, way too much. It's one thing to play an opponent, a real worthy and good opponent, but we can't be playing them and us. And we were doing that basically the whole game."
            None more critical than the two false starts in the second OT. After picking up two first downs, Baylor had a first-and-goal from the 5-yard line, but the Bears went backwards from there and couldn't connect on Shapen's fourth-down pass.
            "Just discipline, I think, is the big thing," senior center Jacob Gall said. "Coach preaches all the time, the biggest way you lose games is by hurting yourself, and we hurt ourselves two times in critical situations. I take full ownership, both of those were on me. These are mistakes you're going to make early in the season, and I think we've just got to go back to the practice field. We're going to figure it out, and we're going to be ready for next week."
            Shut down for most of the first half, the Bears got on the scoreboard with 1:37 left when Qualan Jones capped off a 13-play, 68-yard drive with a one-yard TD run. Hankins' extra point try glanced off the right upright, leaving the score at 6-3.
            Executing the two-minute offense to perfection, the Cougars answered with an eight-play, 75-yard drive and went back on top with Jaren Hall's 20-yard TD pass to Chase Roberts with just two seconds showing on the clock.
            Scoring on its second-straight drive and first of the third quarter, Baylor regained the lead, 13-10, on Jones' second TD run of the night. Jones had 84 yards on 19 touches, including 67 yards rushing on 16 carries.
            "I think we were rattled with just the crowd and the energy and all that," Aranda said of the offense's early struggles. "To not be thinking about what we've got to do, but what we're carrying with us, drop all that. You're enough, dude, and let's just play.
            "I think a lot of that is hard to get across, because guys get caught up with expectations, disappointments and all of it. And I thought we were able to make some progress with that. You could see guys come back to life, which is way cool."
            BYU tied it on a 39-yard field goal by Oldroyd and then used a little trickery to take a 20-13 lead late in the third quarter. Hall lateraled to Roberts, who then threw back to his QB on a 22-yard pass play for his first-career TD pass.
            Baylor answered again, driving 79 yards on 12 plays and tying it up with a four-yard TD pass to tight end Ben Sims after Shapen faked a pitch to Craig "Sqwirl" Williams.
            The Bears had a chance to go up with another trip into BYU territory, but Williams was stuffed on a third-and-five from the Cougars' 46 with 2:15 left in the game.
            "I think they mixed up their looks a lot more than they did last year," Gall said of the BYU defense, which held Baylor to 289 yards total, just 3.6 yards per play and none of at least 20 yards. "Last year, they stayed in their same looks most of the game. Here, I think they adjusted well and played a lot of different looks."
            Roberts, who had eight catches for 122 yards with two of the Cougars' top two receivers out with injuries, hauled in a 37-yard pass down to the 19 on another well-executed two-minute drive. But, Oldroyd missed a 35-yard field goal that would have ended it in regulation.
            In the first OT, a holding penalty wiped out a 17-yard run by Williams down to the 1-yard line and then Hankins missed a 43-yard field goal wide right.
            Baylor finished with 152 yards rushing, but Shapen was sacked four times and was 18-of-28 for 137 yards and one TD. Hall was 23-of-39 for 261 yards and one TD, scored on the 22-yard reception and also kept the chains moving with some scrambles.
            "At the end of the day, I think it was just little things that can be fixed," Milton said. "But, (nothing they did) was too much of a surprise. They're a great football team, even with those people out. We just have to make sure we don't beat ourselves. . . . All the goals we had are still in front of us, and we've just got to move on from this to make sure we fix the mistakes."
            Back at home, Baylor will face Texas State (1-1) at 11 a.m. next Saturday, Sept. 17, at McLane Stadium. The Bobcats knocked off Florida International, 41-12, after opening with a 38-14 loss on the road at Nevada.