Box Score By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
WACO, Texas – As tough as this season has been, nothing compares to the rip-your-heart-out ending of Saturday's Senior Day game at McLane Stadium.
 
After a missed 32-yard field goal that would have given Baylor (3-9, 2-7) a seven-point lead, the West Virginia Mountaineers (8-4, 6-3) took just 51 seconds to drive 80 yards in six plays and scored on Garrett Greene's 29-yard touchdown pass to running back Jahiem White in handing the Bears a heartbreaking 34-31 loss.
 
"It's something that we struggled all season, just finishing in those critical moments," said seventh-year linebacker Bryson Jackson. "Sometimes, we don't know why things happen the way they do. We've just got to have faith and keep moving. I have a lot of faith in what this team is going to take from that one moment, that one situation. And it's going to be great in the long haul."
 
In the short term, though, this one stings. Particularly since this will be the memory the Bears take into a long offseason.
 
"At the very end of tonight, I was speaking with (West Virginia head coach) Neal Brown, and I have a lot of respect for him," said Baylor coach Dave Aranda, who is 23-25 in four years at Baylor. "He came to me and said, 'Dave, this sucks . . . for you!' And I said, 'I appreciate that.' He said, 'I went through this (last year), it's way cleansing. You're going to come out of this having fun and kicking butt.' I kind of feel that way, too. Lot of work to do, though."
 
Filling in for injured starter Blake Shapen, sophomore quarterback Sawyer Robertson completed his first 10 passes and connected with Ketron Jackson on a 38-yard touchdown pass on the opening drive of the third quarter as part of a 14-point quarter.
 
In easily his best game of the season, sophomore running back Richard Reese had 292 all-purpose yards, scoring on back-to-back kickoff return touchdowns of 96 and 93 yards in the first half and adding a team-best 42 yards rushing on seven carries.
 
But in the end, the Bears couldn't stop Greene. Accounting for 372 of the Mountaineers' 519 yards total offense, he led bookend scoring drives at the end of the first half and end of the game without any timeouts, taking it in himself for a one-yard TD run with 15 seconds left in the half and then throwing to White for the game-winner.
 
"Garrett's really good on the two-minute drive," said Brown, whose team finished tied for fourth after being picked last in the preseason poll. "We scored two touchdowns tonight, in less than a minute and a half both times with zero timeouts. He's good. His ability to run gets the ball down the field vertically."
 
Trailing 27-14 at halftime, Baylor scored 17 unanswered points to go up 31-27 on Isaiah Hankins' 39-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter. And then, the defense came up with its fourth-consecutive second-half stop, denying Greene on a fourth-and-one keeper from the Mountaineers' 45-yard line with 4:20 left in the game.
 
"When you've got guys on the team that are playing for each other and fighting for each other, it gives you a little boost of energy and a boost of faith," said Jackson, credited with the solo stop. "It was amazing to go out there and get a stop like that. I'm going to forever remember that moment, forever remember that fourth-down stop with this team."
 
Probably needing three first downs to ice the game, the Bears got two. Reese picked up 19 yards on an end-around run, then Robertson picked up another one with a nine-yard pass to tight end Drake Dabney on a third-down play.
 
Getting behind the chains when Robertson lost eight yards on a first-down run, Baylor got back to the 14 with runs by Reese and Dawson Pendergrass. But on fourth-and-eight, Hankins pulled a 32-yard field goal attempt wide right with 1:14 left on the clock and the Mountaineers out of timeouts.
 
To that point, West Virginia had netted 74 yards on 18 plays in the second half. But Greene completed passes of 11 and 23 yards to Hudson Clement, gained 17 yards on a pair of runs and overthrew receiver Ed Horton before connecting with White on a wheel route out of the backfield.
 
"The corner should fall off the post (route by the receiver) and take the wheel, and he didn't. It just cuts you wide open," Aranda said. "I think a lot of that goes into the not letting the past be predictive of the future. And when stuff gets going, the momentum of it, letting go and being in the present. I thought our guys were able to do that in the second half. We did not do that on that drive."
 
Hoping to pull off a miracle like Houston did six weeks ago when the Cougars stunned West Virginia, 41-39, with a last-second Hail Mary pass, Baylor got as far as its own 46-yard line before RJ Martinez's short pass was broken up by cornerback Marcis Floyd.
 
"Disappointed with the loss," Aranda said. "I'm proud of the effort, proud of the care factor and just the fight that we had. . . . I told the team, 'I wish that if you cared a whole lot, and you didn't quit and gave effort, I wish you could say those things would happen and you'd get a win because of it. But that's just not the case. That's not life.' It's a hard loss."
 
In a strange first half, West Virginia outgained the Bears, 365-86, had a 17-3 edge in first downs and kept the ball for almost 19 minutes. But thanks to Reese's kickoff returns, Baylor trailed just 20-14 late in the half and had a chance to make it even tighter when Robertson found tight end Jake Roberts for 37 yards and picked up another first down with an eight-yard pass to Pendergrass.
 
After a sack and holding penalty pushed the ball back to the 40, Robertson got 14 yards of it back with a six-yard pass to Pendergrass and an eight-yard run. But Hankins missed wide left on a 43-yard field goal attempt.
 
Out of timeouts and down to 1:46 on the clock, West Virginia kept the drive alive with a pass interference penalty on third down. Greene threw passes of 26 yards to Kole Taylor and 19 yards to Preston Fox, then scored from one yard out to give the Mountaineers a 27-14 halftime lead.
 
Getting the ball to start the second half, Robertson threw a perfect pass to Jackson for a 38-yard TD that made it a one-score game, 27-21. After the defense forced a three-and-out, the Robertson-to-Jackson connection went for another 38-yard gain before Dominic Richardson went in untouched for a two-yard TD run that gave the Bears their first lead of the game, 28-27.
 
Making his fourth start of the year, Robertson was a near-perfect 17-of-19 for 215 yards and one touchdown and added 33 yards rushing on 15 carries. Jackson finished his day with three catches for 88 yards.
 
Greene was 16-of-25 for 269 yards and two touchdowns and added 103 yards and two TDs on the ground, while White also topped the 100-yard mark with 133 yards on 17 carries and had his only reception on that game-winning touchdown grab.
 
"Going to miss our seniors," Aranda said. "TJ Franklin in there, he's been through a lot of it. Bryson Jackson's been playing for like a decade. There are dudes in there that have seen it all and they're fighting the fight. It's so easy to be negative, and these boys were not. That's just so cool. I'm proud of that. A lot to improve on.
 
"This year is not acceptable, and that starts with me. So, a lot of work to be done."