Football Falls to Houston in Overtime, 25-24

Saturday, November 4

Waco, Texas

2:30 p.m.

Baylor

3-6 , 2-4

Houston

4-5 , 2-4

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Houston

Baylor

Football Falls to Houston in Overtime, 25-24

11/4/2023 6:17:00 PM | Football

Box Score Game Book (PDF)Post-Game Notes (PDF)

By: Jerry Hill

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

Hitting on 17 of his last 21 passes and converting on a fourth-and-17 play in the fourth quarter, Blake Shapen tried everything he could to will the Baylor Bears to their first Big 12 home victory in over a year.

But with the game on the line, Shapen couldn't do anything about it when Houston quarterback Donovan Smith scored on a one-yard touchdown run and added the two-point conversion run to lift the Cougars to a stunning 25-24 overtime win over the Bears before a crowd of 41,180 Saturday afternoon at McLane Stadium.

"It's a sad and frustrated and really kind of broken locker room," said Baylor coach Dave Aranda, whose team fell to 3-6 overall and 2-4 in the Big 12 with its sixth loss in seven home games. "I thought there was never any quit, and I thought that the team played hard for each other and together. So, I'm proud of that. I'm disappointed just in the lack of execution, especially early in the game."

A transfer from Texas Tech, Smith threw for 236 yards and two touchdowns and also rushed for 66 yards on 20 carries to help the Cougars (4-5, 2-4) pick up their first Big 12 road win and beat Baylor for the first time in 30 years. Saturday's game was the first matchup of the former Southwest Conference rivals since 1995 when the league broke up.

"This game made sense to our team," said Houston coach Dana Holgorsen. "Playing three hours up the road (from Houston), they were fired up for it."

Rallying from a double-digit second-half deficit, the Bears tied it with 29 seconds left in regulation, when Shapen connected with freshman tight end Hawkins Polley for a one-yard TD pass with defensive lineman David Ugowegbu in his face.

On that fourth-quarter drive, Shapen kept it alive when he scrambled for 27 yards on a fourth-and-17 play from Baylor's 33. He also completed four-straight passes for 38 yards, including a 15-yarder to Cameron Bonner to the 3-yard line.

"He continues to fight," Aranda said of Shapen, who completed 29-of-37 passes for 263 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. "Just the effort that he gives, and his care factor, is way setting the pace. When it's like that, and he's out taking the hits that he's taking and sliding or not sliding and doing those things, I think it's an expression of who he is. Impressed by that."

Isaiah Hankins' extra point tied it up at 17-17, sending Baylor into its first overtime since a double-OT loss at BYU last year.

In overtime, the Bears made it look easy, with Shapen hitting tight end Drake Dabney for a 23-yard pass to the Cougars' 2-yard line. After Kelsey Johnson got to the brink of the goal line with a short pass, freshman Dawson Pendergrass gave Baylor its first lead of the game with a one-yard run off left tackle. Hankins' third extra point of the game made it 24-17.

"You could feel on the sidelines, you could feel really in the whole stadium. You could feel everyone being like, 'Yeah, all the momentum is on our side,''' said sophomore receiver Josh Cameron, who had four catches for 42 yards. "We've just got to run with that in those moments and take off when that happens."

Forced to go 40 yards after a personal foul penalty on Sedrick Williams for leaping on the extra-point try, Houston never even got to third down on a seven-play drive. Smith ran for one first down, passed to Samuel Brown for another and then fumbled into the end zone on a call that was overturned.

Smith just got it over the goal line on a sneak from inside the 1. And then, with Holgorsen opting to go for two and the win rather than a game-tying extra point, Smith called his number again with a QB draw from the 3 and the decisive two-point play.

"We lost leverage in our gaps," Aranda said. "What they had shown throughout the game was shifting to empty looks and then running the quarterback. So, there's some anticipation that that could very well be the case with this particular call.

"I just think as opposed to fighting a hard shoulder and squeezing and flattening the guy out and getting big in a gap, we were penetrating and got skinny and he found a seam. That's unfortunate for us. We have to learn from that."

Baylor finished with more first downs (22-21) and total yards (413-366), was plus-one in turnover margin (2-1) with interceptions by Caden Jenkins and Chateau Reed and held the ball for almost seven minutes longer (33:21 to 26:39). But the Bears' red-zone issues resurfaced as they scored touchdowns just twice on five trips inside the Cougars' 20.

"It feels terrible," linebacker Brooks Miller said. "It's tough."

Taking advantage of good field position when Baylor turned it over on downs, the Cougars scored the only points of the first half on a 26-yard TD pass from Smith to Brown midway through the second quarter.

Baylor did have a couple scoring chances in the first half, but Hankins had a 49-yard field goal try blocked and missed wide right on a 39-yarder just before intermission.

On the previous play, Cameron hauled in an apparent 21-yard TD pass over cornerback Isaiah Hamilton, but the call was overturned when replay showed that the sophomore receiver bobbled the ball on a hit by safety A.J. Haulcy and went out of bounds before he regained control.

"I feel like I had control of it, for sure," Cameron said. "But at the end of the day, that was their call. If he said I dropped it, then I guess I dropped it. So, just moving on from that."

The Cougars started the third quarter with a 14-play drive that took almost nine minutes off the clock. UofH converted on a fourth-and-1 from its 28 when Baylor was called for illegal substitution and Smith picked up another first down with a run on third-and-one.

A holding penalty wiped out a touchdown pass to Brown, with the Cougars settling for a Jack Martin 31-yard field goal and a 10-0 lead.

Baylor answered with a long drive of its own, marching 75 yards in eight plays and scoring on a 38-yard TD pass to Dabney on a flea-flicker play that included Monaray Baldwin flipping it back to Shapen.

On the ensuing possession, Baylor had a second-goal from the 2-yard line, but two penalties pushed it back out to the 17, with the Bears settling for a 27-yard field goal by Hankins that tied it up at 10-10.

Houston went back up, 17-10, when Smith found running back Tony Mathis Jr. for a 24-yard TD reception on a drive that took just five plays to cover 75 yards.

The Cougars had a chance to put the game away when Malik Robinson picked off a Shapen pass in the right flat. But the defense held, forcing a 44-yard field goal try that Martin missed wide right.

While Shapen threw for 263 yards and two touchdowns, the Bears added 150 yards on the ground, with Pendergrass and Dominic Richardson combining for 101 yards on 20 carries.

"I think the execution when it matters most is where we're at," Aranda said, "whether it's that last drive (by Houston), whether it's early in the game and it's a to-go down, whatever it is. I think those are areas right now that are holding us back, and we have to push through those."

Going back on the road, Baylor will face 25^th-ranked Kansas State (6-3, 4-2) at 2 p.m. next Saturday, Nov. 11, in Manhattan in a game that will be streamed by Big 12 Now on ESPN+. The Wildcats lost in overtime to No. 7 Texas, 33-30, on Saturday to fall out of a first-place tie that now includes the Longhorns and Oklahoma State.