BALL SECURITY
9/15/2024 9:47:00 AM | Football
Bears use turnover-less second half to put Air Force away, 31-3
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
WACO, Texas – Once the Baylor Bears got out of their own way, they dominated on both sides and scored 25 unanswered points in the second half to pull away for a 31-3 victory over the Air Force Academy Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 46,212 at McLane Stadium.
More than anything, the Bears (2-1) showed what they can do when they simply hold on to the ball, scoring on each of their first four drives of the second half and breaking open a game that was 6-3 at the half.
"I thought the fight of the team was good," Baylor coach Dave Aranda said. "I think in some ways that should be a given. For us, I think it's been a building block. When you have that care factor, you've got guys that regardless of the score, who are bleeding and giving effort and pushing through. And I think that's contagious.
"I think it's guys that want to push beyond and do more and fight through. Of all the things, that's the thing I'm most proud of, just the fight of all of it and the care factor there. I thought that was on display."
Subbing for injured starter Dequan Finn, redshirt junior quarterback Sawyer Robertson threw for a career-high 248 yards and added a six-yard TD run in helping a balanced Baylor offense pile up 478 yards total.
"Really happy for Sawyer," said Aranda, who indicated Finn is day-to-day with a shoulder injury. "Sawyer has been in a bunch of battles. He has won a few of them and has come out second in the majority of them. So, to go through all that and to kind of grow as a person and show that maturity and help other people when they're going through that, that's Sawyer. For him to have his time and to make the most of it is really cool."
Redshirt freshman running back Bryson Washington also made the most of his first-career start, rushing for 106 yards on 12 carries and starting the explosive third quarter with a 19-yard touchdown run, the first of his career.
"A lot of people don't know my story," said Washington, who led Franklin High School to consecutive Class 3A Division I state championships, "but when I crossed (the goal line), I couldn't think of nothing but my dad. I lost him at the age of 3. That was about the only thing that really crossed my mind. The other thing is I was just tired."
Aranda said the violence that Washington "plays with, his vision and his feet make a big difference."
"To have him back and healthy is a big difference," he said. "He's a great complement as an inside guy to the outside guys that we've got at the running back spot."
The Bears didn't have any problems moving the ball in the first half, averaging more than eight yards per play. But with three costly fumbles and a turnover on downs – all on the Falcons' end of the field – Baylor had the ball for less than six minutes in the first half and ran just 23 offensive plays.
"The ability to hold onto the ball on offense and not get in our way is something we have to do better,' Aranda said. "Right now, that's a big concern. There are too many turnovers on offense. All of our ability, and all of our talent, we needed all those possessions."
Baylor had a chance early in the game when Caleb Parker blocked a Carson Bay punt that Josh White recovered at the Falcons' 28-yard line. But Robertson was dropped for a four-yard loss on third down, with the Bears settling for a 46-yard field goal by Isaiah Hankins that made it 3-0 with 6:20 left in the first quarter.
On the next series, Robertson hit Josh Cameron on three-consecutive passes, but a 24-yarder to the Falcons' 1-yard line was nullified by an ineligible receiver downfield. And then, Dawson Pendergrass fumbled on the very next play to wipe out a golden scoring opportunity.
"I think the biggest issue in my eyes was our carelessness with the ball," Aranda said. "We have to be much better with our ball security. . . . We've got to way better condense it, put focal points of pressure on it. There's a whole road we have to go through, and we're not there yet."
The Bears got stopped short on a fourth-and-one from the Falcons' 26-yard line and then fumbled twice in a 59-second stretch late in the half, the first one by Washington at the end of a 23-yard reception.
"We were hurting ourselves," Washington said. "Once we got all that cleaned up, we were ready to play ball. That fumble hurt because, fumbling before you get your first touchdown, that's all I could think about. Then, when I got back out there, it made me more hungry for that, and I wanted to get the offense started."
With only 34 seconds left and the Bears out of timeouts, Air Force could have run the clock out and gone in with the game tied 3-3. But defensive end Jackie Marshall forced a fumble by quarterback John Busha that safety Devyn Bobby recovered at BU's 45-yard line.
After a 22-yard catch and run by Pendergrass to the Air Force 33, Hankins nailed a 51-yard field goal as time expired that gave Baylor the 6-3 halftime lead.
Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said there was no consideration for taking a knee at the end of the half. "We thought we had a high opportunity to score as long as we secured the ball. It was going to be us or them."
In a turnover-less second half, Baylor put together four-straight scoring drives to put the game out of reach while rolling up 285 yards on 39 plays (7.3-yard average).
Washington scored his first-career touchdown on a bruising 19-yard run, then Robertson pushed the lead to 20-3 with his six-yard run at the end of a seven-play, 64-yard drive. Hankins hit a chip-shot field goal after another Air Force turnover, then Richard Reese scored on a 28-yard burst around the right end where he split two Falcon defenders.
On defense, after giving up three drives of double-digit plays in the first half and 170 yards on 41 plays, the Bears completely shut down Air Force's triple-option attack in the second half. The Falcons had as many turnovers as first downs (two) and were held to just 48 yards on 23 plays.
"We did make adjustments at the half," said linebacker Matt Jones, who had a game-high 11 tackles with eight solos and one stop behind the line. "We went in, and Coach Aranda talked about the plays that he knows they're going to come out and do, and they came out and did it. We just executed."
After spending the first half doing "a lot of scribbling and writing on the whiteboards," Aranda said the Bears had a "really good idea of what's what and what's home for them and what time they go home, and we can try to meet them there. And I thought the second half showed that."
Robertson was an efficient 18-of-24 for 248 yards, with Cameron (5-63) and Ashtyn Hawkins (4-81) leading the receiving corps. Getting the running game cranked up in the second half, Baylor featured a balanced attack with 230 yards rushing on 38 carries and was able to run out the clock with two time-consuming fourth-quarter drives.
Going back on the road for the second time, the Bears will face Colorado (2-1) in the conference opener for both teams at 7 p.m. CT next Saturday in Boulder in another FOX broadcast. The Buffaloes, an original Big 12 member who spent the previous 13 years in the Pac-12, rolled over in-state rival Colorado State, 28-9, Saturday night in Fort Collins.
"It's going to be a whole new game plan, a whole new ballgame," Jones said of an explosive Colorado offense that features quarterback Shedeur Sanders and All-American receiver Travis Hunter. "We won't see another offense like (Air Force's). So, we've just got to come out every week and prepare for the team that we're about to face."
Baylor Bear Insider
WACO, Texas – Once the Baylor Bears got out of their own way, they dominated on both sides and scored 25 unanswered points in the second half to pull away for a 31-3 victory over the Air Force Academy Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 46,212 at McLane Stadium.
More than anything, the Bears (2-1) showed what they can do when they simply hold on to the ball, scoring on each of their first four drives of the second half and breaking open a game that was 6-3 at the half.
"I thought the fight of the team was good," Baylor coach Dave Aranda said. "I think in some ways that should be a given. For us, I think it's been a building block. When you have that care factor, you've got guys that regardless of the score, who are bleeding and giving effort and pushing through. And I think that's contagious.
"I think it's guys that want to push beyond and do more and fight through. Of all the things, that's the thing I'm most proud of, just the fight of all of it and the care factor there. I thought that was on display."
Subbing for injured starter Dequan Finn, redshirt junior quarterback Sawyer Robertson threw for a career-high 248 yards and added a six-yard TD run in helping a balanced Baylor offense pile up 478 yards total.
"Really happy for Sawyer," said Aranda, who indicated Finn is day-to-day with a shoulder injury. "Sawyer has been in a bunch of battles. He has won a few of them and has come out second in the majority of them. So, to go through all that and to kind of grow as a person and show that maturity and help other people when they're going through that, that's Sawyer. For him to have his time and to make the most of it is really cool."
Redshirt freshman running back Bryson Washington also made the most of his first-career start, rushing for 106 yards on 12 carries and starting the explosive third quarter with a 19-yard touchdown run, the first of his career.
"A lot of people don't know my story," said Washington, who led Franklin High School to consecutive Class 3A Division I state championships, "but when I crossed (the goal line), I couldn't think of nothing but my dad. I lost him at the age of 3. That was about the only thing that really crossed my mind. The other thing is I was just tired."
Aranda said the violence that Washington "plays with, his vision and his feet make a big difference."
"To have him back and healthy is a big difference," he said. "He's a great complement as an inside guy to the outside guys that we've got at the running back spot."
The Bears didn't have any problems moving the ball in the first half, averaging more than eight yards per play. But with three costly fumbles and a turnover on downs – all on the Falcons' end of the field – Baylor had the ball for less than six minutes in the first half and ran just 23 offensive plays.
"The ability to hold onto the ball on offense and not get in our way is something we have to do better,' Aranda said. "Right now, that's a big concern. There are too many turnovers on offense. All of our ability, and all of our talent, we needed all those possessions."
Baylor had a chance early in the game when Caleb Parker blocked a Carson Bay punt that Josh White recovered at the Falcons' 28-yard line. But Robertson was dropped for a four-yard loss on third down, with the Bears settling for a 46-yard field goal by Isaiah Hankins that made it 3-0 with 6:20 left in the first quarter.
On the next series, Robertson hit Josh Cameron on three-consecutive passes, but a 24-yarder to the Falcons' 1-yard line was nullified by an ineligible receiver downfield. And then, Dawson Pendergrass fumbled on the very next play to wipe out a golden scoring opportunity.
"I think the biggest issue in my eyes was our carelessness with the ball," Aranda said. "We have to be much better with our ball security. . . . We've got to way better condense it, put focal points of pressure on it. There's a whole road we have to go through, and we're not there yet."
The Bears got stopped short on a fourth-and-one from the Falcons' 26-yard line and then fumbled twice in a 59-second stretch late in the half, the first one by Washington at the end of a 23-yard reception.
"We were hurting ourselves," Washington said. "Once we got all that cleaned up, we were ready to play ball. That fumble hurt because, fumbling before you get your first touchdown, that's all I could think about. Then, when I got back out there, it made me more hungry for that, and I wanted to get the offense started."
With only 34 seconds left and the Bears out of timeouts, Air Force could have run the clock out and gone in with the game tied 3-3. But defensive end Jackie Marshall forced a fumble by quarterback John Busha that safety Devyn Bobby recovered at BU's 45-yard line.
After a 22-yard catch and run by Pendergrass to the Air Force 33, Hankins nailed a 51-yard field goal as time expired that gave Baylor the 6-3 halftime lead.
Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said there was no consideration for taking a knee at the end of the half. "We thought we had a high opportunity to score as long as we secured the ball. It was going to be us or them."
In a turnover-less second half, Baylor put together four-straight scoring drives to put the game out of reach while rolling up 285 yards on 39 plays (7.3-yard average).
Washington scored his first-career touchdown on a bruising 19-yard run, then Robertson pushed the lead to 20-3 with his six-yard run at the end of a seven-play, 64-yard drive. Hankins hit a chip-shot field goal after another Air Force turnover, then Richard Reese scored on a 28-yard burst around the right end where he split two Falcon defenders.
On defense, after giving up three drives of double-digit plays in the first half and 170 yards on 41 plays, the Bears completely shut down Air Force's triple-option attack in the second half. The Falcons had as many turnovers as first downs (two) and were held to just 48 yards on 23 plays.
"We did make adjustments at the half," said linebacker Matt Jones, who had a game-high 11 tackles with eight solos and one stop behind the line. "We went in, and Coach Aranda talked about the plays that he knows they're going to come out and do, and they came out and did it. We just executed."
After spending the first half doing "a lot of scribbling and writing on the whiteboards," Aranda said the Bears had a "really good idea of what's what and what's home for them and what time they go home, and we can try to meet them there. And I thought the second half showed that."
Robertson was an efficient 18-of-24 for 248 yards, with Cameron (5-63) and Ashtyn Hawkins (4-81) leading the receiving corps. Getting the running game cranked up in the second half, Baylor featured a balanced attack with 230 yards rushing on 38 carries and was able to run out the clock with two time-consuming fourth-quarter drives.
Going back on the road for the second time, the Bears will face Colorado (2-1) in the conference opener for both teams at 7 p.m. CT next Saturday in Boulder in another FOX broadcast. The Buffaloes, an original Big 12 member who spent the previous 13 years in the Pac-12, rolled over in-state rival Colorado State, 28-9, Saturday night in Fort Collins.
"It's going to be a whole new game plan, a whole new ballgame," Jones said of an explosive Colorado offense that features quarterback Shedeur Sanders and All-American receiver Travis Hunter. "We won't see another offense like (Air Force's). So, we've just got to come out every week and prepare for the team that we're about to face."
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