Five Keys to Saturday's Game
11/1/2025 8:09:00 AM | Football
Bears can have a November to remember if they fix ‘their ills’
BAYLOR (4-4, 2-3) vs. UCF (4-3, 1-3)
11 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 1, at McLane Stadium (ESPNU)
11 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 1, at McLane Stadium (ESPNU)
- REMEMBER NOVEMBER: The old cliché is that they will remember November. Last year, the Bears were 4-0 in November in finishing off a six-game winning streak at the end of the regular season. Can this year's team duplicate some of that magic and get to a bowl game for the 13th time in the last 16 seasons? "Last season, the biggest thing was all three phases of the ball were in sync together, complementing each other," said quarterback Sawyer Robertson, who is still leading the nation with 2,513 yards passing. "And we still haven't done that this season. It's a lot easier said than done, obviously. We have not been great at that this year. But when that clicks, that's when you're going to see the wins start happening."
- EARLY START: Dating back to last year's regular-season finale against Kansas, Baylor had won four-consecutive 11 a.m. starts before that 42-36 loss to TCU in a game that took six hours to play with three lightning delays. For a team that practices in the morning every day, "you kind of wake up, you eat breakfast and you're ready to go," tight end Matthew Klopfenstein said. "It's hard, actually, going into a game at night, especially on the road. You're in the hotel all day, take a little nap or something. . . . I'm excited to wake up, get ready to go, just like every other day. It should be just like practice, getting ready to go attack."
- CORRECT THE ILLS: Whether it's turnovers, not stopping the run or self-inflicted wounds, "it's been two weeks of losing to the same thing," Baylor coach Dave Aranda said of the back-to-back road losses to TCU and 21st-ranked Cincinnati. "We have to correct our ills. We've got to get it fixed. . . . Our focus has been on that, and we hit that today. We're going to continue to hit it, try to be able to build some wins throughout this week, so that we can get a win on Saturday."
- GRAB CLOTH: More than anything, what's plagued the defense is missed tackles. The Bears have struggled at the point of attack in wrapping up and getting players to the ground. Particularly in the pass rush, where they are tied for last in the Big 12 with just eight QB sacks in eight games. "There have been times where we have been around the quarterback, but we just miss," cornerback LeVar Thornton said. "Our tackling, I guess, hasn't been good around the quarterback. If we could just wrap up and grab cloth, I feel like we'll be good."
- DO YOUR PART: As fans, you have one job: support your team. Even though you're not on the field, you can have a huge impact on the game. "It just means so much when there are fans there and there's a home-field environment," Aranda said. "I just look at the guys that are on our team right now that have been through so much and are just quality people, really good football players. And they're the type of people that maybe if (the fans) knew them better, would be all for them and would be supporting them, no matter what. I think for them to have it where their work is being rewarded with people that have their back in a critical game would be cool."
Players Mentioned
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