Nov. 6, 2005
The 4-5 Baylor football team looks to snap a four-game losing streak and keep its bowl hopes alive when the Bears travel to Columbia, Mo., for Saturday's 1 p.m. contest against the 5-4 Missouri Tigers. Here are Baylor coach Guy Morriss' thoughts on Saturday's 62-0 loss to Texas and this weekend's contest:
Were you surprised by the way the Texas game went?
"I didn't think it would get out of hand that bad but we've watched them now for 2-3 weeks and they're good. They played a good game. It's a situation where they got it rolling and things kind of snowballed. I thought it was very similar to the Tech game (last night vs. Texas A&M); everything just began to roll for them. They are good and I guess it's just hard to stop them. They force you into mistakes and I guess we got flustered. After looking at film, I will say our kids didn't quit but maybe to the Average Joe it looks like we quit. We weren't getting to the ball as quick but they've got speed everywhere. Defensively, we didn't tackle very well, we didn't contain. We got flustered but as far as running to the football, our motives were going. I guess it was similar on offense. It didn't match up very well on a lot of those one-on-one battles."
On the offense's start:
"The deeper you get into the game, they start doing more and more and then you try to counter with more and more things and then the difference in the match-up starts to show up too. We got mashed, really. We got hooked, we got cut-off, and we just got whipped. Part of their game plan was just to come in and mash, let their physical ability work for them."
On Terrance Parks' play against Texas:
"He got himself out of some sack situations because of his athleticism and still made some throws. That was good to see. There are a couple of throws he shouldn't have made; the last interception. He should just pick up the first down. He made some good throws, missed the run check, we were overloaded and he ran into the overload. Overall, he did okay. I don't think he was intimidated at all. Like I said, he made some good throws. We had two or three drops and that didn't help but I don't know if all that would have made much difference. I guess you can give him about a C+, I don't know if that's fair or not."
On lack of Baylor's running game:
"We thought we could do a little better job on that. At times, we popped some through we were just not consistent enough to try and keep going. We didn't get outside very well, which you can figure that one. You've got to try and keep them loosened up some. A couple times we got what we call a gut read where we ride with the back, you leave the backside in and if he crashes, you pull it. I should have pulled it a couple times because they were really driving down in there. I could have done a better job of that. That is what everybody's doing. They close to the ball in a hurry. Terrance isn't bashful about contact. I don't know why his helmet keeps falling off. I think it might be the plastic snaps. It's just not secure enough. I thought last week was a one time thing but I guess he needs to tighten it up or change the snaps or something."
Is it hard to be patient in a game like that?
"I guess, the thing is, if you can't ever establish something and then the next thing builds off of that play, it's hard to call plays. I don't know, I've called plays before but if you can't consistently run the football, then your play action becomes no good because no on is going to honor the run. The safeties are at six yards deep, whatever you are trying to get done, you can't ever get into a rhythm of play calling. Everyone was saying, I knew what you were going to run every play...it's just hard to find a rhythm when things are working for you."
Offensively, after two straight shutouts, where does this team go?
"I think for us, we've got to get this one out of our system. If we focus, we have kind of gotten through the heavy meat of our schedule, and, I haven't talked to the kids today but they all seem in a pretty good frame of mind. I think sometimes, a game like this is easier to get over then playing hard and losing in overtime, something like that takes it out of you more than this one. We've got to get refocused and remember that the carrot is still dangling out in front of us. It's kind of in our corner now; we've just got to grab it. Missouri has lost their last two and to me, it's a 1 game season. We either win this one or we're home for Christmas. The challenge becomes, can we get the 5th win and keep the program up to light. I think, where we've set our goals, this is the most pivotal game. That's what we are going to try and make them understand today. The last game doesn't matter if we don't win this one for what we want to do. I think they realize that. We have to tighten down and get refocused and go play hard."
Will Terrance (Parks) start this week at Missouri?
"I don't know. I haven't really talked with Brent (Pease) about who's going to play where. I think we have to evaluate every position now and make sure we have the right people in the right places on the field and go get these football games. We'll do that part this evening. I thought Matt played pretty good at tight-end. I think we struggled at the guard position this week. We'll look at those guys and shuffle if we need to shuffle and try to come up with the best five. At guard, I don't know how good these options are, but you may leave Lequalan (McDonald) and play Nick (Pace) inside and rotate the guard. Nick did better this week, his play was better. It was good to see. The thing about Nick playing inside is do you have enough leverage. We might need to put a couple bricks in his pocket. Right now we just don't have a lot of options. "
On the final two weeks of the season:
"This is a trail these kids have never been on before, playing in the tenth week of the season where the game still means something. If that's not motivation, I don't know what is. Right now, we've just got to move on and get focused. We need to figure out all this nonsense we're going to have to deal with but I don't think it should be hard to get them motivated to go play."
Sunday Baylor Notes: Baylor reported only bumps and bruises from Saturday's game against No. 2 Texas ... Junior WR Dominique Zeigler moved his career reception total to 101, good for No. 5 on Baylor's all-time list ... For his career, Zeigler has 101 receptions for 1,086 yards and 9 TDs ... Senior FS Maurice Lane had a game-high 13 tackles (6 solos) against Texas to record his 19th career double-figure tackle effort ... Lane now has 359 career tackles to rank No. 3 on Baylor's career chart, 21 behind No. 2 Ray Berry's (1983-86) 380 stops ... Lane's 244 career solo tackles rank No. 2 all-time at Baylor to Mike Singletary's record of 351 ... Senior WR Shaun Rochon leads the Big 12 with his 27.6 kickoff return average ... Senior OS Willie Andrews had a career-high tying 12 tackles (6 solos) against Texas ... Junior WR Trent Shelton has caught a pass in 31 straight games after a 2-catch effort against Texas ... Baylor was shutout in back-to-back games (vs. Texas Tech and Texas) for the first time since the 2002 season (Texas A&M and at Colorado) ... Kickoff for Baylor's Nov. 19 game against Oklahoma State in Waco has been set for 1 p.m.
