Baylor beats Rice in Houston

By DAVE CAMPBELL,
founder of Football Magazine

Houston ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" They say the early bird gets the worm and for the first portion of last Friday night's showdown at Rice Stadium between Rice and the visiting Baylor Bears it appeared that could be true. After all, the Owls are birds and with 13:31 left in the second quarter the Rice Owls had kicked a 24-yard field goal and taken a 3-0 lead over highly-favored Baylor.

But all's well that ends well, I guess, because the Bears did right their ship and started scoring touchdowns and kicking one field goal (but missing two other attempts) and finished the night with a 38-10 victory, their third of this still-young season.

Baylor coach Jim Grobe was able to return to Waco with something of a smile on his face, but he knows much tougher games are coming up next ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" like against Oklahoma State this coming Saturday night at McLane Stadium. If the Bears are going to stay unbeaten, they are going to have to start quicker and start playing better overall (especially on offense), and stop missing field goals that should be easy for their field goal kicker to make. Or at least they seem to be easy enough for good kickers to make.

Understand, I've never been a field goal kicker. Maybe when the pressure's on, it's harder than it looks.

The Baylor Bears are undefeated after three games after what pundits call three "cupcakes." And do you know how many other Big 12 Conference teams can say that? Exactly one ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" West Virginia, a team that did not play last week (but has Brigham Young coming up this weekend).

So here's to Jim Grobe, a retired college football coach who was living the easy life in a house alongside a lake over in his neck of the woods, and who answered a distress call from Baylor's former big-winning coach Grant Teaff to step into what many football coaches would have decided they really didn't want to do. I mean, living by a lake sounds a lot better than getting out there in the hot sun sending his players through their demanding paces, don't you think?

But more to the point, Grobe has the Bears 3-0 after their opening trio of non-conference games, and only West Virginia, which has only played two games as of right now, is still undefeated in Big 12 Conference play. The preseason's Big 12 favorite, the Oklahoma Sooners, have already lost two games (to Houston and Ohio State) and both TCU and Texas have each lost one game (TCU at home to Arkansas, Texas on the road to California-Berkeley) and so have all the other Big 12 members except Kansas (2 defeats) and Iowa State (still winless after 3 games).

What this all probably means is that the Big 12 Conference is not likely to have a football team in college football's Final Four this season (Oklahoma made it last year and nobody in the Big 12 in 2014).With two losses, Oklahoma is probably out. Texas or TCU might be able play their way into strong consideration by winning the remainder of their games, but it won't be easy.

Meanwhile, you can feel good that the Baylor Bears after three games are the top-ranked football team in the Big 12. Monday's AP poll put Baylor at No. 16 nationally, and the coaches' poll put them one notch higher, at No. 15. As for other Big 12 teams, Texas was at No. 21 and Oklahoma at No. 25 in the AP, and TCU was tied with Ole Miss at No. 21 in the coaches' poll, Texas was No. 21 and Oklahoma was out of the Top 25. And where's the soothsayer who back before the season started would have predicted all that?

As for the Baylor game against Rice, once Seth Russell started hitting his receivers and redshirt freshman JaMycal Hasty started taking advantage of the holes the offensive line and his other blockers had opened for him, the game quickly started turning in Baylor's favor. It was 0-0 at the end of the first quarter, 21-10 at the half, 31-10 after 45 minutes of play, and 38-10 at the finish.

Conclusion: the Russell-to-KD Cannon is still a lethal weapon, Hasty certainly can live up to his name, and Baylor's defense continues to make solid improvement. It's much too early to say this, but this might be the best defense Baylor has put on the field in years. Still, let's see how the defense plays against the likes of Oklahoma State, a game which is right around the corner.

The Owls scored first, driving 7 yards in 14 plays to the Baylor 6-yard line and then turning to Haden Tobola for a 24-yard field goal. That drive, highlighted by Darik Dillard's 17-yard run to the Baylor 24, was the first time the Baylor defense last Friday night broke down like that..

Hasty, the breakaway flash from Longview, led Baylor in rushing (14 carries for 107 yards) and scored the team's first touchdown on a 16-yard run, putting an exclamation point on an 84-yard, 8-play drive that finally got the Bears on the scoreboard early in the second quarter. Russell engineered the whole thing, starting it with a 10-yard completion and a few plays later completing a 45-yard pass to Cannon that put the Bears on the Rice 14-yard line. Two plays later, after a 2-yard loss, Hasty got loose for his touchdown run. Chris Callahan added the extra point.

Few minutes later, Rice punter Nate German shanked a punt, giving the Bears excellent field position at the Owls' 32. Russell got the Bears to the Rice end zone in a mere 2:09, mainly by some good runs by Terence Williams and then a 10-yard touchdown pass to KD Cannon. Callahan's kick again was true.

Rice retaliated with a 9-play, 75-yard march that made it a 14-10 game. On that drive the Owls' Darik Dillard again had several good runs and so did Nate German, and QB Tyler Stehling completed some good passes and got loose for a 28-yard run to get Rice down the field. Then Emmanuel Esukpa found enough daylight to make an 11-yard run to the Baylor 1-yard line, and on the next play he drove into the BU end zone. Tobola's kick gave the Owls' their tenth and last point of the game.

Late in the second quarter the Bears again displayed their scoring touch, driving 75 yards in 9 plays to score a touchdown and make it a 21-10 game. Russell had several good runs (I worry every time he does that, remembering his season-ending neck injury last year), and Shock Linwood contributed some nice runs (but not like the Shock of 2015; he's recovering from an injury, too), and finally Terence Williams scored the touchdown on a 24-yard run. Callahan's kick made it a 21-10 game at intermission.

The Bears then wrapped up their 38-10 victory in the second half, securing a 23-yard field goal from Callahan after an 11-play, 46-yard thrust that was stopped at the Rice 6-yard line (Hasty made a 21-yard pass reception and had several good runs on that drive); Russell completed a 51-yard pass to Cannon to highlight a 4-play, 76-yard drive scored by Russell's 22-yard pass to tight end Jordan Feuerbacher that used only 1:07 on the clock, making it a 31-10 game; and finally in the fourth quarter the Bears zipped 58 yards in 5 plays to make the final score read Baylor 38, Rice 10. Russell had completions of 17 and 5 yards to sophomore Chris Platt and a 28-yard scoring pass to Cannon. And that final scoring drive used only 1:09 on the clock.

So when they're really clicking, the Bears can still score in a hurry ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" like old times.

The game's final figures gave Baylor the upper hand in first downs, 31 to 14; in rushing, 296 to 234; and in passing, 342 to Rice's 31. So in total offense the Bears again had one of those 638-yard games; Rice had 265. Penalty yardage? Not so good for the Bears again. They were docked 85 steps because of 8 flags.

As noted, Hasty finished with 105 yards net rushing (7.5-yard average), and Williams had 79 (6.6-yard average). Linwood finished with 59 yards on 13 carries, enough to make him Baylor's all-time leader in that department, moving ahead of 1980 All-SWC running back Walter Abercrombie. Russell completed 22 of his 38 throws for 337 yards and 3 touchdowns, certainly a nice night of work. The great Cannon was the game's most devastating weapon, catching 9 passes for 213 yards and 2 TDs.

But the game's leading footman was Rice's Derik Dillard, a 5-10, 215-pound senior from San Antonio who carried the ball 14 times, was never thrown for a loss and wound up with net of 124 yards and an average of 8.9 yards per carry.

Senior linebacker Aiavion Edwards led Baylor's defense, registering 9 solo stops and being a part of 11 tackles in all. New defensive back (former wide receiver) Davion Hall and nickel back Travon Blanchard also were defensive standouts, Hall with 8 solo and Blanchard with 7 and both being in on 9 tackles. End K.J. Smith was credited with 6 stops and linebacker Taylor Young and nickel back Patrick Levels had 5 each.

Rice's defensive effort was led by Emmanuel Ellerbee, a 235-pound junior from Houston who was in on a whopping 14 tackles.