No. 21 Football Falls at No. 19 Oklahoma State

Saturday, October 2

Stillwater, OK

6 PM

Baylor

4-1 , 2-1

Oklahoma State

5-0 , 2-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Baylor

Oklahoma St.

No. 21 Football Falls at No. 19 Oklahoma State

10/2/2021 9:56:00 PM | Football

Box Score Game Book Postgame Notes

Abram Smith rushed for 97 yards and a touchdown for the Bears

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            STILLWATER, Okla. – With the Baylor offense scoring zero points off two first-half takeaways, including one in Oklahoma State territory, it would have been easy for the defense to point fingers in Saturday night's game at Boone Pickens Stadium.
            Instead, the Bears picked off another Spencer Sanders pass on the first series in the third quarter, came up with three other stops and forced a field goal on a 10-play, 72-yard drive to claw back from a 14-0 halftime deficit.
            And it still wasn't enough.
            Workhorse running back Jaylen Warren rushed for 125 yards on 36 carries and scored on touchdown runs of 8 and 4 yards to help 19^th-ranked OSU (5-0, 2-0) hold off No. 21 Baylor's second-half rally and escape with a 24-14 win to remain unbeaten.
            "I'm proud of the team and the effort that we made in the second half," said Baylor coach Dave Aranda, whose team fell to 4-1 overall and 2-1 in league play. "I thought there was opportunity to point fingers and have flashbacks to maybe last season . . . and I never saw that. We're proud of how connected the team is and the collective fight we came back out with at the start of the fourth quarter."
             In the first half, the Baylor offense had just 99 yards and two first downs and struggled to get anything going. When Raleigh Texada got the first of three picks off OSU quarterback Spencer Sanders at the Cowboys' 36, the Bears lost eight yards on three plays and ended up punting.
            And then, when a JT Woods interception ended a 13-play, 67-yard drive, Baylor went three-and-out for the second-consecutive series.
            "It's very frustrating," said running back Abram Smith, who finished with 97 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. "As good as the defense can be, it's very frustrating that we can't put it together sometimes. But, you live, you learn. There are a lot of things we can go fix."
             Warren's eight-yard TD run on the opening series of the game gave the Cowboys a 7-0 lead, and the game stayed that until the final minute of the second quarter when Sanders hooked up with Rashod Owens on a 32-yard TD pass with only 36 seconds left in the half.
            After their first scoreless quarters of the season, the Bears picked up a couple first downs on the opening drive of the third quarter with Gerry Bohanon runs to at least give the offense a spark.
            "We knew we weren't playing how we were supposed to," Smith said. "When we got to halftime, we came together as a team and just tried to fire each other up and rally behind one another."
            Aranda said Bohanon "gave us everything he had.".
            "It's a big growing moment for him. There are things we can improve upon, and that goes for me, too."
            Linebacker Dillon Doyle, who had a career-high 15 tackles, had his first career interception off a Sanders pass that was tipped by Texada.
            "I took my drop, and the ball was tipped up," Doyle said. "There was some good coverage on the other half, and I got lucky. Right place, right time."
            While the Bears didn't capitalize on their third takeaway, they finally broke through late in the third quarter when Smith took a pitch back on fourth-and-2 and sprinted 55 yards for a touchdown that cut the deficit to 14-7.
            Crediting Doyle, who came in as a fullback and lead blocker, Smith said he knew "as soon as he ran through the hole, he could have scored if he had the ball."
            "I saw nothing but daylight in front of me," Smith said.
            Tanner Brown made it a two-score game on the first play of the fourth quarter when he connected on a chip-shot, 20-yard field goal that made it 17-7, capping a 10-play, 72-yard drive.
            Again, Baylor answered with an impressive seven-play, 84-yard scoring drive. Smith started it with consecutive runs of 18 and six yards, followed by a 44-yard pass from Bohannon to Tyquan Thornton.
            After OSU was flagged for pass interference in the end zone, the Bears scored three plays later on a one-yard QB keeper by Bohanon. Freshman Isaiah Hankins' extra point closed the gap to 17-14 with 12:04 still left in the game.
            Twice, Baylor had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead, but failed to pick up a first down. Flushed out of the pocket on a fourth-down play, Bohanon wasn't able to connect with Smith on a short pass, and then the Bears went three-and-out and had to punt from its own 12-yard line.
            The Cowboys put it away with 2:10 left, when Warren scored from four yards out on a 4^th-down play to extend the lead to 24-14.
            "Any time this team doesn't succeed, it's frustrating," Doyle said. "We have a lot of stuff to clean up defensively, so it's not an offense or defensive thing, it's a team thing. Baylor lost this game today."
            Bohanon was 13-of-27 for 173 yards and also scored on the one-yard TD run. Grad transfer Drew Estrada from Dartmouth had his best day as a Bear, catching six passes for 88 yards.
            Baylor returns home to face West Virginia (2-3, 0-2) at 11 a.m. next Saturday, Oct. 8, at McLane Stadium. The Mountaineers lost a 23-20 heartbreaker at home to Texas Tech after throwing a scare in Oklahoma the week before, falling 16-13 in Norman.