Three Thoughts on Baylor’s 45-7 Win Over Kansas
For the first true Big 12 conference game of the year, Baylor traveled to Lawrence, Kansas to take on the Kansas Jayhawks. The game was close in the first half and then Baylor was able to really get going in the second half as they ended up winning on the road 45-7.
Despite the game being a mismatch, there was still a few things to take away from Saturday so with that said, here are my three thoughts on Baylor’s win over Kansas.
- The Baylor Rushing Attack
Despite Baylor playing some cupcake teams earlier in the season, the ground game has always been the strong point of the Bears offense. That held true once again against Kansas on Saturday. The Bears were able to gash the Kansas defense for a total of 307 yards on the ground led by Abram Smith who had 122 rushing yards averaging an eye popping 7.6 yards per carry. As a team, Baylor averaged 6.8 yards per rush and the offensive line did an excellent job creating those holes up front. The rushing attack worked all game long for Baylor as Kansas simply had no answer for it.
2. A Tale of Two Halves
I know the final score ended up being lopsided, but the game certainly did not start that way. Baylor jumped out to an early 14-0 lead in the first quarter but failed to do anything productive on offense for the rest of the first half. A costly fumble by the Bears killed one of their drives and also a penalty on a punt return wiped away six from the scoreboard as Trestan Ebner took a punt back for a score. Another issue were the penalties for Baylor in the first half as well. All that resulted in just 14 points in two quarters by Baylor.
The second half was a completely different story. The mistakes stopped for the Bears and when that happened, Kansas simply had no chance to stay within arm’s reach. The Jayhawks best offense once again were the legs of quarterback Jason Bean but that was never going be enough to knock off Baylor. The second half was a total mismatch between the two teams and Baylor outscored Kansas 31-0 in the final two quarters.
3. Plenty of Work Left for Both Teams
We should start with the obvious one here. Kansas is sitting at 1-2 right now and they still have one more non-conference game left to play against Duke next weekend. I am no psychic, but I am just going to go out on a limb and say that the Jayhawks lose that one. Their defense has been pitiful so far this season and they have zero threat of any sort of a passing game. Jason Bean’s legs can only take you so far on offense. I hate to be bleak here, but it appears like this season will be a 1-11 type year.
As for Baylor, a 3-0 start is always a good thing to help build some steam as their schedule will get difficult from here on out. While the Bears have been impressive in their three victories, keep in mind the competition. It’s no secret that the three easiest games on their schedule were the first three and next weekend, they will face a good Iowa State team at home.
