Dave discuss Baylor's win over Northwestern State
Third autumn story for Texas Football Dave Campbell story No. 3 for the 2014 football season By Dave Campbell How long does it take you to bat an eye? Or both eyes? Pat yourself on the back. You can do so just a little bit faster than it takes the 2014 Baylor football team to score a touchdown. For decades, they have been known as Bears. Watching those Bears obliterate any hopes the Northwestern State Demons of Louisiana might have brought to Baylor's spectacular new McLane Stadium last Saturday night, I thought they surely had been misnamed. How about cheetahs? Or jaguars? I mean, those cats wearing Baylor colors can flat out fly. They flew past the Demons, 70-6, and it wasn't even as close as the final score might indicate. The crowd of 45,034 fans would assure you of that although some of them might have been a little damp. Or maybe more than a little. A swift-moving rain cloud poured almost an inch of water on Waco maybe 45 minutes or an hour before the scheduled time for a 6:30 kickoff, and nearby lightning strikes caused the game to be delayed until 6:51. Then the game started, and the Demons quickly discovered that lightning bolts can strike from locales other than the sky. On the third play from scrimmage, 6-foot-3, 215-pound sophomore quarterback Seth Russell, running the offense in place of the injured Bryce Petty, completed a pass to Shock Lynwood. It was his first pass of the game and it went for 24 yards to midfield. His second pass became a 50-yard touchdown strike to true freshman KD Cannon and the blitz was on. By halftime, Russell had completed 16 of 25 passes for 438 yards and five (yes, FIVE) touchdowns and the Baylor football record book was being challenged on several fronts. You see, six of Russell's completions went to the swift Cannon for three touchdowns and 223 yards of real estate. Cannon's yardage total was the second highest receiving total in Baylor history (Terrance Williams still holds the record, 314 yards accumulated against West Virginia in that wild 70-63 game that Baylor lost on the road to the Mountaineers in 2012). But Williams put together his sensational game over the course of the FULL 60 minutes of combat. Cannon did all his terrific work in just 30 minutes. Coach Art Briles let him become merely a spectator for the second half of the game. But those 30 minutes were enough to fully convince Baylor fans and Demons alike that the phenom from Mount Pleasant in East Texas is everything Briles said he was, and maybe more. Cannon won the Class 4A 100-meter dash at the state track championships in 10.3 seconds, and in football, he caught 104 passes for 1,597 yards and 25 TDs as a high school junior, was a 2-time all-state selection, and prompted Briles to call him the best high school receiver he's ever seen. I’ll say amen to that. At game's end, the sports page headline writer for the Waco Tribune-Herald summed up Saturday night's verdict with these words: "Cannon fire buries Demons." Well put. With that victory, the Bears moved up to No.8 in the AP poll and No. 7 in the coaches' poll. They will have an opportunity to move still higher this coming Friday night when they go on the road for the first time this 2014 season to play in Buffalo, N.Y. against that city's Bulls. Buffalo lost a high-scoring 47-39 shootout on the road to Army last weekend. The Bulls won their season opener at home against Duquesne, 38-28. They played Baylor in Waco last year and got flattened, 70-13. Handicappers have Baylor favored by 33 points. But back to last Saturday night's game and to point out that solely to dwell on Cannon and his exploits would be a mistake. The Bears also had other major contributors. Quite a few more. Russell was named Big 12 Co-Offensive Player of the Week for all his star-spangled exploits. And those other wideouts also covered themselves with honor. Let's call the roll: True freshman Davion Hall brought a glittering reputation with him to Baylor and in Baylor's first two games he has proved it is well deserved. He caught one of Russell's touchdown passes last Saturday night, a 57-yarder late in the second quarter that pushed BU's margin to 49-3. For the night, Hall averaged 19.5 yards for his three catches. A prep-All-American from Liberty-Eylau in Texarkana (TX), Hall was twice all-state and 3-time all-region (also won 2013 all-state honors as a defensive back and starred in both track and basketball). Hall enrolled at Baylor in January and thus went through spring drills. If Cannon doesn't get you, Hall will. Or junior Jay Lee will. Or running back Shock Linwood will. Or maybe Lynx Hawthorne. And remember, Baylor was missing such talented receivers as strong All-America candidate senior Antwan Goodley, sophomore Corey Coleman, senior Clay Fuller and senior Levi Norwood. Also at their beck and call now are redshirt freshman Quan Jones, sophomore Kaleb Moore and junior Cal Spangler (he did play in the last game, mainly as a return man and had two kickoff returns for 69 yards). Norwood is exceedingly valuable both as a sure-handed receiver and as a punt return man. The Bears are going to need him soon. All those should be ready to play Friday night other than Goodley, Fuller and Norwood. Goodley has been sidelined because of a pulled muscle but might play this weekend. But both Fuller and Norwood have broken bones (Norwood a wrist, Fuller a broken collar bone), and it's going to take a while for them. Otherwise, the Bears came out of the Demons game pretty much injury free. Apart from the aerial assault against the Saturday visitors, the Bears profited mightily from the play of backup quarterback Seth Russell (all those aforementioned five TDs and 438 yards, plus 9 yards overland and one TD), the running of redshirt freshman Johnny Jefferson (107 yards on 20 carries, a 5.3-yard carry per trip), unheralded and virtually unknown Silas Nacita (104 yards on 14 carries for two TDs and at a 7.4-yard clip), and Shock Lynwood (34 yards, 1 TD in 11 carries). And it should be mentioned that No.3 QB Chris Johnson, a redshirt freshman, handled his 2nd half duties very well (11 yards on his one carry and 3-for-3 overhead for 11 yards with no fumbles and no interceptions). Baylor's quarterbacking obviously is in very good hands. The same can be said for the offensive line and the entire defense. The Baylor front protected the passers well (no Demon sacks, no interceptions), but it was only in the second half that the Bears ran the ball well. For the entire game the Bears rushed for 265 yards and 5 TDs. The defense was stingy throughout, yielding only 78 yards on the ground and 124 in the air. Remember, the Bears now have played two games and have yet to yield a touchdown. The defensive leaders last Saturday night were linebackers Bryce Hager (11 stops, 5 of them solo) and redshirt freshman Taylor Young (9 stops, 4 solo), redshirt freshman tackle K.J. Smith, senior end Jamal Palmer and squadman safety Orion Stewart. Baylor's offensive line has not permitted a QB sack this season while the defense has gotten 12 sacks. After two games, the Bears rank No. 1 nationally in rushing defense (27 steps per game), sacks per game (6), sacks allowed (0) and fourth-down conversion average (1.000). The Bears are averaging 647 yards per game (4th nationally) and 57.5 points per game (4th nationally). The Bears are scoring points at a finger-snap pace. In the first 15 minutes they scored in this sequence: 4 plays, 78 yards in 1:18; then 6 plays, 34 yards in 1:31; then 2 plays, 96 yards in 20 seconds; then 3 plays, 42 yards in 32 seconds. At that point the Bears led, 28-0, and the handwriting was all over the wall. The Bears were slowpokes early in the second quarter, taking 6:05 to grind out 59 yards that used 16 plays. Then boom times again: 8 plays, 58 yards in just 1:36; then 2 plays, 68 yards in 1:02. End of the first half: Baylor 49, visitors 3. Baylor had rolled up 538 yards, visitors 138. The Bears turned to grind-it-out football in the last 30 minutes while letting their ball-carriers get tuned up. They went 49 yards in 11 plays in 3:38 with Jefferson carrying 11 straight times for the score. Then it was Nacita running the ball the rest of the way for two touchdowns and with a single pass thrown in for a 6-yard gain. Jefferson and Nacita both looked good. Coach Art Briles' observations at his Monday press conference: "I saw Bryce (Petty) a little bit ago. He said he feels a lot better, just a little sore. If he's able to go, we'll go with him. Last Saturday night, the Demons had the same quarterback they had last year so it was a good test for our secondary. Seth (Russell) was good, exceptional. He's an exception athlete. The test is making good decisions. In the game he was 46 out of 48. "This week, people will want to get us on their field and slap us around. We feel we do have people in position now to have success. But I do feel we still have a long way to go. We're not running the ball as well as we have to do." Stay tuned.
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