At halftime, the No. 12 Baylor Bears trail the Texas Longhorns 20-0 at McLane Stadium.
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After a slow start, Northwestern State (3-5) used a late second-quarter run to cut the Lady Bears lead to 18 at the half. Texas recovered, ending Baylor’s best chance to complete the comeback. Baylor plays Texas on Saturday.
It was the first time all season that head coach Art Briles’ squad failed to score a touchdown on their first possession. “They give it their all, and there’s a bunch of them in that situation”.
The Longhorns entered this week knowing their season was likely over. But I’m just so happy.
So for now, enjoy bowl season and a much better level of football than we’ve witness from Texas this year and let’s all hope that Strong has an ace up his sleeve for next year.
Baylor quarterback Chris Johnson (13) watches from the sidelines after leaving play with an injury during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Texas Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015, in Waco, Texas. You’re ready for that, but when it happens, you’re not. Freshman Jarrett Stidham won his first start, but broke a bone in his ankle in his third one before Chris Johnson started the last two games – only to get hurt Saturday.
Baylor, which didn’t have a backup quarterback listed on its two-deep roster, inserted wide receiver Lynx Hawthorne in the shotgun formation to direct the offense.
“It’s still football. It’s still playing catch, which anybody can do”, Hawthorne said. Attura scored the final five points of the half, draining a left-wing 3 and converting a layup off passes from Janelle Perez.
Hawthorne threw interceptions on two of Baylor’s next three series.
Meanwhile, the offense went into hyper-conservative mode with a hobbled Tyrone Swoopes after abandoning an ineffective Jerrod Heard in the first half.
“Courageous is a great word”.
Texas coach Charlie Strong said the two teams were chirping back and forth before the game. “He’s got nothing to be sorry about, but he played from the inside-out”. Shock Linwood left the game, too. Going into the offseason, they definitely know what they’re going to do – not to be 5-7. “I think everybody was exhausted of losing, so we stepped up and did what we had to do”. In today’s vernacular, it’s called the wildcat, but it’s basically the same play that has its roots in the offense iconic coach Pop Warner created more than a century ago. Swoopes made it 17-0 with an uncontested run to the outside from nine yards out. But Rose increased Texas’ lead when he booted a 53-yard field goal with 2:01 left in the second quarter.
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From that point, things only got worse for the Bears. Making matters worse, Johnson was out for the rest of the game.
