Many have given credit to Baylor‘s offense thus far into the season, but those same people also questioned how legitimate their offense was against weaker competition and a first-year quarterback in Bryce Petty, who had yet to be thrust into a hostile environment.
But after their performance against the Oklahoma Sooners, no one should even be doubting the legitimacy of their offense, as Petty completed 13 of his 26 passes for 304 yards and three touchdowns en route to the Bears’ 41-12 victory over the No. 10 Sooners.
While the Bears did put up a modest 459 total yards of offense, including a 255 yard rushing yard performance with Shock Linwood accounting for 182 of those yards, the bigger story should be Baylor’s defense.
The Bears held the not to be underestimated Sooners’ offense to just 237 total yards on offense, including a mere 87 yards on the ground, while also forcing Blake Bell to throw two interceptions and keep the Sooners’ ground game ineffective all night long. When it came down to it, Bell’s arm was not good enough to push the Sooners past a stout Bears defense, which ranked sixth in the nation in scoring defense.
With the win, Baylor still has its seat squarely in the driver’s seat of the Big 12 Conference, and a win over a top 10 team will ultimately vault the Bears’ into the Top 10. Now, despite the slow start to their offense, the Bears have become more serious national championship contenders, and will become a team to watch over the following weeks as it faces ranked opponents in back-to-back weeks in No. 25 Texas Tech and No. 14 Oklahoma State. Of course, whether that’s enough to truly push them into the conversation remains to be seen, but they’ve suddenly become a factor regardless, as one of the few remaining undefeated teams.
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