Baylor Bears bounce back with dominant win over West Virginia
WACO, Texas — After a perfect 4-0 start to their season, the Baylor Bears suffered their first setback of the year when they lost to the Oklahoma State Cowboys two weeks ago. That loss did not derail their focus, however, as they were able to bounce back with a comfortable 25-point win over Big 12 opposition, West Virginia. Now Baylor is about to enter the toughest part of their schedule, playing three top 25 teams in their next four games. The only non-ranked opponent they play in those next four games is their biggest rival, TCU. As they enter into this difficult stretch, we will find out if the win over West Virginia can spark the Bears to go on a great run, or if their status in the Big 12 will deteriorate over the next month.
This week, Baylor will take on No. 19 BYU. The Cougars were undefeated until they were upset by Boise State last week, leading to them falling out of the top 10. They will be hungry to get their season back on track, but Baylor will be hesitant to let them do just that.
Earlier this week, Baylor head coach, Dave Aranda, spoke to the media about how preparation is key for this week’s game.
“After reviewing the tape, lot of positive things,” he said. “Still things to be corrected. So we spent yesterday honing in on those things. Excited to be with the team today. I go back to last week, Monday was our best Monday up to this point. And so, looking to better that. I think you pull back even further, and you look at the last two weeks. And you look at a mediocre week of practice, and you look at the result. And you look at a great week of practice, and you look at the result. And so I think there’s more than enough there to inspire and to move our team to take the next step.”
After the win against West Virginia, Baylor linebacker Terrel Bernard spoke to the media.
“Yeah, I think it was a team effort,” he said. “We had a bunch of different calls, a bunch of different pressures kind of scheming things up. You know we got a bunch of guys that can get sacks, so you know, I talked about it earlier in the week but, you get one-on-ones and when it’s your time you kind of got to win your one-on-one and you know we did that today.”
Bernard played a key role in Baylor’s win over West Virginia, recording a season high nine tackles and one sack.
Baylor quarterback, Gerry Bohanon, also spoke to the media following his impressive outing against West Virginia.
“Honestly, we just trusted ourselves,” he said. “And we had a pretty good week of practice, and we were just like, ‘we’re going to go out there and dominate today.’ We were going to take what they gave us and get in different situations and present a different offense in many different ways. So, I think we kind of did good with that.”
Bohanon also registered a career day for the Bears, racking up a season high four touchdown passes. The Baylor quarterback continued his impressive streak of not throwing an interception this season. This will be a key thing to watch for against BYU as the Cougars are averaging one interception per game this season.
For Coach Aranda’s men, the practice leading up to the game has seemed to be a crucial theme to the team’s success this season. If they hope to pull off the upset against BYU, they will need to be focused, well prepared and continue to generate success on both sides of the ball.
The old phrase “you play like you practice” seems to ring true for this Baylor team. It will be on Coach Aranda to make sure his team practices and plays like they did this past week to give themselves the best shot at winning the game.
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