Baylor vs. West Virginia final score: Geno Smith powers record-breaking win

West Virginia’s 70-63 win over Baylor, a game that brought us 1,507 yards, 67 first downs, 19 touchdowns, three 200-plus-yard receivers and the direct personification of major-conference MACtion, also created a bit of an existential crisis in the world of college football. It was an extreme vision of the utmost limits of what some call “basketball on grass,” of what college football has become in the second wave of the spread offense. If Billy Tubbs and Paul Westhead had decided to take up coaching football instead of basketball four decades ago, this is how it would have been played.

As a man making an absurd amount of money to coach a game, Nick Saban has done very well in terms of getting his defense “ready to play.” It is, after all, part of coaching.

1,578. Combined yards gained this season, in seven total games, by Temple and Tulane. West Virginia and Baylor, meanwhile, came up just 71 yards short of that in 60 minutes early on Saturday afternoon. It was almost too much, you know?

I love offense, I love writing about offense, and I love watching WVU head coach Dana Holgorsen and Baylor head coach Art Briles doing their thing. But … come on. The teams scored touchdowns on 19 possessions and didn’t score touchdowns on only nine. And it could have been worse! Baylor missed two field goals and threw an interception at the WVU 42, and WVU missed a field goal itself. With better place-kicking, this game would have reached 140 points. But the 133 combined points were more than 68 FBS teams have scored so far this season. Absurd. And exhausting.

West Virginia blog The Smoking Musket put the focus on the defense, which gave up almost as much as their offense put up. Fortunately for them, they doubt that they’ll face another offense like the one Baylor showed any time soon:

Baylor blog Our Daily Bears took the same approach, noting that the offense was as fantastic as it could be but the defense was leaving way too much to be desired:

Joining us is Baylor’s beloved mascot*, Litigiously Hibernating Preacher Bear.

* That is not Baylor’s beloved mascot.

Florence had touchdown passes of seven, eight, 37, 65, 67 yards while also rushing for a touchdown. Smith threw touchdown passes of two, seven, 20, 39, 45, 47, 52, and 87 yards to just outpace Florence and Baylor. It was an outstanding offensive fireworks show that also highlighted an appalling lack of defense.

The teams were deadlocked, 35-35, at halftime. They went back-and-forth for the first two quarters, as neither team led by more than a touchdown at any point. That changed in the third quarter, when the Mountaineers scored 21 unanswered points to begin the second half. Of course, that didn’t last for long, as the Bears came storming back to get to within a score shortly after the start of the fourth quarter.

West Virginia went back up by two scores on two different occasions in the final quarter, but Baylor answered each time. The Mountaineers were ultimately able to run out the clock on their last possession, as the Bears elected to kick deep after their final touchdown. Their defense, of course, was unable to keep West Virginia from getting a couple of first downs to close things out.

West Virginia and Baylor combined for 133 points in a single game on Saturday, almost setting a new record for a college football game between two FBS opponents. The record was more than in reach: The Mountaineers elected to kneel on the ball inside the Baylor 35-yard-line as time expired, but one more score from QB Geno Smith would’ve truly been one for the record books. Instead, the record still belongs to Navy and North Texas in 2007, in a 74-62 Navy win.

More gaudy fun fact stats? More gaudy fun fact stats:

Also, from Brian Floyd:

GHAWWWWWWWWD

Woods finished with 114 yards on the day, ranking him a distant third among Mountaineers receivers.

Midway through the third quarter, Baylor and West Virginia have combined for 84 points. They had 70 at the half, and neither defense looks too interested in putting up a fight. Add it all up and you’ve got ridiculous stat lines that are sure to grow to even more ridiculous levels before this game is over.

The game isn’t out of reach by any means, meaning there’s no reason for Dana Holgorsen to take his foot off the gas (as if he would anyway). Everyone just sit back and watch the show.

Is color-coordination a Big 12 thing? Was this some kind of “we belong, honest!” initiative from West Virginia on the day of their first conference game as a B12 member? Whatever the motive, we approve of the blue/gold checkerboard* initiative in Morgantown:

What’s unacceptable is the fact that clearly no one in the league office took the chance to haze WVU as newcomers by requesting zebra stripes (“Seriously y’all, it’s a thing. We’ve been making Iowa State do it for years”). In a stadium that encourages allows alcohol consumption, that would surely be a feat.

Can’t really blame West Virginia here. They’ve been celebrating enough today (as has Baylor) that one was bound to go wrong. Down goes Tavon Austin!

Have a look for yourself, but keep in mind the blue line isn’t official, and is just FOX’s best estimation of where the line is:

Going by the line, he appears to have executed a perfect handball shot. Remember handball? The internet loved that sport.

West Virginia comes in as one of the more high-flying squads in the country thanks to Heisman-hopeful Geno Smith. The No. 9 Mountaineers rank third in the country with 370 passing yards per game, helping to explain why they average 47.3 points per contest.

Baylor on the other hand has played some of the highest-scoring games of the year. The Bears are 3-0 despite giving up 24, 23 and 42 points in their games.