The Baylor Bears came into their nationally televised matchup against the Oklahoma State Cowboys ready to take on their toughest matchup of the season, but still hopeful for their outside shot at the National Championship. After a poor performance in Stillwater, however, the Bears will instead be hoping just to get a shot at a BCS bowl in general.
Baylor vs. Oklahoma State reactions and highlights: Bears disappoint in Stillwater showdown
Baylor fans retain perspective, however, and see hope for the future.
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Mark Seymour of Our Daily Bears says that while the loss is heart-wrenching, it doesn’t take away from the massive success for Baylor’s program under Art Briles.
Basically every Baylor fan under the age of 40 is feeling an entirely new form of pain tonight: the pain of unmet expectations. Buoyed by dominant performance after dominant performance, we talked ourselves into the idea of New Baylor: the belief thatthis time, the other shoe didn’t have to drop. We could, finally, hold our heads high asBaylor Bears. For some, that’s probably gone after losing by 32 in Stillwater. To be honest, though, if you offered me this, the agony of having your teeth kicked in when you expect to compete, or what we were going through-- never having that expectation to begin with and still getting our teeth kicked in-- I take this. I take this every single time. Because we have the coach we know can bring us to the mountaintop that we’ve given every possible resource to succeed. Should we win out, we still have a chance for the best season in our program’s history and a BCS bowl New Baylor lives on.
Cowboys Ride for Free called the win one of the biggest in Oklahoma State’s history and was jjubilant after the big victory.
Baylor struggled early in the red zone, as Bryce Petty tripped on the five-yard line on his way to a touchdown and Oklahoma State was able to force a fumble right outside of the end zone later in the drive. The Cowboys jumped out to a 35-3 lead heading into the fourth quarter, but Baylor looked to make a comeback, scoring an early touchdown and getting to the goal line again with 10 minutes to play. Then, this happened:
It was the final nail in the Bears' coffin. They later scored to make the score slightly more respectable at 49-17. Bryce Petty threw for 359 yards and two touchdowns, but it was Baylor's ground game that struggled, without both Lache Seastrunk and Glasco Martin. The Bears averaged 2.6 yards per carry, and on defense were utterly unable to contain Clint Chelf, who completed 19 of 25 passes for 370 yards and three touchdowns.
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