Biggest Thursday ever: Stanford owns the Ducks, Baylor yet to be stopped

Oregon and Stanford traded punts to open the game, but things started to get interesting when Bralon Addison’s long punt return gave Oregon a short field in Stanford territory.

Through one quarter, the Stanford defense has held Oregon to just 57 total yards on 18 plays.

And it fits, pedigree-wise! Bell’s dad, Mark, was a defensive end with the Seahawks and Chiefs, and his uncle, Mike, was also a defensive end with the Chiefs.

Bell was a highly-touted recruit coming out of Kansas, and made a name for himself as a short-yardage rusher over his first two season with the Sooners, scoring an astounding 24 touchdowns over his freshman and sophomore campaigns.

It was quick, as everything Baylor does is, but it was certainly not painless.

Baylor won the game 73-42 after putting on the brakes in the second half. At halftime the score was 56-14, and the Bears had put up 617 yards of total offense (the game ended with Baylor putting up a Big 12-record 864 total yards).

You might remember Oregon’s near-disaster with Willie Lyles, the scouting analyst it paid $25,000 a few years back and who just may have steered some recruits, like one five-star Lache Seastrunk, back to Oregon. The NCAA didn’t come down hard on Oregon, but Chip Kelly ended up fleeing for the NFL, and Seastrunk promptly transferred to Baylor—the nearest BCS school to his hometown of Temple, TX.

If you don’t watch Baylor games, all you see of the team is the highlights, and the highlights usually involve some wide receiver running wide open down the field, catching the ball and strolling into the end zone. Indeed, this is the top passing offense in the nation. But it’s also an offense that rushes for over 300 yards per game (no, seriously) and a large reason for that is the play of Seastrunk. He’s been a game-changer, even for the Baylor offense that was electric without him.