Iowa State gave Baylor the annual Ames scare, but the Bears escaped

Maybe Baylor’s first mistake was getting off the bus at the stadium. Perhaps the Bears should have demanded the game be played in Waco, so as to ensure an easier result.

Look, things get weird in Ames

Every season, it seems like Iowa State gets close to getting a good team at home. Some sleepy ranked squad waltzes into Ames thinking they’ll just enjoy the sights around Jack Trice Stadium and walk out with an easy victory. Oftentimes, it is mostly just a scare, and that’s what Baylor’s 45-42 win over Iowa State Saturday was. In the process, Matt Campbell gets denied a signature win early in his tenure, and any playoff hopes the Bears had are still alive.

A brief recent history of close home games involving the Cyclones and ranked teams:

At halftime during a game on ESPN, former Texas coach Mack Brown talked about the unique challenge of playing the Cyclones on the road: “Grass is high, the wind is blowing, ya stay [45 minutes away] in Des Moines.”

All in all, it’s just not a great time to head to Iowa State’s house ranked.

Wanna sum up the Bears’ performance through three quarters?

Then the Bears got their act together

Iowa State absolutely showed up ready to play this game. On their first seven drives of the game, the Cyclones scored six touchdowns. The only time they didn’t was the end of the first half.

Baylor was down 21-7 in the early stages of the second quarter, but when the Bears finally picked themselves up off of the mat and started playing, the Cyclones had counter punches for each Baylor haymaker. Every time Baylor got its deficit to a touchdown, Iowa State kept them at an arm’s’ length and extended the lead to 14 points. But when Baylor tied the game up mid-way through the fourth quarter the tide seemed effectively turned and the Bears seemed firmly in control.

This was unquestionably a ground attack for Baylor. Seth Russell was only 12-22 for 178 yards through the air. Baylor rushed for 469 yards.

Shock Linwood led the group, with 237 yards on 25 carries. Not to be outdone, Terrence Williams chipped in 126 yards on 16 carries. And what Russell didn’t do through the air he made up for on the ground with 88 yards of his own on 19 carries with two touchdowns.

Moving forward, who knows what’ll happen to Baylor?

With backloaded schedules in the last four years, Baylor starting seasons undefeated isn’t rare. But they have not finished that way. 9-0 in 2013 became a 2-2 finish. 6-0 in 2014 turned into 5-2 down the stretch. 8-0 in 2015 had a 2-3 sputter coming home.

Now the Bears are 5-0 with TCU and Oklahoma (on the road) left on the schedule. Will Baylor crumble again as the heat gets turned up? Or will these Bears be able to do what those who came before could not?