{"id":51628,"date":"2023-09-24T12:00:10","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T16:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=51628"},"modified":"2025-09-13T15:54:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:54:48","slug":"longhorns-blast-baylor-38-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/09\/24\/longhorns-blast-baylor-38-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Longhorns Blast Baylor, 38-6"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few people expected Texas to blast Baylor so convincingly.\u00a0 Texas opened its final season in the Big 12 with a 38-6 rout over the rival Bears, bringing an end to a regular-season series that began in 1901. \u00a0The Longhorns (4-0, 1-0) finally got off to the fast start that had eluded them so far this season.\u00a0 They cranked up the offense early in the game and Baylor (1-3, 0-1) had no answers.\u00a0 The Texas defense continued its run of dominating performances.<\/p>\n

The game plan under Texas offensive coordinator Kyle Flood<\/strong> was to play smash-mouth football from the opening whistle.\u00a0 The offense executed the plan from the start and took Baylor\u2019s fans out of the game.\u00a0 It was a Week Four<\/a> matchup that fizzled right in front of their disbelieving eyes.\u00a0 There were no fourth-quarter heroics required this week of the Longhorns.\u00a0 It was a change of pace for Texas after pulling away from Wyoming late last week and the hard-fought win against Alabama the week before.<\/p>\n

The Sack Exchange<\/h3>\n

The Longhorns\u2019 defense got off to a roaring start in the first series when linebacker Jett Bush<\/a> and lineman Byron Murphy<\/a> each had a sack against backup Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson<\/strong>.\u00a0 Lineman Vernon Broughton<\/a> quickly got into the act with another Robertson sack early in the first quarter.\u00a0 Murphy finished the game with two sacks and edge rusher Justice Finkley<\/a> also got to the quarterback.<\/p>\n

Robertson was under siege throughout the game.\u00a0 The sophomore transfer from Mississippi State was sacked five times and held to 203 yards on 20-of-35 passing.\u00a0 The Texas defense held Baylor without a touchdown, and Longhorns linebacker Jaylan Ford<\/a> intercepted a pass for his second pickoff of the season.<\/p>\n

Jonathon Brooks Is the Real Deal<\/h3>\n

The Texas running game that finally came to life the week prior against Wyoming showed up again.\u00a0 Jonathon Brooks<\/a>, fresh off his 164 yards on the ground against the Cowboys, kick-started the Longhorns\u2019 offense with a 40-yard scoring romp.\u00a0 Brooks ran the ball nine times for 63 yards and two scores in the first half as Texas got off to a fast start.<\/p>\n

Brooks tallied 106 yards on 18 carries with no fumbles.\u00a0 Texas lost two of the three fumbles it committed against Baylor.\u00a0 Brooks has solidified his place as the team\u2019s top running back with his productivity and ball security.<\/p>\n

Texas Offense Makes an Appearance<\/h3>\n

The Texas offense scored an average of 13 points in the first half during its first three games.\u00a0 It came out on the attack against Baylor and led 28-6 at halftime. Quarterback Quinn Ewers<\/a> hit seven different receivers in the first half while connecting on 11 of 14 passes for 122 yards.\u00a0 He also ran for a 29-yard touchdown.\u00a0 Ewers finished the game with 293 yards and a touchdown on 18-of-23 passing.<\/p>\n

Tight end Ja\u2019Tavion Sanders<\/a> was the secret weapon this week for Texas.\u00a0 He led all receivers with five catches for 110 yards.\u00a0 Backup Gunnar Helm<\/a> caught two passes for 37 yards and seems to be working himself more into the game plan as the season progresses.<\/p>\n

Lockdown Defense<\/h3>\n

Texas has held opponents to 12.5 points a game through the first month of the season.\u00a0 The Longhorns completely shut down the Baylor running game.\u00a0 The Bears managed just 60 yards on 31 attempts.\u00a0 Their leading rusher was backup quarterback RJ Martinez<\/strong>, who entered in the fourth quarter and ran three times for 22 yards.\u00a0 The most productive Baylor running back was Dawson Pendergrass<\/strong> with 21 yards on six carries.<\/p>\n

Baylor converted only five of 18 third-down attempts.\u00a0 Baylor\u2019s offense simply could not stay on the field.\u00a0 Ford led the Longhorns with eight tackles, while freshman linebacker Anthony Hill<\/a> turned in another solid game with six tackles.<\/p>\n

The Texas defense is shaping up as the best to come along since 2009 when the Longhorns went 13-1 and lost to Alabama in the National Championship.\u00a0 Co-defensive coordinators Jeff Choate<\/strong> and Pete Kwiatkowski<\/strong> rotate players liberally along the defensive line and the secondary.<\/p>\n

The Big 12 Meat Grinder Continues<\/h3>\n

Baylor appeared flat in its Big 12 finale against the hated Longhorns.\u00a0 The Bears barely put up a fight while playing before a sold-out home crowd at McLane Stadium.\u00a0 It was mystifying, especially considering Baylor came into the game 2-2 against Texas over the last four years and had not lost at home to the Longhorns since 2017. \u00a0Texas left Waco for the final time with a win and improved its overall record against Baylor to 81-28-4.<\/p>\n

Next up for the Longhorns is Kansas (4-0, 1-0).\u00a0 The Jayhawks are led by quarterback Jalon Daniels<\/strong>, who is ranked 17th nationally in QBR.\u00a0 Kansas will return to Austin next week for the first time since pulling off its 57-56 win in 2021, the year Jayhawks Head Coach Lance Leipold<\/strong> took over the program.<\/p>\n

\"Longhorns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Few people expected Texas to blast Baylor so convincingly.\u00a0 Texas opened its final season in the Big 12 with a 38-6 rout over the rival Bears, bringing an end to a regular-season series that began in 1901. \u00a0The Longhorns (4-0, 1-0) finally got off to the fast start that had eluded them so far this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4486,"featured_media":51640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,35576],"tags":[4780,10713,204],"class_list":["post-51628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-big12","category-texas-longhorns","tag-big-12-football","tag-kyle-ford","tag-texas-longhorns"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4486"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79471,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51628\/revisions\/79471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}