Baylor Upset at West Virginia, Blake Shapen Injured
Baylor Bears football lost a shootout against West Virginia, 43-40, following quarterback Blake Shapen leaving in the third quarter after a targeting.
The Bears have never won in Morgantown, and that did not change this week. What's more, Shapen left the game in the third quarter after a clear targeting call, and the keys were turned over to Kyron Drones.
The redshirt freshman Drones entered a tight game without any significant playing time this season, and he finished with 95 yards and a score. He did enough for Baylor to stay in the game, but the defense was nowhere to be found.
Honing in on the first half, Baylor's offense circa 2014 returned. Shapen threw for 294 yards. Holmes had four receptions for 157 yards and a score. The Bears' secondary allowed just 109 passing yards. And that was all in the opening 30 minutes.
That's the best first half Baylor has had against a power-five team since... last season's 45-20 win over West Virginia.
Baylor did trail 7-0 to start this one, though. That was followed up by scoring 24 points and allowing just three points defensively in the remainder of the half. The only thing that kept West Virginia close was this:
With a costly turnover keeping things close, the Bears led just 24-17 at the break.
The second half got weird fast. As if there wasn't enough offense in the first two quarters, both teams turned the defense off. West Virginia scored. Baylor scored. You on your couch probably scored a point or two in this one.
This play, though, stood out amongst the others. A targeting call against West Virginia took Baylor's starting quarterback out of the game for good.
Drones would enter the game and lead Baylor to a handful of scores, but a late interception would surely mar his night... Until Baylor did the exact same thing to JT Daniels on the next play.
That at least made things interesting. John Mayers would hit a 44-yard field goal to tie the game at 40 apiece, but West Virginia had plenty of time to drive the field.
That's exactly what the Mountaineers did. A 22-yard field goal with under a minute to go iced the game. Drones just wasn't ready to drive the team the length of the field in crunch time.
The Bears fell 43-40 and will now have an extended week to prepare for Kansas in Waco next Saturday.
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