Baylor Bears Brought Defensive Muscle Back Against Kansas
Many people say they have the urge to but have you ever actually tried running through a brick wall? That is how the Kansas Jayhawks' run game must have felt after Saturday's 35-23 loss to the Baylor Bears.
Kansas mustered up a measly 56 rushing yards against the Bears in a real Big 12 football game that lasted four full quarters. After giving up 36 and 43 points in their last two games, the Bears were getting back to their roots on Homecoming weekend.
Going into the game, the Jayhawks had averaged about 200 yards a game on the ground as the team's offense had carried them to a 5-0 start. The 2.5 yards a carry they managed Saturday was a huge reason why they dropped their third straight game this season and fell to the Bears for the 13th season in a row.
"Solve all your problems with aggression," linebacker Dillon Doyle said. "That's what we did."
The Bears were certainly letting out a ton of frustration defensively, not only stuffing the run but forcing some turnovers, something they have really struggled with this year. Baylor forced a fumble on Kansas' first possession and then another one later in the first half, the same amount of turnovers they had forced in the previous two games.
The defensive intensity was there, but the performance wasn't perfect. The Jayhawks scored 20 straight points in the second half, but the mark on the defense is a little misleading. Due to turnovers, the Bears really only looked bad on one series, where Kansas went 93 yards and scored to cut the deficit to five.
But they finished, something they haven't exactly nailed so far this year.
"We have learned some hard lessons and taken losses," coach Dave Aranda said of his team's resiliency. "This is the first time we have done it and can say we have won."
Maybe the most credit goes to nose tackle Siaki Ika. I called out the entire defensive line last week, and the push was solid Saturday, but I thought Ika really shined. You won't see it on the stat sheet, but he bullied the Jayhawk linemen and just owned the middle of the field and I thought he was stellar.
The Bears will need more performances like this one from both their lines if they want to stay in the hunt for this topsy-turvy Big 12 race.
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