So following four intense, much-hyped battles in as many weeks, the now-No. 5 Longhorns faced a different challenge Saturday at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium - a long-struggling Baylor program that seems to be on its way up behind star quarterback Robert Griffin.
True freshman and Copperas Cove product Griffin showed flashes of his dynamic talent, but he and the Bears still weren’t much of a match for fourth-year junior Colt McCoy and Texas.
Although Griffin ran for a short touchdown and threw for a long one to create a 14-14 second-quarter tie, McCoy fired five TD passes and Texas’ defense contained Griffin to 174 yards total offense as the Longhorns pulled away to blast the Bears 45-21 in front of 97,715 fans.
With its 11th straight win over Baylor, Texas moved to 9-1 overall and 5-1 in the Big 12 Conference to remain in the hunt for a South Division title and a second national championship in four years.
The Longhorns regrouped after rallying from a huge deficit at now-No. 2 Texas Tech to take a late lead, only to see the Red Raiders prevail 39-33 on a touchdown pass with one second left.
“I’m really proud of our guys for bouncing back and I’m proud of the way they played,” said Texas coach Mack Brown, whose team took the lead for good when Ryan Palmer made a rare interception of Griffin and returned it 22 yards for a second-quarter TD. “Baylor is a much-improved team. Overall I felt like our team played well and we dominated the second half. I’m excited to be sitting here at 9-1.”
Asked about getting his players ready for a sub-.500 squad after four straight showdown games, Brown conceded that it wasn’t an easy task.
“It was hard because we didn’t play as well as we needed to in the first half last week, so you need to go back to work - but you’re tired,” he said. “Our guys have been through a tough stretch. You want to get that taste out of your mouth after you’re No. 1 in the country and you lose in the last second.”
Added Texas senior defensive tackle Roy Miller (Killeen Shoemaker), who sacked Griffin twice: “It wasn’t different preparing as far as players. The coaches, you could tell they had a different look at it. But like Coach (defensive coordinator Will) Muschamp always says, you’ve got to have that hard head every day.”
After getting edged 31-28 by Missouri last week, Baylor and first-year coach Art Briles dropped to 3-7, 1-5 and fell out of contention for a bowl game. Griffin had a 63-yard sprint among his game-best 101 rushing yards, but aside from his 55-yard TD strike to Kendall Wright he was 5-of-18 passing for 16 yards.
“It hurts,” Baylor safety Jordan Lake said. “The one thing we wanted to change this year is we wanted to go to a bowl. But we’ve got two games left with two big in-state rivals (Texas A&M, Tech). We’ll fight hard and try to win both of those.”
Briles’ team certainly was right in the game when Griffin’s 55-yard touchdown pass to Wright tied it 14-14 nine minutes before halftime. The Bears got the ball right back, but Griffin threw only his second college pick and Palmer’s TD return turned it in Texas’ favor for good.
“Yeah, that’s a tough deal. You just have to play pretty much error-free,” Briles said. “You’ve got to give Texas a lot of credit. They were playing in a very controlled fashion on their home field.
“Our guys are pretty mature,” he added. “On the road, you’ve just got to rally together. They had a great crowd . . . but it certainly was not a factor as far as us not doing what we needed to do.”
The first of McCoy’s two interceptions set up Baylor’s first score, but he kept himself in the Heisman Trophy hunt by completing 26 of 37 passes for 300 yards and five touchdowns, one TD off his single-game record against Baylor in 2006.
McCoy hit Quan Cosby eight times for 111 yards, including scores of 35 and 26 yards, and Temple native Jordan Shipley caught six passes for 81 yards and a 15-yard TD.
“There are a lot of positives we can take away from this, because it’s a win,” McCoy said. “That got us back on track.”
And Texas got on track early, with McCoy capping the drive by rolling right and lofting a 35-yard touchdown pass to Cosby over an outstretched Lake.
On their second drive, the Longhorns used McCoy’s precise mid-range passes to march 69 yards before McCoy threw to little-used tight end Greg Smith for a 1-yard TD to make it 14-0 with 10½ minutes gone.
The Bears got going by taking advantage of a McCoy mistake. He was drilled as he threw down the middle, and Krys Buerck made the interception near midfield and returned it to the Texas 6-yard line.
Then on fourth-and-goal at the 1, world-class hurdler Griffin jumped across the goal line on a keeper for a 14-7 game two minutes into the second quarter.
Baylor got the ball right back, and Wright’s 34-yard run and Griffin’s 17-yard dash set up Griffin’s perfectly thrown 55-yard strike to Wright to get the Bears even at 14-14 nine minutes before the break.
“We were on our way,” Baylor offensive tackle Jason Smith said. “Once you get momentum, you’ve got to take advantage of it.”
However, the Bears didn’t.
They got the ball back after a Texas punt, but Griffin’s pass glanced off Wright’s hands and into those of Palmer at Baylor’s 22 before he raced in for the go-ahead TD and a 21-14 lead.
“I thought the Ryan Palmer interception turned the game,” Brown said.
Miller sacked Griffin for a 16-yard loss, then Texas got the ball back and made it 28-14 when McCoy fired a 26-yard scoring pass to Cosby two minutes before halftime.
Griffin and Baylor went three-and-out on their first two possessions of the second half, and the Longhorns buried the Bears as McCoy threw third-quarter TD passes of 40 and 15 yards to Brandon Collins and Shipley, respectively.
Despite Griffin’s rough second half, Brown saw enough to praise Baylor’s freshman leader.
“Robert Griffin is as advertised,” he said. “He’s really a good football player and he handles himself well.”
NOTES: Foswhitt Whittaker and Vondrell McGee complemented Texas’ passing attack by rushing for a combined 132 yards on 25 carries. . . . Third- and fourth-down conversions proved crucial. The Longhorns were a combined 11-of-19; the Bears were only 3-for-16. . . . Texas will play at Kansas next Saturday, while Baylor will host Texas A&M.
