The No. 11 Utah Utes beat the Baylor Bears, 23-12, on Saturday afternoon at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The game was not as close as the score indicated, as the Utes (2-0) dominated from start to finish, only allowing two significant offensive plays to the Bears (1-1). But, Utah did lose their starting quarterback once again, this time to an apparent hand injury.
Baylor quarterback Dequan Finn also hurt his hand during the game, but he was able to carry on. It didn’t matter much, as he and the Bears were unable to get anything going.
Here are three thoughts on the game.
Utah’s Dominating Defense
After Baylor won its cupcake game against Tarleton last Saturday, 45-3, the open question was how the Bears’ offense would fare against Utah?
Ugh.
The first half was awful. Baylor gained 48 yards and turned the ball over on a fumble. The Bears failed to convert a third down in seven tries. Finn threw for 23 yards. Baylor had 28 total plays. The Bears managed a field goal on their final drive of the first half.
It took a Dawson Pendergrass 46-yard run on Baylor’s second possession to finally get the Bears going offensively. But it ended in a field goal. The other big play was Josh Cameron’s 47-yard touchdown reception, the first of his college career.
Otherwise, the Bears couldn’t get much done. Baylor finished with 223 total yards, 4-of-16 on third down and allowed three sacks and eight tackles for loss.
The Bears had the ball down 11 with 3:40 left. The drive went nowhere. The Utah defense made a big first half stand up.
The Rising Situation
Utah quarterback Cam Rising was darned near perfect for the Utes. He was 8-for-14 for 92 yards and two touchdown passes. You know, the usual for a quarterback of his experience and caliber.
Well, late in the second quarter things changed. Rising was flushed out of the pocket toward the Baylor sideline and he was forced out of bounds so hard that he slammed into the hydration table on the Bears’ sideline.
He got up, but not unscathed. As he walked back to the huddle he was shaking his right hand. Trainers took him to the locker room before the end of the first half. When the Utes returned, he did not. True freshman Isaac Wilson had the keys to the offense.
Two possessions later, Rising was in street clothes on the sideline with the two middle fingers on his right hand taped up.
There’s a big difference between a 25-year-old sixth-year quarterback and an 18-year-old true freshman and, at times, that difference was stark. But Isaac Wilson avoided mistakes and the Utes running game came through to eat some clock in the fourth quarter. It certainly wasn’t perfect, but the Utes stayed undefeated.
The Jury’s Out on Baylor
In week one the Bears dominated Tarleton. The Bears have made it a habit of playing a Texas-based FCS team in its opener and get a “happy meal” win. Sure, Baylor felt good about it. But what did it really tell you about the Bears?
This week’s game showed just how much room the Bears have to improve on both sides of the ball.
Yes, Baylor’s defense held the Utes just under 300 yards. But the second half featured a freshman quarterback for Utah and Baylor’s defense still managed just two sacks and three tackles for loss.
Yes, Utah’s defense was terrific, but Baylor must find a way to gain more than the 223 total yards it did on Saturday. Finn was stymied at every turn, aside from the touchdown pass. He had 111 yards passing on, more importantly, 9-of-22 passing. He wasn’t efficient and in many cases he was on the run due to protection breakdowns.
The running game Baylor tends to rely on rushed for 112 yards. But, outside of Pendergrass’ 46-yard burst, in the third quarter, the unit averaged fewer than two yards per carry.
You can only give the Utah defense so much credit. At some point, it becomes a Baylor problem. And the Bears had far more problems on Saturday than solutions.
The good news is there is a lot of room for improvement. But can Baylor bridge that gap? Because, right now, that gap feels like a canyon.
