‘Horns hang on — UT’s big first half is enough to produce 23-17 upset win over No. 12 Baylor

By Steve Habel/Senior Editor

WACO, Texas — Sometimes the difference between winning and losing football games just comes down to understanding your team’s limitations and taking advantage of the chances you are given.

That was the formula used, and used well, by Texas to upset 12^th-ranked Baylor, 23-17, Saturday at McLane Stadium in the regular-season finale for each team.

The Bears, bloodied but unbowed, will head to their sixth consecutive bowl game while the Longhorns will bus back to Austin and stay there, as everyone around the team tries to figure out how a squad that can beat two of the nation’s best  (Oklahoma and Baylor) couldn’t win enough games to qualify for the postseason.

“I’m still scratching my head [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]about that, too,” Texas coach Charlie Strong said after the game. “It’s all about attitude and preparation and maturity. We weren’t able to bring the same level of intensity to each game, and I don’t know why.”

In this win, the Longhorns (5-7) built an early lead on the foundation of Baylor’s mistakes and the injury to the Bears’ starting quarterback and played well enough in the final moments to walk out of Baylor’s opulent new home with the their first win in the series since 2012.

The stat sheet shows that Baylor, playing with the third-string quarterback (Chris Johnson) as the starter and with a wide receiver or running back behind center after the quarterback was injured, outgained Texas 479-307, with 395 of the Bears’ yards coming on the ground. But the Bears also had four turnovers — the Longhorns had none — and were just 6-of-21 on third- and fourth-down conversions.

UT’s defense set the tone for the game on Baylor’s opening possession, stopping the Bears on fourth–and-1 at the Texas 30-yard line. It took the Longhorns just three plays to take the lead as quarterback Tyrone Swoopes found Caleb Bluiett behind the BU defense and the defensive end-turned-tight end rumbled down the right 57 yards for a touchdown.

The Longhorns used an 11-play, 61-yard drive on their ensuing possession to produce a 23-yard Nick Rose field goal to take a 10-0 advantage. It was nice to get the points but the Longhorns could have had more – Swoopes’ third-down pass in the end zone to John Burt went right through the receiver’s hands.

Later in the quarter Texas freshman safety P.J. Locke hammered Johnson during an option run and forced a fumble that, after a scrum in the pile, was claimed by the Longhorns’ Anthony Wheeler at the BU 33.

An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Baylor gave Texas the ball at the BU 18, and three plays later Swoopes rolled through the Bears’ defense for a nine-yard touchdown run. After Rose’s extra point pushed the Texas lead to 17-0, and with Johnson knocked out of action by Locke’s hit, the game was there for the taking for the Longhorns.

Texas added to its lead with a 53-yard Rose field goal with 2:01 to play in the half, while Baylor kicker Chis Callahan missed twice, from 40 and 53 yards, respectively, allowing the Longhorns to take a 20-0 lead to halftime.

Baylor was completely out of sync in the first half but still had more total yards (205-190) than Texas, more rushing yards (163-97) and more plays (46-37). The difference, however, was that the Bears also had three turnovers while Texas had none.

“We knew the situation with the offense, and at halftime, the defense knew it was up to us to get them good field position,” Baylor defensive end Jamal Palmer said. “We tried to come together, but we just came up a little short.”

The first half belonged to the Longhorns, but the third quarter was owned by Baylor. The Bears, in a brilliant move by coach Art Briles because he didn’t have a genuine quarterback, went to the Wildcat formation, and it allowed the Bears to move 69 yards in eight plays — all runs — before capping the drive with a 20-yard touchdown by Johnny Jefferson that cut the Texas lead to 20-7 with 10:27 to play in the quarter.

On Baylor’s next possession, the Bears mixed things up bit and took 18 plays to drive 82 yards to a 24-yard field goal by Callahan at the 2:47 mark of the third quarter. The Texas lead was down to 20-10 and, suddenly — and perhaps predictably — the Bears were the ones that had the momentum and the control of the game.

Baylor stopped Texas on fourth-down-and-1 at the BU 39 early in the fourth quarter and took over with the short field and all the momentum. Lynx Hawthorne, the Bears’ wide receiver-turned-quarterback, directed BU to a nine-play, 61-yard drive that culminated in his rollout keeper for an eight-yard touchdown with 9:40 to play.

Just like that, Baylor had cut the Texas lead to 20-17 and it looked like the Longhorns, who had everything going their way in the first half, were going to cough up the bit.

But the Longhorns did just enough down the stretch to hold on. They added to their lead with a 37-yard Rose field goal with 3:59 to play that eliminated the chance of overtime — something of which Texas wanted no part — and made Baylor have to score a touchdown to win.

After Rose’s kick, the Bears had two chances to drive to the win: the first ended when Texas’ Poona Ford stripped the ball from Jefferson and fell on it at the Baylor 43. The second, which began with the Bears on their own 4-yard line with no timeouts, ended with the ball on the turf near the UT end zone after being knocked down by safety DeShon Elliott on the game’s final play.

Texas running back Johnathan Gray said after the game that the victory over the Bears will serve as a springboard into next season for the young Longhorns.

“Our guys will be pumped up from this game and it’ll be motivation for next season,” Gray said after playing his final collegiate game. “They play hard, and they’re going to be hungry. You can tell that the younger players have developed some football awareness and are maturing.”