Oh boy, what a night it was in Dallas for college football. On a night usually filled with high school football in Texas, an intense game between the fourth overall ranked Baylor Bears and the unranked SMU Mustangs took center stage.

Baylor’s high powered offense came out running on all four cylinders. In a matter of four plays, Baylor moved the ball 75 yards and scored a touchdown on the opening drive and went up 7-0. SMU answered right back, with quarterback Matt Davis finding wide receiver Courtland Sutton open for a 46-yard touchdown pass, tying the game back up at seven points apiece. This back and forth scoring continued for the next three drives before SMU punted and Baylor had a 21-14 lead. On the Bears next drive, quarterback Seth Russell started with the ball at Baylor’s 47-yard line and in three plays and two passes, he drove them the length of the field for another touchdown, putting the Bears up 28-14 at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter failed to live up to the intensity of the high-scoring first quarter, but SMU was still able to make up significant ground, scoring a touchdown on their first drive of the quarter that brought the score to within one touchdown. However, no scoring happened after that. Come halftime, Baylor was up 28-21 on SMU and everybody was thinking SMU might have it in them to pull of a huge upset in the first week of the college football season.

However, come the second half, Baylor continued to do what they did best: score. As for SMU, they struggled to get the ball moving. It might not have gotten going early in the second half, but when they did, Baylor could not be stopped. With 4:13 left in the third quarter, Russell found wideout Jade Lee deep for a 22-yard touchdown pass to put Baylor up even more, 35-21. Less than four minutes later and just before the close of the third quarter, Russell found Lee again, this time for a 41-yard touchdown and now Baylor was up 42-21.

Come the fourth quarter, the scoring did not stop for Baylor. Less than two minutes into the fourth quarter Russell was making big plays, finding Corey Coleman for a 57-yard touchdown pass and extending the Bears lead to 49-21. With a little over eight minutes left in the game, Baylor took out their star quarterback since the game was pretty much over, but the scoring still did not stop. Backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham found Chris Platt open on his first pass and hit him 42 yards deep for another touchdown, furthering the lead to 56-21. Finally, the scoring stopped and Baylor walked away victorious.

For Baylor, it was another offensive explosion similar to the ones they had last year. Their offense combined for a total of 723 yards and eight touchdowns. Seth Russell was at the center of it all, throwing for 376 yards, six touchdowns (five passing, one rushing), and one interception. Baylor travels back home to Waco next week to face the Lamar Cardinals.

Looking at SMU, they put up an incredible fight in the first half of the game. However, their defense could not stop Baylor’s high octane offense, while their own offense could not get anything going like they in the first half. Quarterback Matt Davis still did put up 166 yards and throw for two touchdowns in a strong performance, except for the two interceptions. Davis also put on a performance with his feet, rushing for over 100 yards. SMU stays at home next week and plays host to North Texas.

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About the author
Maxwell Rizer
My name is Maxwell Rizer. I am 17, a senior in high school, currently residing in Pennsylvania. I like to watch sports, along with analyzing the statistics, and write about what I see.