Texas has no trouble in rout of Baylor

Some teams have difficulty regrouping when they suffer their first loss of the season.  The Texas Longhorns aren’t one of those teams.  Still smarting from their upset loss to Texas Tech a week ago, Texas took out their frustrations on an overmatched Baylor team en route to a methodical 45-21 dismantling of the Bears.

Longhorns QB Colt McCoy threw two first half interceptions, but more than made up for his miscues with 300 passing yards and 5 TDs on 26/37 passing in only three quarters of play.  The five TD passes were McCoy’s second most ever in one game, just behind his six TD passes against this same Baylor team in 2006.  WR Quan Crosby was the recipient of two of McCoy’s TD passes as he finished with 111 yards receiving a week after getting physically beat up in the loss to the Red Raiders.  After the game, he noted that the loss served as a motivating force for him:

"I don't ever want to feel like I did last week again. Not only getting hurt, but losing. It was important to come out and play like we today."

Longhorns coach Mack Brown was pleased with the performance of his team and his star players:

"You want to get the bad taste out of your mouth. More than anything I felt that Monday, and I know the kids did too."

"Colt played great. I'm impressed with Quan. He didn't practice near as much this week as you would have thought for him to play that well."

The Longhorns appeared as if they’d come out and dominate from the opening bell, scoring two first quarter touchdowns.  Baylor answered with two TDs of their own in the second quarter, tying the score at 14-14 with just over 6 minutes to play in the half.  Texas then responded in kind, with Ryan Palmer returning an interception 22 yards for a TD to give them a lead they’d never relinquish.  QB McCoy hooked up with WR Crosby for the second time right before halftime to push the lead to 28-14 at the break.  From that point, Baylor never seriously challenged and two more McCoy TD passes in the third put the game on ice.

While it wasn’t a perfectly played game by the Longhorns, nor was the opponent particularly formidable (Baylor entered the game with a 3-6 record) Brown was nonetheless pleased with the outcome:

"There are a lot of positives we can take away from this, because it's a win. That got us back on track."

The Longhorns need a lot of things to break in their favor, but they’re still in the hunt for a national title.  They’ll finish their season with a game next Saturday at Kansas, who could be flying under the radar somewhat with their 6-4 record.  They could surprise Texas and provide a challenge as could the Texas A&M Aggies, against whom the Longhorns conclude their schedule.  While Texas A&M is only 4-6, this sort of big rivalry game is notorious for bizarre outcomes.