By John Werner

Tribune-Herald staff writer

When the Baylor football players walked through the crowd before Saturday’s kickoff, it was clear this wasn’t going to be just any old day at Floyd Casey Stadium.

There was a different energy in the air. The old stadium was alive.

Baylor and Missouri gave the fans a homecoming to remember.

The No. 14 Tigers pulled out a 31-28 win when Jeff Wolfert nailed a 34-yard field goal with 2:31 left in the game, but the 35,142 fans and both teams were drained after a dramatic afternoon of football.

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Baylor vs. Missouri

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The Bears were kicking themselves because they knew they missed a great shot at upsetting a ranked team. But what a show it was.

“We had a great home crowd and we fought our butts off for 60 minutes,” Baylor safety Jordan Lake said. “But we’ve got to learn to do the little things it takes to win. The only people who stopped us were ourselves. Losing this game is a tough pill to swallow.”

Baylor coach Art Briles called the game “emotional and devastating,” but was proud of the way his team rallied from a 21-7 halftime deficit to take Missouri to the wire.

“When our energy and tempo are good and we are playing at fast tilt, we are a good football team,” Briles said. “We can play with anybody in the country. It doesn’t matter what number is in front of your name. We can play with you and we have a chance to beat you.”

The Bears usually enter the field from their locker room through the tunnel, but this time they walked through the crowd on the press box side. That’s all it took to get the fans emotionally involved from the opening kickoff.

“Baylor had been doing the same thing for 30-plus years,” Briles said. “This is homecoming, and I thought this would be a good chance for the fans to associate with the players. Our crowd did a great job of being a home crowd today. This is the best home crowd we’ve had.”

Lake nearly saves day

Baylor (3-6, 1-4) and Missouri (7-2, 3-2) kept the fans bolted to their seats until the end. Taking the ball at their own 10 in the fourth quarter, the Tigers drove 75 yards to set up Wolfert’s go-ahead field goal.

Lake almost ended the drive when he stepped in front of Chase Daniel’s pass to Tommy Saunders on third-and-four at Baylor’s 15.

“If I had intercepted the pass, it would have been six points,” Lake said. “We would have won the game. But the ball tailed off and I couldn’t get under it.”

The Bears had one last chance to win the game. But facing third-and-eight at his own 23, freshman quarterback Robert Griffin threw his first interception of the season when Brock Christopher stepped in front of Kendall Wright at the 34 with 1:40 remaining.

It ended Griffin’s NCAA-record streak of 209 straight passes without an interception to open his career.

“Their linebacker made a good play, but I’m the only one to blame,” Griffin said. “For me to throw an interception when we have a chance to win is unacceptable.”

Hurting DBs get it done

It was a dazzling offensive show by both teams. Griffin hit 26 of 35 passes for 283 yards and two touchdowns, and also ran for 33 yards and a score. Jay Finley rushed for 73 yards and caught three passes for 53 yards and a touchdown.

Facing a banged-up Baylor secondary, Daniel hit 30 of 38 passes for 318 yards and three scores. Hampered by recent injuries, neither Antareis Bryan nor Dwain Crawford saw time at cornerback for the Bears. But the Bears still managed to intercept two passes and force a fumble.

“I always tell my players that as long as you keep an underdog in the game, the stronger they get,” Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said. “I think you give Baylor an awful lot of credit, especially their defense, their offense and their fans. At the end of the game, they sounded like there were 100,000 people in that place.”

Trailing 21-7 at halftime, the Bears gambled twice on fourth-down plays on their first drive of the second half. On fourth-and-two at their own 39, Griffin ran for four yards.

Facing fourth-and-one at Missouri’s 48, Griffin stiff-armed Missouri defensive end Stryker Sulak and exploded around left end for 34 yards.

“I’m not going to chew out Coach Briles if he sends in the punting team,” Griffin said. “But as a player, you like going for it on fourth down. It’s a momentum thing when you get it.”

Griffin’s run set up a Ray Sims’ two-yard touchdown run to cut Missouri’s lead to 21-14 with 9:36 left in the third quarter.

On their next drive, the Bears converted another fourth down when Griffin hit Thomas White for 14 yards to Missouri’s 43.

Griffin finished off the drive by finding Brad Taylor for a 16-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 21 with 3:39 remaining in the third quarter. Taylor’s first touchdown of the season ended a 66-yard drive.

“We didn’t feel they could stop us,” said White, who caught a team-high seven passes for 58 yards. “We have a lot of weapons. When we all get involved, it makes us hard to defend.”

The Tigers responded with a 76-yard drive that ended with Daniel’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Chase Coffman, who got one foot down in the left corner of the end zone on the first play of the fourth quarter.

But the Bears stormed back with an 80-yard drive highlighted by Griffin’s 36-yard touchdown pass to Finley to tie the game at 28 with 9:54 remaining.

Tigers jump on Bears

The Bears had a chance to take the lead after Lake intercepted Daniel’s pass at Baylor’s 48. The Bears planned to go for it on fourth-and-four, but guard James Barnard was called for a false start. The Bears punted on fourth-and-nine, and Missouri responded with a 75-yard drive to the 10 to set up the winning field goal.

The Tigers went into halftime with a 14-point lead, but they could have easily been up by more.

Baylor linebacker Joe Pawelek’s interception in the end zone killed one drive, while Jake La Mar’s fumble recovery stopped another one.

With Daniel hitting six of seven passes for 50 yards, Missouri moved 65 yards for a touchdown on its first drive. Daniel found Coffman for a three-yard touchdown pass.

The Tigers glided 80 yards for a touchdown on their second drive with Daniel finishing it off with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Saunders over the middle.

With Missouri threatening to take a 21-0 lead, Pawelek stepped in front of Daniel’s pass over the middle on third-and-eight to stop the drive on the first play of the second quarter.

“That turnover was huge because we had trouble stopping them in the first quarter,” Pawelek said.

“They probably thought we were going to roll over,” Griffin said. “But we know what we have and we came back and fought. I don’t believe in moral victories, but we showed that we come to play every day.”

jwerner@wacotrib.com

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