Sunday, September 09, 2007
By Jerry Hill
Tribune-Herald assistant sports editor
When Guy Morriss decided to switch to the spread offense last year, he had a certain picture in his mind.
That picture played out in living color Saturday night as quarterback Blake Szymanski threw for a school-record 412 yards and six touchdowns to lead Baylor to a 42-17 rout of the Rice Owls before a disappointing crowd of 29,107 in the home opener at Floyd Casey Stadium.
- Slide show — Jubilant fans, great game action from the BU win
- Szymanski stellar on record-breaking day
- Goal-line stand highlights tough defensive effort
- Notebook: Defense steps up for 2nd week in a row
- Bear Blog — Reaction to the win
on BU vs. Rice:
“It’s kind of like shooting fish in a barrel when you can stand back there and hold the football,” said Morriss, whose team improved to 1-1 with a split against former Southwest Conference rivals TCU and Rice.
“I don’t think we were as surprised about Blake as maybe some of the people in the stands, because we know what he can do. He did a good job of just relaxing and not trying to press and not feeling like he had to win the game by himself. Just do his job, put the ball on the money and things would take care of itself.”
Rice runs the same 4-2-5 defense that TCU used to completely shut down the Bears last week in a 27-0 dismantling in Fort Worth.
But it’s the same defense in name only.
Instead of taking a nickel-and-dime approach and just keep moving the chains, Szymanski was able to stretch the field with fades and deeper post routes to his receivers.
Five different receivers had catches of 30 yards or longer, including true freshman Krys Buerck’s 44-yarder.
“They were sucking up a little bit (with their safeties),” said Szymanski, who completed 29 of 46 passes in easily his best performance in five starts. “(Against) TCU, we couldn’t get on top that much. They were playing the safeties really deep. (Offensive coordinator Lee Hays) made some good calls, and we ended up taking advantage of those.”
The Bears rolled up 320 yards in the first half alone and finished with 521 — the best in Morriss’ five seasons and the most since a 546-yard day in a 50-12 win over I-AA Samford in 2002.
In the same vein that Rice’s defense looked nothing like TCU’s dominating unit, Szymanski appeared to be a different quarterback than the one that had thrown nine interceptions in his previous four starts.
But it started with the protection up front from a revamped line that had junior Dan Gay making his first start at left tackle and Chad Smith back at his familiar left guard spot.
“It always starts with them, and they know that,” Szymanski said. “I had a ton of time back there. And when that happens, you see what happens. Anytime they can set the tone like that, it’s going to allow us to get down the field and make plays.”
That started on the opening drive, when the Bears clicked off 75 yards in nine plays and scored on a 16-yard TD strike from Szymanski to inside receiver Justin Akers.
When the play was reviewed and upheld to make sure that Akers had possession, a jubilant Morriss sprinted the length of the field, pumping his fist.
“It’s easy to get excited when we’re moving the ball and doing things correctly and scoring like that,” Morriss said.
Szymanski was even more on target on the second series, connecting on six of nine passes and spreading the ball around to five different receivers on a 77-yard scoring drive.
Akers, who fumbled away Baylor’s best scoring opportunity against TCU, hauled in his second touchdown of the night and his career on a nine-yarder in the right corner of the end zone.
It took Rice all of 44 seconds to answer. After hooking up with all-American Jaret Dillard for a 51-yard pass, quarterback Chase Clement finished the three-play drive with a 14-yard TD run on an option around the right end.
Instead of a defensive struggle, the game was turning into a track meet.
Szymanski added a 24-yard touchdown strike to Brad Taylor to cap off the first-quarter scoring and then finished off an incredible 4-for-4 start with a four-yard pass to running back Brandon Whitaker for a 28-7 lead with 11 minutes still left in the half.
The Owls (0-2) had a golden opportunity to take some momentum into halftime when Marcus Knox recovered punt returner Joe Bennett’s fumble inside the 5-yard line.
But on fourth-and-goal from the 1, a swarm of defenders led by Geoff Nelson, Antonio Jones and Joe Pawelek stopped running back Justin Hill short of the end zone.
“I think that took some wind out of them,” Morriss said. “We challenged the defense this week that no matter how many times we turn the ball over, they’ve got to go out there and throw up a wall and keep the offense out of the end zone. And they did a great job on that particular drive.”
Coming out in the second half, Rice struck first on a three-yard option keeper by backup quarterback James Casey, cutting the deficit to 28-14 with 7:30 left in the third quarter.
But reversing a trend from last year, when the Bears gave up three halftime leads, they put it away with two more Szymanski TD passes — a 20-yard slant to Thomas White and 19 to Ernest Smith on a perfectly executed fade.
Szymanski stayed in the game long enough to break Shawn Bell’s single-game records for touchdowns and yards. But more importantly, he picked up his first win.
“We wanted to get that bad taste out of our mouth,” Szymanski said. “We tried to get rid of it coming in on Sunday and Tuesday. But it kind of sticks with you until you actually get that first win. We got that monkey off our back.”
The Bears will host Texas State (1-1), a FCS team coming off a 45-27 loss to Division II Abilene Christian, at 6 p.m. next Saturday.
NOTE: Baylor junior wide receiver Mikail Baker suffered a broken collarbone in the second half and is expected to be out 3-4 weeks.
jhill@wacotrib.com
757-5715
