For reasons that were definitely not related to Art Briles, Baylor players wore black against TCU on Saturday. They left with black eyes.
The hated Horned Frogs jumped all over Baylor, handing the 17th-ranked Bears their second straight loss in a 62-22 beatdown.
The loss comes after a tumultuous week where the school was a subject of a 60 Minutes Sports expose and Briles’s remaining assistant coaches jointly released a statement defending their former head coach. Now at 6-2 (2-2 Big 12), the Bears could slide into a total free fall with a trip to No. 14 Oklahoma waiting next week.
As for today’s game, it opened like so many Baylor games have in recent years -- with the Bears scoring, quickly. Baylor accepted the ball to open the game and scored two plays later, when Seth Russell found Ishmael Zamora for an 81-yard catch-and-dash.
The good vibes didn’t last, though.
Kenny Hill tied the game for TCU just three plays later on a 37-yard strike to Taj Williams, and the Frogs pulled away for good not long after that. Following a 26-yard Brandon Hatfield field goal to give the Frogs a lead they would not relinquish, TCU mounted consecutive 88- and 77-yard drives, each punctuated by Kyle Hicks scoring jaunts, then moved the game to blowout territory when Ranthony Texada stepped in front of a Russell pass and raced it 28 yards for a touchdown at the 10:28 mark of the second quarter, staking the Frogs to a 31-7 lead.
Baylor stopped the bleeding with a 19-play, 97-yard marathon capped by a 2-yard Russell keeper with 2:29 remaining in the frame, but TCU (5-4, 3-3 Big 12) immediately answered with another Hicks touchdown with just seven seconds left before the break.
The second half opened the way the first half ended -- another long TCU drive punctuated by another Hicks rush. This one covered 95 yards in only five plays, the last of which traveled 18 yards and gave Hicks his fourth score of the day. Hicks’s fifth score came from three yards out at the 9:53 mark of the fourth quarter, ending his day with 26 carries for 192 yards -- the most by a Frog ball-carrier since the program joined the Big 12 -- and five touchdowns. Sewo Olonilua gave TCU an even half-dozen touchdown runs when he bruised in from 26 yards out with 3:48 remaining.
For his part, Hill was also fantastic. He completed 17-of-30 passes for 244 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions while adding 11 carries for 85 yards.
As a team, TCU rushed 58 times for 428 yards -- 7.4 per carry -- and six touchdowns.
Russell completed 20-of-36 passes for 275 yards with a score and a pick-six. Remove the 81-yard score and Russell averaged an un-Baylor-like 5.54 yards per attempted, while four Bears rushers mustered only 133 yards on 45 carries.
The win gives TCU a 2-game winning streak over their longtime rival. In a series dating back to 1899, this hotly-contested series of holy rivals now stands at 53-52-7 in favor of the Frogs.