Bryce Petty Has His Heisman Moment in Incredible Comeback Win over TCU

Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty did not play the best game of his career in Saturday's 61-58 comeback win over TCU. But he did play the most important.

With 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter, that did not appear like it would be the case. In fact, it appeared like the opposite would be the case. Petty telegraphed an interception to Marcus Mallet, who jogged into the end zone untouched to give TCU a 58-37 lead.

The obituaries were written with haste:

But Petty didn't allow his team to capsize, leading four frantic scoring drives (three of which went for touchdowns) in the final 11 minutes to steal the win and keep Baylor undefeated. He finished the game with 510 passing yards and six touchdowns against a defense that entered the week ranked No. 4 in the country in opponent QB rating.

In the process, he not only launched Baylor to the top of the Big 12 standings—a place where it controls its own fate with regard to the College Football Playoff—but also registered the most significant "Heisman Moment" of the first seven weeks of the season. No other Heisman contender has done what Petty just did…on the stage in which he did it…against the defense to which he did it…at any point in 2014.

And we might not see anyone do it hereafter.

The first of Baylor's three fourth-quarter touchdown drives did not require that Petty throw a pass.

Four handoffs and 59 seconds were all the Bears needed to drive 45 yards on a short field and get the game within two scores. Petty relied on running backs Shock Linwood and Devin Chafin, his offensive line and the threat of the deep ball he had established in the first three quarters to get the Baylor comeback rolling.

But the next two fourth-quarter touchdown drives required that Petty do the heavy lifting. Both went 90-plus yards in exactly five plays, and neither took more than 90 seconds. The first drive ended on a 28-yard touchdown pass to Antwan Goodley. The second drive ended on a 25-yard touchdown pass to Corey Coleman.

And the only thing more pretty than the former...

...was the latter.

Having just watched Petty march Baylor down the field for three touchdowns in less than six minutes, TCU head coach Gary Patterson decided not to punt on a 4th-and-3 at the Baylor 45-yard line with less than 90 seconds left to play. Instead, he dialed up one of several ill-timed fade routes to Josh Doctson, which fell incomplete.

Baylor got the ball back around midfield and still needed to drive 30-or-so yards to feel good about a last-second field goal. But the game felt like it was over the moment that fourth-down pass hit the dirt. TCU had no realistic chance of stopping Baylor—of stopping Petty—from ending the game in regulation.

Nine plays later, that is exactly what Baylor did:

"I told our guys we weren't gonna lose that game," said Petty when the comeback was over, per the team's official Twitter feed. "I just knew looking at guys' faces we were gonna come back in the game."

Leadership is a nebulous but important quality for a quarterback to possess. Some prefer to lead with their actions. Others prefer to lead with their words. Neither way is better or worse than the other.

But the best leaders are the ones who combine those styles, who lead both implicitly and explicitly. Petty told his teammates they were going to win that game, even when doing so seemed ludicrous, then went out and backed up what he said with how he played.

There are not a lot of players who can do that.

Then again, there are not a lot of Heisman-worthy players.