Baylor Drops Lone Star Showdown with Texas at Floyd Casey, 47-14

Early on, it looked like the Baylor Bears might just be able to hang with the Texas Longhorns.

That dream, unfortunately, was quickly doused when the Horns picked off a Nick Florence pass in the Bears’ endzone en route to a blowout Texas victory over Baylor.

Despite the loss, I’m still quite proud of the Baylor Bears effort and athleticism; and it’s likely that head coach Art Briles would echo those beliefs.

In fact, he had one heck of an opening statement to the media following Baylor’s 47-14 loss to Texas on Saturday afternoon, Nov. 14.

“I’m really, really proud of our football team,” Briles said. “I’m proud to be a Baylor Bear and you know, just proud of how our guys fought and continued to fight and believe during the football game.”

Forget the sportswriters asking questions; Briles just asked those for them.

“Did it go the way we wanted it to go? No,” Briles said. “Could it have gone a lot better cause I coached a lot better? You're doggone right it could have and probably helped us in the outcome of the game. But you know that’s why you live, because you learn and that’s what we’re doing, we’re definitely living and learning.”

Briles went on to talk about the depth of Texas’ very talented football team.

“They’re a good football team, they have good people and they do a good job with what they’ve got schematically and that adds to the problems when you’re on the other side of the ball,” Briles said. “I think early in the game, with our present and past memories, we are a team that needs to have good things happen early in the football game right now. We need good results that create momentum for our team that allow us to have good outcomes, not just at the end of the game, but on every possession and every play.”

The Bears still have two games remaining on their slate, with a showdown in College Station next week against the Texas A&M Aggies before ending the season with a battle against the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Arlington.

If Baylor can mange to pick up wins in both of those intrastate rivalries, they’ll still be bowl bound.

And personally, I’m not counting Briles and the Bears out until it’s mathematically impossible…

Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at [e-mail]