Baylor Football: Bears Win Behind QB Robert Griffin III; “D” Yet To Allow TD

The Baylor Bears football team is on a tear, winning its opening two games of the 2010 NCAA season by a margin of 28 points per contest as the secondary has yet to allow a touchdown.

In the first game against Sam Houston State, Baylor won 31-3 before destroying Buffalo 34-6 in the second game of the year—with sophomore quarterback Robert Griffin III leading the charge in a career-high 297 passing yard performance—as the Bears have hosted the opening pair of contests at Waco’s Floyd Casey Stadium.

“Anytime you win a Division I football game, it is a great accomplishment,” head coach Art Briles told the official Baylor athletic website following the Bears’ 28-point victory over Buffalo. “I am very proud of our players for going out and dominating, playing within themselves early, doing the things that they worked on during the week. We wanted them to be a determined, intense football team.

“We felt like we had a lot to prove as a team and I thought our guys really took to the task and took care of business. From that standpoint, I was very proud of them. We understand we have a lot of work to do, a long journey ahead, but we started off pretty well.”

Griffin III echoed his coach’s statements with confidence and determination as the Bears prepare for a true battle this Saturday on the road against highly-touted TCU.

“I look at it as Sam Houston was a good team, Buffalo was a step up from them and TCU will be a step up from Buffalo,” Griffin III said. “It is a constant process and it is a good way to start the season, to get two good wins under our belt, build some confidence. Offense played a lot better early in the game. Today we put 34 on them in three quarters. I think that was good for us. We kind of backed off and that kind of hurt us on our last two possessions. When we play TCU, we will not be backing off.”

In addition, and as mentioned earlier, the Baylor defense has yet to allow an opponent to enter the end zone for a touchdown—a statistic that is very encouraging to coach Briles as the Bears enter a pivotal matchup against TCU.

“If you’re good up front then you’re going to have a chance to have a good defense or offense or whatever you’ve got,” Briles said prior to the team’s road game against No. 5 TCU on Saturday. “But I think it also falls into the fact that I think we are a pretty fast team defensively and those guys are playing really physical.

“I think all of that kind of intertwines together in what we’ve been able to do. I think we’ve been good in the red zone. It’s hard to score in the red zone so it’s a place when you get an offense down there you’ve got to rise up defensively and I think our guys have done well so far. That’s very encouraging.”

Hopefully, for Briles and Bears fans alike, that encouragement can continue as Baylor storms into weeks three of the 2010 NCAA football season.

“We’re just out there trying to make sure we don’t give up any big plays and let nothing get over our heads,” Baylor sophomore defensive back Chance Casey said. “[We try] to keep the ball in front of us and make a big hit. We’re doing some things right; we haven’t had the ball thrown over our head and we haven’t had any big passing play. We’re working on having a few more takeaways, but other than that, we’re feeling pretty good.”

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