This season is absolutely flying by as in rolls Baylor for the fifth home game of the season.
The Red Raiders desperately need this one, and realistically the rest of them, if they’re going to have a chance to get to Dallas this season. Tech is in great shape to go to another bowl game, and likely a decent one, this season, however.
Trying to build on a win over Kansas is Dave Aranda and his Baylor squad that is 2-2 in conference play, who need this one as badly as the Red Raiders do.
I have quite a few topics that I want to discuss, so let’s get to it.
Blake Shapen’s Development:
Shapen has had some extreme ups and downs this season as he has had major trouble with turnovers but has flashed some good arm talent.
He isn’t seen as much of a runner but is more athletic than what the Red Raiders saw against JT Daniels last week. Tech’s pass rush should be in decent shape to contain the quarterback when he drops back.
Shapen is coming off a concussion against West Virginia, but it didn’t seem to affect him against Kansas.
Reese & the Solid Backfield:
Baylor has one hell of a backfield this season and they utilize it quite a bit. Richard Reese, the true freshman has been one of the brightest spots on this Bears’ offense.
Reese, who is quick and shifty, seems to be similar to Kansas State’s Deuce Vaughn who killed the Red Raiders in Manhattan.
Qualan Jones will provide a nice change of pace for the Bears in conjunction with Reese seeing most of the goal line and short yardage work.
Baylor’s lack of weapons at WR:
The Bears don’t hold a game breaking player at wide receiver like some of the other teams in the conference, but the share of targets in the passing game has been spread around quite a bit.
Gavin Holmes is the leading receiver with just under 400 yards in the seven games he’s played this season while Ben Sims has done less with more opportunity with almost double the receptions and half the yards.
Sims and Holmes are joined by Monaray Baldwin this week who has been effective to start the season but missed some time earlier in the year.
A Massive D-Line:
Baylor has some serious size on the defensive line, as Kittley mentioned earlier in the week.
Siaki Ika, who is 6’4” 360, is a massive dude and is joined by TJ Franklin who is 6’5” 265 and both have done an okay job getting to the quarterback and making plays in the backfield.
However, the Red Raider O-Line has made some strides of late, and I believe that it is somewhat due to the amount of tempo offense is being run helping them out.
A Lackluster Secondary:
This group lost a lot from last year’s excellent secondary and are somewhat susceptible to the deep ball.
Snaxx Johnson, AJ McCarty, and Mark Milton are the mainstays in the back end for the Bears, but have struggled due to mostly clean pockets for opposing quarterbacks.
Baylor’s Struggle with Tempo & Lots of Plays from Scrimmage:
In losses, they’ve faced 74 plays (WVU), 76 plays (OSU), and 73 plays (BYU). Since the implementation of Behren Morton, the Red Raiders have run well over 100 plays in both of his starts.
This could be due to the extreme size that the Bears have on the defensive line, or just some silly correlation with no causation, who knows.
The Red Raiders desperately need this one, and realistically the rest of them, if they’re going to have a chance to get to Dallas this season. Tech is in great shape to go to another bowl game, and likely a decent one, this season, however.
Trying to build on a win over Kansas is Dave Aranda and his Baylor squad that is 2-2 in conference play, who need this one as badly as the Red Raiders do.
I have quite a few topics that I want to discuss, so let’s get to it.
Blake Shapen’s Development:
Shapen has had some extreme ups and downs this season as he has had major trouble with turnovers but has flashed some good arm talent.
He isn’t seen as much of a runner but is more athletic than what the Red Raiders saw against JT Daniels last week. Tech’s pass rush should be in decent shape to contain the quarterback when he drops back.
Shapen is coming off a concussion against West Virginia, but it didn’t seem to affect him against Kansas.
Reese & the Solid Backfield:
Baylor has one hell of a backfield this season and they utilize it quite a bit. Richard Reese, the true freshman has been one of the brightest spots on this Bears’ offense.
Reese, who is quick and shifty, seems to be similar to Kansas State’s Deuce Vaughn who killed the Red Raiders in Manhattan.
Qualan Jones will provide a nice change of pace for the Bears in conjunction with Reese seeing most of the goal line and short yardage work.
Baylor’s lack of weapons at WR:
The Bears don’t hold a game breaking player at wide receiver like some of the other teams in the conference, but the share of targets in the passing game has been spread around quite a bit.
Gavin Holmes is the leading receiver with just under 400 yards in the seven games he’s played this season while Ben Sims has done less with more opportunity with almost double the receptions and half the yards.
Sims and Holmes are joined by Monaray Baldwin this week who has been effective to start the season but missed some time earlier in the year.
A Massive D-Line:
Baylor has some serious size on the defensive line, as Kittley mentioned earlier in the week.
Siaki Ika, who is 6’4” 360, is a massive dude and is joined by TJ Franklin who is 6’5” 265 and both have done an okay job getting to the quarterback and making plays in the backfield.
However, the Red Raider O-Line has made some strides of late, and I believe that it is somewhat due to the amount of tempo offense is being run helping them out.
A Lackluster Secondary:
This group lost a lot from last year’s excellent secondary and are somewhat susceptible to the deep ball.
Snaxx Johnson, AJ McCarty, and Mark Milton are the mainstays in the back end for the Bears, but have struggled due to mostly clean pockets for opposing quarterbacks.
Baylor’s Struggle with Tempo & Lots of Plays from Scrimmage:
In losses, they’ve faced 74 plays (WVU), 76 plays (OSU), and 73 plays (BYU). Since the implementation of Behren Morton, the Red Raiders have run well over 100 plays in both of his starts.
This could be due to the extreme size that the Bears have on the defensive line, or just some silly correlation with no causation, who knows.
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