Baylor Football Nearly Stuns #7 Texas Tech
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Baylor Football Nearly Stuns #7 Texas Tech
Red Raiders score 21 unanswered points to keep the Bears winless in Lubbock since 1990.
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(November 29, 2008)--Graham Harrell capped a 21-point rally for Texas Tech with a touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter and the seventh-ranked Red Raiders kept their hopes for a Big 12 South title alive with a 35-28 victory Saturday against Baylor.

The Red Raiders would face Missouri in the conference championship next week if No. 3 Oklahoma loses to 11th-ranked Oklahoma State later Saturday.

A win by the Sooners creates a three-way tie for the Big 12 South with Texas and Texas Tech, leaving it to Sunday's BCS standings to determine which team will play the Tigers in Kansas City, Mo. The Red Raiders have little hope of coming out on top in that scenario.

Texas Tech (11-1, 7-1) won 11 games in a season for the third time in the program's 84 years. But if things don't fall right, the Red Raiders reward could be nothing more than a Cotton Bowl bid, left out of the BCS in favor of the Longhorns and Sooners.

Texas needed a Baylor victory to clinch the division title, and for a while the Bears must have had the Longhorns pumped up.

Tech looked flat a week after the Sooners beat them 65-21, ending the Red Raiders' perfect season.

The Bears led 21-14 at halftime, and scored on their opening possession of the second half with Jacoby Jones capping a 78-yard drive on a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 28-14.

Texas Tech took control from there -- without All-American Michael Crabtree, who left with a right foot injury midway through the second quarter and did not return.

The Red Raiders got a 1-yard TD run by Shannon Woods, a 3-yard touchdown run by Baron Batch and a Harrell's 4-yard touchdown pass to Detron Lewis to go up 35-28.

Lewis' touchdown came after Tech linebacker Brian Duncan intercepted a pass by Robert Griffin on Baylor's 40.

Harrell was 41-of-50 for two touchdowns and 309 yards. He was intercepted once and fumbled once.

Griffin completed 12 of 15 for 91 yards and one touchdown. He ran for 105 yards and scored two rushing touchdowns.

Baylor started strong and took the lead into halftime after a fumble by Harrell deep in his own territory. Bears defensive end Leon Freeman stripped the ball as the senior quarterback pulled his arm back to pass.

Vincent Rhodes recovered it at the Tech 16 but the Bears nearly lost their scoring opportunity chance five plays later when officials ruled quarterback Robert Griffin fumbled into the end zone as he tried to reach the ball over the goal line for a score.

Several players scrambled for the ball which eventually went out of bounds, apparently for a touchback. A review showed Griffin's knee was down before he lost the ball and the Bears retained possession.

On the next play, Griffin lobbed a pass over defenders into the arms of Earnest Smith to take go up 21-14 at the break

Baylor now has lost 32 consecutive games against AP Top 10 teams since a 20-13 win at Southern California on Sept. 21, 1985.

Since the Big 12 began in 1996, Baylor is 0-23 against Top 10 teams with those losses coming by an average margin of 37 points.

Crabtree was hurt midway through the second quarter, when he jumped and pulled in a 6-yard pass between two Baylor defenders at the Bears 1.

He twisted his right ankle as he landed and hobbled to the bench. A few minutes later was taken to the locker room on a motorized cart.

He came out after halftime with a boot on his right foot and limped along the sideline, talking with teammates.

Crabtree has 93 catches for 1,135 yards and 18 touchdowns this season.

Baron Batch scored a touchdown on the play after Crabtree got hurt to put the Red Raiders up 14-13.

Latest Comments

Posted by: Anonymous on Dec 1, 2008 at 09:06 AM

Whats the bottom line? They lost,dosen't make a difference if it was by half a point.baylor has a good quarterback and that is it. He is the only reason baylor won as many games as they have this year.
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Posted by: EF Location: McGregor on Nov 30, 2008 at 06:14 PM

To the Baylor Football team and staff, I want to tell you all how impressed I was with the Bears Saturday afternoon. I have lived in the Waco area for 30 years, but I am a Texas Tech fan through and through. We were at the game Saturday and I was so proud to see the improvement in the Bears. I truly believe that next year the Bears will be even a better team. There were a lot of VERY positive comments being said about the Bears by many of the Tech fans. Keep up the good work and maybe the stores in Waco will start putting out Baylor Bear sports merchandise instead of only Texas and A&M stuff!!!
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Posted by: Steve Location: northeast of Waco on Nov 30, 2008 at 08:59 AM

Props to the Baylor Bears, the best 4-8 football team in the nation. Put these Bears up against any other 4-8 team in the nation and this Baylor team puts a royal beatdown on them. So while it still hurts that today we still have to use "nearly" in conjunction with the program, Baylor is now far from a joke in NCAA Div-1 football. Sic 'em, Bears!
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