DJ Lagway didn't repeat the 319-yard, 4-touchdown night from UCF. He did something more useful. He went 16 of 28 for 229 yards and 2 touchdowns, and he led Baylor in rushing with 119 yards on 13 carries plus a 3rd score on the ground. Iowa State had no answer for the quarterback once he started using his legs. Baylor won the 2nd quarter 21-7 and never trailed again.
The 3rd quarter is where the Cyclones' road problem showed up again. Iowa State put up 0 in the 3rd while Baylor scored 14 more, and a 21-17 halftime game turned into 35-17. That's the same pattern the preview flagged from the trips to BYU and Arizona. The offense that scores 45 and 51 at Jack Trice keeps going missing away from it, and this time it went missing for a full quarter.
Iowa State did make the scoreboard respectable. The Cyclones scored 14 in the 4th, and Aiden Flora broke a 40-yard touchdown run, so the thin receiver room still found ways to move the ball. But the 4th-quarter push started 18 points down, and Baylor answered with 7 of its own. The one search for this recap didn't say how Sullivan Schlimgen held up. The result answers the bigger question anyway: a defense that couldn't get stops against West Virginia or Oklahoma State gave up 42 again.
Baylor goes to 6-3 and 4-2 in the Big 12, picks up bowl eligibility, and Klanderman is 2-0 as interim head coach. The Bears have now scored 41 and 42 in his 2 games after managing 6 at home against TCU and 24 at Kansas. Iowa State falls to 4-5 and 2-4 in the league and now needs to win out the regular season just to reach a bowl.
It was a homecoming crowd on a clear 62-degree morning in Waco, and the preview said the weather wouldn't help either defense. It didn't. Baylor gave up 31 and still won by 11, because it had the best player on the field and he carried the game with his arm and his legs.
