WACO, Texas — Baylor keeps quickly piling on the points — like no other team in more than eight decades to start a season.
The 20th-ranked Bears scored 10 touchdowns, two on interception returns, in a 70-7 victory over Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday.
“That’s what we want to do,” quarterback Bryce Petty said. “We kind of have a whole different mentality going into it. … Coach (Art) Briles always says don’t wait for something bad to happen to get good. He’s really just preached that enough so that’s our game plan.”
Petty threw for 351 yards with four touchdowns and ran 2 yards for another score while playing just more than a half.
Baylor (3-0) is the first FBS team since LSU in 1930 to open a season with at least 60 points in three consecutive games, according to STATS. Those Tigers had at least 70 points in each of those games — Baylor scored 69 in its opener before getting 70 points in each of its last two games.
“I mean, that’s good,” Briles said, unaware of that achievement before being asked about it. “When you score defensive touchdowns and then you have the ability to score from an offensive standpoint, which we do, and you combine those two things, the next thing you know you’ve got a chance to put some points on the board.”
Including interception returns for TDs by Joe Williams and Terrell Burt, the Bears were up 35-0 after the first quarter. That was already worse for the Warhawks (2-2) of the Sun Belt Conference than their season opener against another Big 12 team, a 34-0 loss at No. 14 Oklahoma.
Based on data available since 1996, STATS said Baylor was the first team to score at least 28 points in the first quarter in three consecutive games.
“We don’t match up with them very well. Not very many people do,” ULM coach Todd Berry said. “We knew we were going to have to take some chances early on, both sides of the football. When you take a lot of chances, sometimes you get burned. We got scalded. We didn’t just get burned. We got scalded.”
The only other FBS or FCS team since 1996 with 28 points or more in the first quarter in any three games in the same season was Oklahoma in 2008, when the Sooners had Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Sam Bradford and running back DeMarco Murray. That team had five consecutive games with at least 60 points during the middle of the season.
Baylor has its own impressive QB-RB duo with Petty and Lache Seastrunk, along with Tevin Reese and Antwan Goodley, who came in as the only Big 12 receivers averaging 100 yards and maintained that with some more big plays.
Seastrunk ran 10 times for 156 yards, including a 75-yard TD sprint down the right sideline in front of the ULM bench only 17 seconds into the second half. It was his seventh consecutive 100-yard rushing game, extending his school record and the nation’s longest active streak.
Goodley had five catches for 156 yards and his two scores. Reese had six catches for 123 yards, with a 47-yard TD on Baylor’s second drive for a quick 14-0 lead.
The fast-paced Bears had seven offensive touchdowns in the 10 drives Petty played. Those TD drives took a total of 6 minutes.
By the time Petty put on a baseball cap and was done for the day, after two more Bears touchdowns in the first 3 minutes after halftime, they led 63-7 and already had 583 total yards on 46 plays in only 10 ½ minutes with the ball.
Baylor finished with 781 total yards, matching the school record set in its last game, two weeks ago in a 70-13 win over Buffalo.
ULM, coming off a victory at Wake Forest of the ACC last week, suffered its worst loss since a 73-7 loss at Auburn in 2003.
“I haven’t been down 70-7 in my life,” said Berry, who was then asked when he knew the game was over. “I think when they had 42-0 in the first quarter. I think that was the moment.”
That was actually less than 2 minutes into the second quarter, when Goodley had a 65-yard TD catch to go along with his 63-yarder on Baylor’s first drive.
Kolton Browning, the fourth-year ULM starter, was 17-of-41 passing for 219 yards and a touchdown with the two picks returned for scores.
Petty, the fourth-year junior who had waited his time behind Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III and record-setting Nick Florence, completed 18 of 27 passes. He has thrown for at least 325 yards in all three of his starts, and has 1,001 yards passing.
“He’s played real well, I think he’s stayed within himself, I think he’s done what we asked him to do,” Briles said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
