Last year in their first tournament appearance, #6 Baylor defensive breakdowns cost them dearly in their Fiesta Bowl loss to #3 Alabama. This season, #6 Baylor looked much stronger, for the three quarters, but teams will need four strong quarters to defeat #3 Oregon and their Heisman QB Marcus Mariota.
But Baylor was up to the task for most of this day. The Bears started the scoring on KD Cannon 49 yard TD pass reception from Bryce Petty. As this game would go for three quarters, the opponent's offence responded, and Oregon took an 8-7 lead on a Royce Freeman 1 yard TD run, followed by Taylor Alie's pass to Christian French for the two-point conversion. Baylor unveiled its own trickery on a 53 yard TD pass from receiver Jay Lee to Corey Coleman, and of course, Oregon answered on Thomas Tyner's 1 yard run, and the Ducks led at the end of the quarter 15-14.
In the second quarter, Bryce Petty's 1 yard run gave the Bears the lead back, and Oregon then scored on a three yard Freeman run (conversion failed). But Baylor closed out the first half scoring with a Chris Callahan 25 yard field goal, and the Bears had the 24-21 locker room lead.
The game continued to see-saw in the third quarter with hot and heavy scoring in the southwestern shoot-out. Baylor scored three times on two Petty TD passes and a Callahan field goal, and Oregon put up three TDs, including two Mariota TD passes to Darren Carrington, and the Ducks led 42-41 entering the fourth.
However, the Baylor defense breakdowns and twice as many penalty yards caught up with the Bears, and Oregon's defense rose to the occasion in the fourth quarter to shut out BU. Two 20+ TD runs, one from Mariota and another from Tyner, a two-point conversion, and an Aidan Schneider field goals left Baylor in Oregon's scoring wake, and the Ducks won, going away, 60-41.
Oregon will move onto the Semi-Finals in Atlanta, and await the winner of the Orange Bowl between Florida State and Boise State.
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