Art Briles: 'We looked death in the face'
Posted by: Chris Vannini on Tuesday October 15, 2013
Every practice deals with situational work, but there was one situation Baylor hasn’t been in until this past weekend.
A close, competitive game.
After winning their first four games by an average of 54.2 points, the Bears found themselves trailing at Kansas State 25-21 heading into the fourth quarter. It was a only matter of time before Baylor would find itself in a struggle, and they came through, scoring two fourth-quarter touchdowns to win 35-25.
“The thing we did through the first four, five weeks is we practiced for a game,” Art Briles said at his weekly press conference. “That’s why I’m saying we’re still in the infant stages of our season, because that was the first complete game we’ve played.
“We’ve been practicing for those scenarios, because we haven’t been able to do them up to this point. It’s all changed now, but we were ready when the time game.”
It’s a situation Oregon often finds itself in. A year ago, the Ducks played one game that was decided by one score: a 17-14 loss against Stanford. This year, quarterback Marcus Mariota took his first fourth-quarter snap this past weekend, when Washington gave the Ducks a challenge. Like Baylor, Oregon powered through the fourth for a win.
That was the biggest takeaway for Briles from the K-State game. The Wildcats outscored Baylor 15-0 in the third quarter and had a blocked punt. The Bears finally faced some adversity, and they overcame it.
“We looked death in the face the other day and said, ‘Not today,’” Briles said. “That’s what we did. What happened to us in the third quarter, if you’re on the road and you get a punt blocked, it’s about 90 percent that you don’t win the football game. “That’s why I’m saying we showed a lot of maturity as a team. Those things not only deflate what you’ve got going on, but it inflates the crowd and gets them going. It’s critical.”
