Baylor Football: 3 takeaways from impressive win over No. 14 Iowa State

Baylor football had a golden opportunity to climb into the AP Top 25 on Saturday afternoon with a big win over Iowa State, but Dave Aranda knew it wouldn’t be easy.

The Bears got out to a decent lead and then the Cyclones battled back to come within just five, 21-16, in the second half before Trestan Ebner returned a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown to make it a two-score game yet again, putting pressure on Brock Purdy and the Iowa State offense.

Dave Aranda’s team would surrender another touchdown to make it a five-point game, but they’d also add a field goal to put the Cyclones on the ropes.

Iowa State would score in the final minute to pull within two, 31-29, but a missed two-point conversion was the end of the comeback effort as the Bears won and improved to 4-0 and No. 21 in the nation.

What’d we learn from the win?

3. Defense did a lot of bending but not a lot of breaking

When you look at the numbers, it was pretty clear that Baylor’s defense did quite a bit of bending all afternoon long as Breece Hall had a big game on the ground, but the Bears didn’t break much.

Brock Purdy was able to throw for 263 yards and a touchdown, averaging eight yards per attempt, and the Bears gave up nearly 500 yards of total offense, but until the final minute of play, the Cyclones only mustered 23 points.

Baylor’s defense has been solid all season and this was the first real opponent with a pulse that it has seen and while they gave up some yards, they didn’t completely melt down.

They were on the field for over 70 plays and were gassed, but they didn’t fold under pressure.