Baylor football: 3 takeaways from Armed Forces Bowl loss to Air Force

Baylor football was looking to avoid its second losing season in three years under Dave Aranda on Thursday night, but Air Force was too much in the Armed Forces Bowl, beating the Bears 30-15.

Aranda has already made some changes but the bowl game highlighted the team’s deficiencies. The offense couldn’t move the ball and the defense was getting exposed by Air Force’s, um, aerial attack. The Falcons completed four passes which was 10 percent of their completions all season.

Baylor ends the year with a 6-7 record and plenty of offseason concerns to address.

What’d we learn from the Bears’ tough loss in the Armed Forces Bowl?

3. Third downs were the difference

Right after the final regular season game, Dave Aranda decided to move on from defensive coordinator Ron Roberts. It was a disappointing season on that side of the ball and a defensive mind like Aranda was not happy with what he saw. So he took matters into his own hands and even coached the defense for the Armed Forces Bowl.

And he found out how far the defense still has to go. There were some bright spots but the defense just couldn’t seem to get any third-down stops.

Air Force was a solid 8-for-16 on third downs and 2-for-5 on fourth downs. That third and fourth-down defense isn’t going to win you many games.

To make matters worse, Baylor was 0-for-11 on third downs on the offensive side of the ball. Not great.