Texas Football: What to expect against Baylor in Week 13

What does the Texas football program need to do to stave off the threat of losing their fifth game of the regular season, against Baylor in Week 13?

The Texas football program heads into one of the more crucial matchups of the regular season this weekend as they square up against the 9-1 Baylor Bears on the road at McLane Stadium in Waco. Head Texas football coach Tom Herman needs his team to come out with a strong response against one of the Big 12 Title contenders in the second-to-last game of the regular season.

Getting going and finally trending up in the right direction is the main task at hand for the Texas Longhorns football program in Week 13. No. 14 ranked Baylor (College Football Playoff Rankings) is a good place to start to bounce back from last weekend’s tragic road loss at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames to the Iowa State Cyclones.

All it took for Iowa State to come out on top over the Longhorns in Ames last weekend was a jump offside by the special teams unit trying to cover a potential game-winning field goal attempt. That wound up letting the Cyclones drown out the clock on their final drive of the fourth quarter and knock through a game-winning field goal from about a dozen yards closer than the original try was.

On the Baylor side, they’re coming off one of the more devastating home losses last weekend. They couldn’t hold onto a 25-point lead at home against the Oklahoma Sooners.

For the second straight week, the Longhorns will be facing a tough mobile quarterback. Last week, they had to reel in sophomore Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy. And they didn’t do a bad job limiting Purdy’s scrambling ability, and the Iowa State ground game in general. But Baylor brings another interesting test with junior quarterback Charlie Brewer.

Brewer brings a completion percentage above 66 and more than 2,500 passing yards to go along with 18 passing scores and five interceptions on the season. He also has 276 rushing yards and nine scores on the ground this season.

Another weapon to watch for the Bears in this game, that could possibly shred this struggling Longhorns secondary, is senior wide receiver Denzel Mims. This will be a great battle of star senior wide receivers for each side, with the stout Mims taking on Texas stud Devin Duvernay.

Mims has 767 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns on the season, but he is dealing with an upper-body injury heading into this game. But he is still likely to play for Baylor against Texas.

Meanwhile, Duvernay comes into this game with more than 1,000 receiving yards and eight total touchdowns. He’s also one of the nation’s leaders in receptions, with 87 already on the season.

Baylor does bring one of the more stout secondaries to the table this week. They are allowing less than 220 passing yards per game and around 1.1 touchdowns through the air. The run defense is also not allowing much wiggle room, with less than 140 rushing yards allowed per game and around 3.5 yards per carry.

A stout Baylor defense, that ranks among the top 30 in the nation in terms of defensive efficiency, will test this Texas ground game. Junior Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger will be tested on the ground and through the air. But he is coming off a solid performance against Iowa State with more than 275 total yards from scrimmage and no interceptions.

This might be the first game where Ehilnger gets to play in more than one half against Baylor. He was knocked out of last year’s showdown against Baylor with a shoulder sprain in the first half. And he was held out with concussion symptoms two years ago in a dominant Longhorns road win over Baylor.