Texas Football: 4 reasons why the Longhorns can dominate Baylor

Baylor hasn’t been able to sustain a passing attack under Sawyer Robertson

The most significant injury Baylor is dealing with this season is to its starting quarterback, redshirt junior Blake Shapen. The second-year Baylor starting quarterback suffered a lower-body injury in their season opener against Texas State on Sep. 2. Shapen hasn’t played a single snap since he left the game with an injury against the Bobcats a few weeks ago.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback and former blue-chip recruit Sawyer Robertson has taken over the starting duties behind center since Shapen went down with a lower-body injury in the opener. It hasn’t been smooth sailing for Robertson in the last couple of weeks as the starting quarterback.

Robertson has completed just under 45 percent of his passing attempts for 444 passing yards, one passing touchdown, one rushing touchdown, and three interceptions.

Baylor hasn’t consistently found a rhythm in the passing game, with Robertson leading the offense. The Bears have the worst completion percentage (52.7), lowest adjusted yards per passing attempt (6.2), and third-worst passing play success rate (0.39, per College Football Data) in the Big 12 this season. And that’s with Shapen and Robertson’s numbers included.

It gets much worse when you only include Robertson’s passing stats this season.

Baylor can’t get out of its way on offense, making uncharacteristic (for an Aranda-coached squad) and costly errors pre-snap. According to TeamRankings, Baylor ranks 91st in the FBS with 7.0 offensive penalties per game and .05 penalties per play (second-worst in the Big 12).

Miscommunication, inexperience, and lack of a true identity on offense have cost the Bears early this season.

Facing a Texas defense that ranks first in ESPN adjusted defensive efficiency and ninth in adjusted defensive FEI could be a disaster if the Baylor offense doesn’t minimize its mistakes this weekend.