West Virginia can't keep up with No. 17 Baylor this time, giving up 864 yards in 73-42 loss

WACO, Texas – West Virginia couldn't keep up with Baylor this time.

And the Mountaineers are far from settled at quarterback after six games since Geno Smith went to the NFL.

Bryce Petty threw for 347 yards and two touchdowns while playing only a drive into the second half, Lache Seastrunk ran for 172 yards and two of 17th-ranked Baylor's school record-tying eight TD runs in a 73-42 victory Saturday night.

"This counts as a loss," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. "We'll regroup and we'll do our absolute best to get back on the winning track in two weeks. We've got a lot to work on the next two weeks. I said it all week. If it got into a track meet, we wouldn't be in good shape."

The Bears scored their most points ever in a conference game and are 4-0 for the first time since 1991. They set a Big 12 record with 864 total yards, breaking the mark of 807 yards West Virginia had against them last year — a 70-63 victory for the Mountaineers in their Big 12 debut and the still the league's highest-scoring game ever.

"Offensively, we're not equipped to keep up with them at this point in time," Holgorsen said. "I'm sure we can get there at some point."

The Mountaineers (3-3, 1-2 Big 12) trailed by five touchdowns midway through the second quarter.

The first score came when Petty threw a 61-yard TD pass to Antwan Goodley, who finished with seven catches for 170 yards. West Virginia punted on its first drive, but Levi Norwood fumbled and Karl Joseph recovered in the end zone for a 7-7 lead only 2½ minutes into the game.

While on pace early to match the big-scoring game from last season, Baylor (4-0, 1-0) was the only team getting in the end zone for a while.

"We obviously did not do enough. Baylor was at their best tonight," quarterback Paul Millard said. "We've got to move forward and regroup. Start all over."

Baylor was up 42-7 midway through the second quarter after Glasco Martin had 2-yard TD runs on consecutive drives. West Virginia then finally had an offensive touchdown on Clint Trickett's 39-yard pass to Kevin White.

White had seven catches for 130 yards and two touchdowns, including one from Paul Millard in the fourth quarter.

Trickett was the third different starting quarterback this season, but Millard came in for the second series of the game, then played a series in the second quarter before throwing two TDs in the fourth quarter when WVU scored three touchdowns.

Holgorsen described his communication with the quarterbacks as "very average" and that something has to change.

"I'm not doing something right evidently, because there were a lot of times in the first couple of series (with Trickett) where I was giving him specific orders and they weren't being followed," he said. "So I'm not doing something right. I'll keep trying to work on it."

The coach said Millard was in early because "we weren't getting called what I felt like needed to get called. I don't know.

Trickett completed nine of 28 passes for 161 yards. Millard was 8-of-13 for 115 yards and his two TDs.

Petty's 2-yard keeper put the Bears ahead to stay. Right after West Virginia was stuffed for a 2-yard loss near midfield on a fourth-down play, Tevin Reese made a tremendous grab — extending both of his hands above his head and then pulling in the ball while stumbling forward into the end zone — for a 47-yard score.

Baylor needed only one play on its next drive to score again, Seastrunk busting free for his long touchdown run.

Shock Linwood ran 14 times for 126 yards and a touchdown. Devin Chafin and backup quarterback Seth Russell also ran for scores.

West Virginia's late scoring included Darwin Cook's 32-yard interception return with 3 minutes left. Cook had been penalized for targeting earlier in the game, but wasn't ejected after officials reviewed that play.

Based on data available since 1980, STATS said Baylor is the only team to score at least 66 points in four consecutive games.

No other FBS or FCS team has scored 28 points in the first quarter of any three games in a single season since 1996, according to data available to STATS — and the Bears have done it in all four games this season. Baylor still is one game short of matching the Oklahoma in 2008 with five consecutive games scoring at least 60 points.

"Our players played extremely active and with a lot of intensity and purpose," coach Art Briles said. "That was our plan to play with purpose early. ... We decided just to judge the game by the first half because we felt like we did what we needed in the first half to win the football game."