Baylor stuns No. 17 SMU in double overtime, extends win streak to 14

A rivalry rekindled in Dallas

A ranked team that hadn’t beaten Baylor in decades. A freshman kicker with the game on his foot. And a quarterback who wouldn’t blink. Saturday in Dallas delivered the kind of late-night drama that locks a game into a rivalry’s memory. Baylor beat No. 17 SMU 48-45 in double overtime, stretching the Bears’ run of wins over their old Southwest Conference foe to 14 straight since 1986.

The script swung wildly for four quarters and two extra frames. SMU landed the opening punch — a 75-yard touchdown on the first snap, a bomb from Kevin Jennings to Romello Brinson — and piled on a 43-yard Collin Rogers field goal to race ahead 10-0. The Mustangs later struck again with another 75-yard lightning bolt, this time from Jennings to freshman Jalen Cooper late in the second quarter. That was the theme for SMU all night: explosive plays that flipped the field in an instant.

Baylor stayed upright by stringing together methodical answers. Sawyer Robertson guided a nine-play, 81-yard drive to get the Bears moving, zipping a 28-yard touchdown to Prentice to calm the sideline and quiet the crowd. Every time SMU threatened to pull away — including an 11-play, 65-yard response capped by TJ Harden’s three-yard touchdown — Robertson returned with poise and pace. The junior finished 34-of-50 for 440 yards and four touchdowns, and two of those came in the last 5½ minutes of regulation when the game felt like it was slipping away.

Those closing drives told you everything about Baylor’s mindset. Down late, Robertson sped up the tempo, targeted quick outs and seam routes, and trusted his receivers in space. The offensive line held long enough for deep shots when Baylor needed chunk yards. Then came the situational football Baylor had lacked a week earlier: clock management, red-zone execution, and a quarterback willing to rip throws on third down.

The halftime box score leaned toward fireworks, but the third quarter tilted into a grind. Baylor tied it 24-24 with 5:04 left in the third on a 26-yard field goal by freshman Connor Hawkins after a 12-play, 57-yard march highlighted by a 28-yard connection from Robertson to A. Hawkins. Drives bogged down, defenses traded stops, and both teams left points on the field with penalties and miscues. It was frantic and flawed and riveting.

SMU still had the last swing in regulation. With the clock bleeding and the stadium holding its breath, Rogers trotted out for a 57-yard field goal try — a big-leg gamble that would have ended it. The kick drifted and fell short, and the teams headed to overtime tied at 38, the tension rising with every snap.

Overtime delivered the cleanest proof of who could win situationally. On the first play of the first OT, Jennings hit Brinson for a 25-yard touchdown, a cold-blooded strike that looked like a backbreaker. Baylor didn’t blink. Bryson Washington, who spent the night finding daylight on inside zone, slammed in from two yards to even it at 45 after the extra point.

The second overtime flipped the pressure. SMU got the ball first and stalled. Three snaps netted nothing meaningful, and Rogers pushed a 38-yard field goal wide right. Baylor didn’t waste the gift. Robertson kept his decisions simple, Washington ate the clock, and Hawkins stepped into a 27-yarder that he drilled. Ballgame.

If you’re looking for the reason Baylor survived, start with Washington’s balance and patience. He finished with 115 rushing yards and two touchdowns, giving the Bears downhill answers when SMU widened its splits to chase Robertson’s rhythm throws. The run game didn’t dominate, but it steadied everything around it when Baylor had to control tempo late.

SMU’s offense did plenty to win. Jennings threw for 296 yards and three scores, and Harden matched Washington’s output on the ground with 115 yards of his own plus three touchdowns. The Mustangs created the explosive plays that usually decide ranked games in September. But the difference was razor-thin execution on a handful of snaps: the missed 57-yarder to end regulation, the missed 38-yarder in double OT, a couple of third downs that got away, and Baylor’s clean closing possessions.

Defensively, Baylor’s secondary had a rough start with the early 75-yard shot and the second long touchdown to Cooper. But the Bears tightened their leverage in the second half, using deeper safety alignments and mixing coverage to limit free releases down the seams. The pass rush didn’t rack up highlight sacks, yet it squeezed Jennings’ launch points enough to force checkdowns when it mattered.

SMU’s defense, led by Isaiah Nwokobia’s 12 tackles (seven solo), made its share of stops. The Mustangs handled early interior runs and knocked Baylor off schedule several times in the third quarter. What they couldn’t do was close out the final possessions. As Robertson settled in and Baylor’s receivers won more one-on-ones on the perimeter, SMU’s windows for a knockout shrank.

For Baylor, this was a character check after an opening-week stumble dropped the Bears to 0-1. Head coach Dave Aranda has been asking for cleaner starts and tougher finishes. He didn’t get the first part Saturday. He got the second in a big way. The quarterback ran the huddle, the freshman kicker stayed cool, and the defense found stops in overtime when field position was most fragile.

For SMU, the loss stings because the ingredients for a ranked roadblock were on the table: fast start, home crowd, big plays, and a defense that forced Baylor into difficult third downs. In a game this tight, two missed kicks and a short list of missed tackles will loop on the film review. The Mustangs are still dangerous — the vertical speed is real and the quarterback is decisive — but this one will linger.

This rivalry doesn’t carry conference stakes anymore, but the edge was obvious. Old SWC ghosts show up when these teams share a field. The crowd felt every swing: the opening haymaker, the Baylor response, the trade of leads, the long miss at the gun, and the calm hook of a rookie kicker to end it. For fans wondering if September can still deliver a classic, this was your reminder.

Now the stakes shift to what comes next. Baylor’s 1-1 mark reads differently after a road win over a ranked team. The tape gives Aranda a blueprint: let Robertson set the throttle, feed Washington when fronts loosen, and lean on coverage variation to cap explosives. SMU’s path is clear too: clean up protection on must-throw downs, shore up leverage on the boundary, and turn red-zone trips into certainty, not hope.

One more note about the arcs that defined the night. Quarterbacks often get the headlines, and Robertson earned his. But double-overtime games get decided by the quiet jobs: the guard who re-anchors after losing his first step, the corner who forces a receiver to the sideline, the special-teamer who makes sure the hold is laces-out. Baylor got those details right one more time than SMU did, and in a rivalry game, that’s usually the separator.

• Baylor vs SMU ended 48-45 in double overtime.
• Baylor QB Sawyer Robertson: 34-of-50, 440 yards, 4 TDs, two in the final 5½ minutes of regulation.
• Baylor RB Bryson Washington: 115 rushing yards, 2 TDs, including a 2-yard TD in the first OT.
• SMU QB Kevin Jennings: 296 passing yards, 3 TDs, with 75-yard TDs to Romello Brinson and freshman Jalen Cooper.
• SMU RB TJ Harden: 115 rushing yards, 3 TDs.
• SMU K Collin Rogers: made from 43; missed from 57 (end of regulation) and 38 (second OT).
• Baylor K Connor Hawkins (freshman): 26-yard FG in the third; game-winning 27-yarder in second OT.
• SMU S Isaiah Nwokobia: 12 tackles (7 solo) pacing the defense.

However you slice it — ranking upset, rivalry streak extended, or September thriller — the game tilted on a handful of plays when anxiety maxed out. Baylor made them. SMU almost did. That’s the margin in a sport where one kick, one coverage angle, or one seam throw becomes the story.

How Baylor flipped the script in crunch time

Late in the fourth, Robertson stopped chasing big plays and started hunting conversions. Baylor leaned into quick-game concepts — slants, hitches, shallow crossers — to soften SMU’s cushion. That rhythm forced the Mustangs to widen, which reopened the vertical lanes for shots and created better looks for Washington on inside zone. The balance returned, and Baylor controlled the clock just enough to steal an extra possession.

On defense, the Bears adjusted their safety depth after getting burned early. They played with more patience over the top and rallied to the ball underneath, daring SMU to stack first downs instead of landing home runs. It wasn’t pretty — Harden still found creases and Jennings still hit windows — but it was stubborn enough to push the game to the kickers, where Baylor had the steadier night.

In overtime, you could see the confidence in the huddle. Robertson’s eyes stayed downfield on the first OT series, but he didn’t force throws. Washington kept his pads low and fell forward, setting up manageable kicks if drives stalled. When Rogers missed in the second OT, the Bears didn’t rush. They went conservative, trusted their rookie specialist, and ended it with a clean snap, clean hold, and calm swing.

Scoreboard aside, it felt like a reset for Baylor. After a rocky opener, they walked into a ranked house, absorbed haymakers, and still found a way. SMU will still win plenty with that vertical juice and a quarterback who can punish single coverage. But on a humid night in Dallas, the breaks went Baylor’s way — not by luck, but by getting the little things right when the pressure peaked.