Garrett Nussmeier passed for 304 yards and three touchdowns and LSU defeated Baylor 44-31 in the Texas Bowl on Tuesday in Houston.
Nussmeier threw two touchdown passes to Trey’Dez Green, and Chris Hilton Jr. caught the other scoring pass and finished with 113 receiving yards for the Tigers (9-4). LSU’s Zavion Thomas had a kickoff return for touchdown.
“I think we were able to do a great job of getting the ball down the field and once we were able to hit some big plays down the field it opened up a lot of things,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said. “Critics would say (the season) was disappointing. It wasn’t disappointing.
“It was a team that was less than perfect because of inexperience, a team that gained inexperience. So to win nine games and win three in a row at the end, I’m just happy for our football team.”
Sawyer Robertson passed for 445 yards and two touchdowns and Josh Cameron had eight catches for 111 yards and a score to lead the Bears (8-5), who hadn’t lost since Oct. 5. They squandered scoring opportunities by failing on 5 of 6 fourth-down conversion attempts.
Baylor coach Dave Aranda said, “This was an opportunity for us to get to another level and we didn’t do it. The moment was too big for us. We had way too many mistakes. There hasn’t been a game like this in a while. We’ve played complementary football, and this was not that.”
The first possession of the second half ended when Robertson threw an incompletion on fourth-and-6 at the Tigers’ 9-yard line. But on the team’s next possession Robertson threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Ashtyn Hawkins that trimmed the Tigers lead to 34-24.
Baylor started its next possession at the LSU 26 after Garmon Randolph intercepted Nussmeier, but on fourth-and-1 an errant shotgun snap caused a 36-yard loss, preserving the 1-point lead through the end of the third quarter.
Josh Williams ran 4 yards for a touchdown and Damian Ramos added a 43-yard field goal to push the lead to 20 before Dawson Pendergrass’ 3-yard touchdown run for the Bears completed the scoring.
LSU received the opening kickoff and drove to Nussmeier’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Green. On Baylor’s fifth offensive play Davhon Keys intercepted a Robertson pass and returned 41 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
On the first play of the second quarter Robertson threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Cameron to cut the lead in half. On the fifth play of the ensuing possession Nussmeier threw a 41-yard touchdown pass to Hilton to increase the lead to 21-7.
Nussmeier threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Green for a 28-7 lead, and the Bears pulled within 14 on Pendergrass’ 1-yard touchdown run.
Thomas returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, then Baylor drove to Isaiah Hankins’ 23-yard field goal as time expired, leaving LSU with a 34-17 halftime lead.
–Field Level Media
