Box Score WACO, Texas - Underdog West Virginia hung around, but in the end 12^th-ranked Baylor was able to make the plays necessary to come away with a 17-14 victory here at McClane Stadium in Waco, Texas.
 
Playing in unseasonably cool weather conditions tonight, West Virginia had a chance to tie it with 3:33 remaining when backup placekicker Casey Legg successfully booted a 43-yard field goal, but the Mountaineers were called for a delay-of-game penalty and Legg's next try from five yards farther away was blocked by Bravvion Roy.
 
Legg was in the game kicking because regular placekicker Evan Staley sustained an injury during practice this week and was unable to go tonight.
 
Afterward, coach Neal Brown was asked about the penalty that ended up costing West Virginia three important points.
 
"That's my fault," he said. "We've got people that are kind of in charge of looking at the clock but at the end of the day it's my fault. I'm standing there worried about how we're going to use our timeouts, how we are going to kick off, and I didn't see the clock. That's on me."
 
On the ensuing possession, Baylor converted a third and 17 when Tyquan Thornton was able to wrestle away a 50-50 ball from Keith Washington II down the near sideline for a 43-yard gain and a first down at the West Virginia 33-yard line. The Bears ran off all but 38 seconds of the game clock before giving the ball back to West Virginia at its own 5-yard line.
 
The Mountaineers advanced the football to their 39 when the game ended.
 
"We came up short – I don't know if we necessarily got beat - but we came up short," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said afterward. 
 
This one was clearly for the taking tonight, despite the Mountaineers being outgained 453 to 219.
 
Two big plays bunched together, a George Campbell 83-yard touchdown reception and a Winston Wright 95-yard kickoff return, had West Virginia in position for a big upset when the game was tied 14-14 with 4:22 remaining in the third quarter.
 
Baylor's go-ahead score came early in the fourth period when John Mayers booted a 36-yard field goal, leaving West Virginia with three more cracks to either tie or win the game. 
 
Baylor's other two scores came via Charlie Brewer's arm, a 13-yard strike to R.J. Sneed in the second quarter that was originally ruled an incomplete pass by the officials on the field, and a 21-yard hookup to Denzel Mims with 4:34 remaining in the third quarter.
 
Baylor had another great opportunity to score a touchdown late in the first half when it had a first and goal at the WVU 3, but the Mountaineers repelled the Bears four straight times to take possession of the ball at its own 1.
 
West Virginia's youthful and depleted defense was terrific tonight, sacking Brewer eight times and producing 12 negative yardage plays. The Stills brothers, Darius and Dante, accounted for five of those sacks with Darius being credited with three to give him a team-best seven for the season.

The junior also logged 10 tackles, one short of Noah Guzman's team-high 11 stops.
 
Guzman, incidentally, was unable to finish the game, adding to West Virginia's long list of walking wounded.
 
"We lost multiple guys during the game and I thought some young guys came in and stepped up," Brown said.  
 
Quarterback Austin Kendall completed 20-of-39 passes for 205 yards and a touchdown, but once again had very little help in the way of a running game. 
 
West Virginia generated 62 yards rushing from scrimmage, but 48 of those were erased on two errant snaps by freshman center Briason Mays - both coming inside Baylor territory. The first happened early in the second quarter at the Baylor 29 when running back Kennedy McKoy, lined up in the Wildcat formation, had to scramble to fall on the bounding ball near midfield.
 
The second miscue occurred on West Virginia's opening possession of the third quarter, following a Baylor fumble, when the Mountaineers had a first and goal at the Bears' 10-yard line. Mays snapped the football while Kendall wasn't looking and Baylor's Blake Lynch eventually retrieved the ball at the 37-yard line.
 
"Offensively, it was just a struggle," Brown said. "They whipped us up front. We can sit here and talk about it all we want but they just had their way with us up front."
 
Campbell's touchdown reception to tie the game was his fourth TD grab on just six total catches for the season. The Florida State transfer was taking the majority of the second half reps with junior T.J. Simmons leaving the game early in the second quarter, joining starting right guard Chase Behrndt on the sidelines because of injury.
 
Top defensive player Josh Norwood was also lost when he was called for a targeting penalty early in the first quarter. Running back Kennedy McKoy didn't finish the game either.
 
Brown indicated afterward that he had more Wildcat plays planned for McKoy in the second half.
 
Wright's kickoff return for a touchdown was West Virginia's first since Shelton Gibson returned a kick all the way against Baylor here in 2015.
 
Brewer completed 20-of-26 passes for 277 yards and two touchdowns, five of those going to Mims for 99 yards. The Bears ran the ball 56 times for 176 yards and had an 82 to 65 advantage in total plays. 
 
"I felt good about this coming in," Brown said. "I knew we were 18-, 19-point underdogs and people didn't give us much of a chance and I hurt for our guys. It's not okay to lose, but I'm proud of them. I appreciate them and I love them."
 
Tonight's loss drops West Virginia's record to 3-5, 1-4, while Baylor improves to 8-0, 5-0, with key conference games looming against TCU, Oklahoma and Texas.
 
West Virginia returns to Milan Puskar Stadium next Saturday to face Texas Tech, which is idle this weekend.