Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Gerry Bohanon passed for a career-high 339 yards and four touchdowns in leading Baylor to a 45-13 victory over West Virginia Saturday afternoon at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas.
 
Bohanon completed 18 of his 29 pass attempts, eight of those going to Tyquan Thornton for 187 yards and two touchdowns. At one point late in the second quarter, the Bears were averaging more than 11 yards per play.
 
"They're better than us right now," a disappointed West Virginia coach Neal Brown said afterward. "We were not very good today. We didn't coach very good, we didn't play very good, we didn't stop them from throwing the football and we haven't blocked them yet."
 
The Bears, entering today's game averaging 238.2 yards per game rushing, caught West Virginia's defense off guard with a downfield aerial attack that resulted in three Bohanon first-half touchdown passes, including a 75-yarder to Thornton on the game's second play.
 
Thornton surpassed his career high in receiving yardage by halftime (152), and Bohanon looked like an All-American, completing 12 of his 17 first-half passing attempts for 272 yards – a number of those going to wide-open receivers.
 
Tight end Ben Sims was uncovered on his 10-yard touchdown catch during Baylor's 21-point first quarter, and Drew Estrada was wide open on his 58-yard reception to set up Thornton's second TD grab, an 11-yarder that was confirmed by the replay official.

"We played soft (coverage)," Brown said. "Our underneath defenders didn't do a very good job getting out in the flats. We made it really easy for them to pitch the ball out there and complete it."

Early in the game, Baylor opted to go for it on fourth and 1 from its own 34, eventually resulting in Sims' touchdown catch, and Bohanon also crossed the goal line on a 1-yard quarterback sneak.
 
At the game's outset, it looked like West Virginia (2-4, 0-3) was prepared to keep pace with Baylor's offense, driving 75 yards in six plays to get into the end zone on its opening possession. Sam James caught a slant pass from Jarret Doege and ran to the Baylor 12 on a 53-yard gainer, setting up Doege's 12-yard touchdown toss to Sean Ryan that was tipped at the line of scrimmage by Christian Morgan.
 
The Mountaineers' other score of the first half was a Casey Legg 29-yard field goal late in the second quarter following three incomplete passes once West Virginia entered the red zone. 
 
Legg added a 27-yard field goal on the Mountaineers' opening possession of the third quarter to conclude a 78-yard drive to the Baylor 10, but yet again a pair of incompletions contributed to West Virginia's red zone difficulties.
 
The Bears (5-1, 3-1) responded with two more touchdowns, one a Sims 29-yard reception down the near sideline with 8:43 left in the third quarter and Abram Smith's 31-yard run four minutes later.
 
Isaiah Hankins tacked on a 45-yard field goal with 10:12 remaining in the fourth quarter, extending Baylor's lead to 45-13.
 
At this point, Brown emptied the remainder of his bench and played many of his backups on both sides of the ball, including freshman Garrett Greene at quarterback. 
 
Greene led West Virginia on its best offensive drive of the afternoon, taking the team 85 yards in 12 plays. The march was helped by an offsides penalty on Baylor on a fourth-and-2 punt, giving the Mountaineers a new set of downs at the 28. Greene hooked up with Winston Wright Jr. on a 25-yard pass to the Baylor 39, and then he ran 10 yards to the Baylor 22. 
 
Facing a third and 15 at the Baylor 28, a facemask penalty on Baylor's Al Walcott trying to sack Greene gave WVU a new set of downs at the 13, where Greene scored on a quarterback run.
 
Greene had one more opportunity to operate West Virginia's offense with 2:57 left in the game, but this drive ended after only three plays when he was sacked for a 10-yard loss on third and 8.

"The one piece of film I'm looking forward to evaluating is some of those guys who subbed in the fourth quarter on defense," Brown said. "We've got a lot of issues to fix and the more time you have to fix them the better."
 
Baylor's defense was credited with six sacks resulting in a loss of 46 yards. The Bears also added a 5-yard tackle for loss, dropping West Virginia's rushing total to just 90 yards on 38 attempts.
 
Greene led WVU's ground attack with 55 yards on 10 attempts with a long of 18 yards, while Leddie Brown had another difficult day at the office with 44 yards on 12 carries. 

"We didn't block them, particularly our right side. It doesn't matter if you run or pass, when you lose one-on-one battles over and over again it's going to be hard," Brown said. "There are some fundamental issues there, there are some things they did to take advantage of some good matchups and we just didn't play very well. I don't know if there were more than two plays in a row when we blocked them, and they weren't sending a bunch of guys. Five guys is pretty much what they did with simulated pressures."

 Doege completed 20-of-31 passes for 237 yards and one touchdown with one interception. Wright Jr. was WVU's top pass catcher with 86 yards on six receptions, 16 more than James got on his five catches.
 
On a positive note, Legg made both of his field goals today and is now 10-of-10 for the season.
 
Baylor outgained West Virginia 525 to 362, with Smith netting a game-best 87 yards on the ground on just 11 carries. Estrada contributed 90 yards receiving on his four receptions for the Bears.
 
Today's loss was the Mountaineers' seventh straight on the road dating back through the 2020 season.
 
"We've got to solve some issues," Brown said. "If you look at it through five games we've been right there, so we haven't been far off. Today was a totally different story so I think everything is on the table. The players and coaches will get away for about 48 hours. We'll come back on Tuesday and get back to work with some plans on how to fix what happened today."

West Virginia is now 0-3 in Big 12 play for the first time since 2015 and remains on the road to play TCU on Saturday, Oct. 23 and won't return to Milan Puskar Stadium until the end of October when it faces Iowa State.
 
Baylor will play 10^th-ranked BYU next Saturday in Waco.