Friday, Saturday, Sunday in Texas

by Nick Eatman

  Meanwhile Baylor, coming off the heartbreaking loss to TCU in one of the rainiest college football games of all time, now had no shot of winning the Big 12 title. But because of tiebreakers, the Bears could still be the Big 12’s representative in the Sugar Bowl, assuming of course that they took care of business at home and beat Texas.

  In the history books, the Longhorns have dominated the series, owning a 74–26–4 record that once included sixteen consecutive wins from 1958 to 1973 and another twelve straight from 1998 to 2009.

  But the tables had turned in recent years, with Baylor winning four of its last five games against Texas, only dropping a 56–50 shootout in Austin during the 2012 season. Seemingly, the biggest win Baylor had over the Longhorns, however, occurred at the end of the 2013 season when Briles told Texas he would stay at Baylor, choosing not to be interviewed for the Longhorns’ head-coaching position.

  As the 2015 regular season came to an end, the Bears were about to make their sixth-straight bowl appearance. And if they could beat Texas, it would be the school’s first trip to the Sugar Bowl in fifty-nine years. That would be quite a birthday present for Briles, who had just turned sixty two days earlier on December 3.

  In fact, he wasn’t aware that his family had organized a surprise birthday party for him following the Texas game at one of his favorite Mexican restaurants close to the stadium. The rather small group of invitees were told to be there around 4 p.m., a good five hours after the 11 a.m. kickoff. But there was one rather strong contingency: if the final outcome of the game didn’t correlate to a festive party atmosphere, then the party was likely going to be called off.

  But lose to Texas? With a Sugar Bowl on the line? It didn’t seem realistic, especially considering the clear skies above McLane Stadium, something of which the Bears hadn’t seen much throughout the year. With better weather, Baylor was hoping, expecting, and counting on seeing the Chris Johnson who came off the bench two weeks earlier to shock Oklahoma State with three touchdowns, and not the one who turned the ball over twice and didn’t complete a single pass in the second half during the loss to TCU.

  Before the game even started, one of the lingering questions surrounding the program was seemingly answered—and it wasn’t good news for the perceptive fans in the stands. The last home game was senior day with the Bears introducing all of the players who were appearing in their final game at McLane Stadium. Each senior was announced, standing next to Briles, who gave them a quick hug and a personalized one-liner before sending them through the “Baylor Line,” the freshman students who run onto the field before the game, one of the school’s most recognized traditions.

  The big surprise, though, was seeing wide receiver Corey Coleman in the line, considering he was just a junior. Sure, there were questions about whether Coleman, a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver, was going to bolt for the NFL after the season, but no one figured the answer would be revealed like this, on “senior” day.

  Briles and Coleman both confirmed to reporters in the postgame press conference that he would skip his final year and go pro. Briles pointed out that since Coleman redshirted his freshman season in 2012, and had already spent four years in the program; they decided to let him be honored by the crowd one last time.

  But despite a decorated career that saw him rewrite some of Baylor’s record books, catching more touchdown passes than any player in school history, Coleman’s final game would be unlike anything he had seen in his previous four years.

  From the start, Baylor should’ve known things would be different, as the offense was held without a touchdown on the opening series for the first time all year. Then on the Bears’ fourth offensive series, still without a point, Johnson was blasted by two Texas defenders during a run, fumbling the ball away for yet another turnover. But more importantly, the quarterback took a huge blow to the head and was diagnosed with a concussion, ending his day midway through the first quarter.

  Coaches, players, trainers, support staff, former players, and everyone else on the sidelines all just looked on in disbelief.

  Really? This is really happening again? The top three quarterbacks are all injured now? Who’s next?

  The answer was no one. Baylor did not have a fourth quarterback on its roster behind Seth Russell, Jarrett Stidham, and now Johnson, who was woozy as he was helped off the field.

  While he did get some practice reps during the week, wide receiver Lynx Hawthorne was never really expecting to play quarterback. The team’s punt returner and slot receiver, he hadn’t played quarterback since his high school days in Refugio, Texas, where he was used more as an option runner to take advantage of his cat-like speed.

  But his arm? Well, Hawthorne really couldn’t throw the ball more than thirty-five yards down the field and even those passes were wobbly and off target. He was not a quarterback by any means, but at this point, he was the best Baylor had. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hawthorne’s first pass of the day was intercepted, and after a couple of short throws on Baylor’s next drive, he was picked off again in an attempt to get the ball down the field.

  Nothing was working for the Bears. Even when they did mount some kind of offensive movement, kicker Chris Callahan, who had been inconsistent all year, then missed two field goals to keep Baylor off the scoreboard.

  To make matters worse, another brewing problem was happening on the other side as Texas was racking up points, building a 20–0 lead as the two teams went into the locker room for halftime.

  Stunned at how the first two quarters had played out, Briles heard some of his players and coaches trying to rally the team with motivational words such as “we’re all right, we’ve got this” and “there’s a lot of football left to go.”

  But he wasn’t sure his team was all right.

  “I don’t know if we can get a first down,” he said to one of his offensive assistants walking into the locker room. “We’ve got to do something.”

  Halftime in college football is typically around twenty minutes. To the Baylor coaches on this day, it probably felt like two. Not only did they need to regroup, but they also were about to restructure their entire offense—and all in one halftime.

  Kendal Briles recalled that offensive assistant coach Joe John Finley, who was a tight end at Oklahoma before spending four years in the NFL, was the first one to speak up with the idea.

  “We got in there, we were just trying to settle down and figure out what was going on. We needed to make yards and first downs,” Kendal said. “Joe John Finley said we could expand the package and just snap it to the running back. We had two plays [in the game plan] for that week, so we could take some pressure off Chris, so we just expanded that, and that was our halftime adjustment.”

  But as the offensive assistants were trying to figure out how to run these new plays, more issues were popping up. Not only was Baylor down three quarterbacks, but the top two running backs—Shock Linwood and Devin Chafin—were both now banged up as well and weren’t available for the second half.

  “It was chaotic for a little bit,” recalled Jeff Lebby, who had just lost his top two backs for what was now going to be a running offense. “We had guys up on the chalkboard drawing plays, and we’re trying to get Johnny [Jefferson] and ‘T-Dub’ [Terence Williams] ready to go.”

  Somehow, amidst all the confusion, the Bears were able to come out in the second half looking like a brand-new team.

  Baylor got the ball and immediately pounded it right down Texas’ throat, using a combination of Jefferson and Williams, who were both primarily taking direct snaps from the center. Hawthorne was still in the mix and actually took a snap and handed it to Jefferson on the Bears’ first touchdown.

  The next drive produced a field goal and the third offensive possession resulted in Hawthorne running to the outside, where he extended the ball to the pylon, scoring a dramatic touchdown that
pulled Baylor to within 20–17 early in the fourth quarter.

  Yes, it was very effective, but the Bears were used to scoring fast, having put up at least fourteen points in one quarter twenty-one different times. In this game by the time the offense got to seventeen points total, there was only 9:40 to play.

  Once a quiet, stunned crowd at McLane Stadium, the fans were now alive, almost willing the Bears back into the game. Texas had yet to score a point in the second half and the momentum was clearly in Baylor’s favor. Just one more stop on defense, and it seemed probable the home team would complete the improbable comeback.

  Texas wouldn’t roll over, driving for a field goal of its own, but the Bears were in striking distance, down just 23–17.

  “Let’s go win the game,” Art Briles said to Hawthorne as he walked back on to the field. “We’re in great shape. Let’s go win.”

  Unfortunately, on a fourth-down play from the Baylor 31-yard line, Jefferson picked up the first down, but lost a fumble in the process. The Longhorns recovered and then chewed up valuable minutes.

  Baylor did have one last-ditch effort, moving to the Texas 47-yard line with just four seconds left. Knowing that Hawthorne couldn’t throw the ball to the end zone, they inserted Jefferson as the true quarterback. While he had a nice throw with a tight spiral, Jefferson probably threw it a tad early and didn’t give his receivers—Coleman, KD Cannon, and Jay Lee—a chance to run under it for a “Hail Mary” completion. The ball was picked off at the goal line with the Texas players then running onto the field to celebrate their fifth win of the season.

  The Bears were certainly not stunned by the outcome. Down 20–0 at the half without a true quarterback in uniform, there wasn’t much faith that Baylor would be throwing the ball into the end zone for a chance to win.

  But that didn’t make the pain go away. In fact, while all the players and coaches wanted to run inside to the locker room and rid themselves of the moment, they couldn’t. The Baylor video department had produced a memorable tribute to the seniors in their final game. So there they stood, watching the video board and a montage of highlights to the song “Brother” by the group NEEDTOBREATHE.

  Some of the seniors could barely watch. Shawn Oakman, who was featured halfway through the two-and-a-half-minute video, could barely lift his head up, staring straight into the ground. All-America tackle Spencer Drango had his arms draped around some fellow linemen and couldn’t hold back the tears as he watched his “brothers” up on the screen, knowing they would never play another game in this stadium.

  Even more gut-wrenching was losing out on a chance to play in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, likely against Ole Miss. Instead, Baylor was now projected to play in late December in the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando.

  “We just have to try to salvage our season by going to our bowl game and winning,” a dejected Briles said in the postgame press conference. “That’s really all we can do at this point. But we’re extremely disappointed for sure.”

  It was a strange feeling of mixed emotions for Briles, who knew how important a trip to the Sugar Bowl would’ve been for his program. But trailing 20–0 and without a true quarterback, yet still coming back and giving themselves a chance to win, was “inspiring” to the head coach.

  “We had eight different guys take a snap in the game,” Briles said. “That’s not good. But we found a way to rally to where it was like, ‘Hey we may have five bullets in it, but that sixth one missed. We’re still alive, and we’re still good.’ ”

  But it was not good enough to party. After the game, Briles wasn’t even told of the birthday event, and like usual, went home with his family and waited for the official word on where his team would be headed next.

  Sunday

  The younger generation of football fans, the millennials, might have a different opinion from their elders about the NFL’s top game of the week. They also might have different answers when asked about the Cowboys’ biggest rival.

  But for the fans who watched Roger Staubach and Bob Lilly and respected Tom Landry and his stoic facial expressions and consistent, classic wardrobe, they still reflect back to what they call the good ol’ days. And back then, no game was ever bigger than the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins, especially on Monday Night Football.

  Whether it was the real-life version of Cowboys and Indians, or just a bitter rivalry between two teams that couldn’t stand each other, Dallas and Washington have always provided fireworks and memorable moments.

  Even though ESPN’s Monday night matchup now has secondary status, the NFL having since made Sunday Night Football its premier showcase, it’s still the final game of the week. And when the Cowboys and Redskins met for a December 7 showdown, it marked the seventeenth matchup on Monday night between the two teams, tying the Oakland Raiders–Denver Broncos rivalry for the most meetings on MNF.

  In the pregame warm-ups, Rolando McClain, who wasn’t the most vocal leader on the team and rarely gave rah-rah speeches, jumped in the middle of the Cowboys’ linebacker huddle before kickoff.

  “Man, ya’ll remember when we were back in high school … and the Friday night lights?” McClain asked, referencing the title of what became a best-selling book, movie, and then TV series depicting a high school football team in Odessa, Texas. “Man, it don’t get any better than this. Let’s have fun, play for each other, and leave it all out there.”

  If ESPN had a choice, the Cowboys would’ve entered the game with a better mark than 3–8, and Tony Romo would also have been in uniform. Then again, after twelve games, it was rather clear that the Cowboys’ record and Romo’s health went hand in hand.

  The Cowboys decided not to place Romo on injured reserve as long as they were mathematically alive for the playoffs. Dallas still had a shot to win the NFC East, and if that could happen, Romo would at least have a chance to return, assuming he didn’t have surgery to repair his damaged left clavicle.

  Romo held off on the surgery and traveled with the team, serving as another set of experienced eyes for backup Matt Cassel and anyone else who needed it. Romo would occasionally go to the defensive huddle and offer up his take on alignments as well as tendencies he saw from the opposing quarterback.

  On this night, Romo had a front-row seat for history, although he would’ve rather been the one throwing the ball. But Jason Witten, who came into the league with Romo back in 2003, became just the tenth player, and second tight end, in NFL history to record 1,000 catches. His seven-yard reception from Cassel didn’t go unnoticed on the Cowboys’ sideline as seemingly every player on the team went over to Witten at the next change of possession to offer up his praise.

  “You’re the best,” Romo said to Witten in a subtle, quick way, knowing the tight end didn’t like to get caught up in individual achievements, especially in the middle of a game. The Cowboys’ equipment staff made sure to retrieve the ball and lock it up in one of their storage cases, so they could paint it up and deliver it back to Witten for a keepsake.

  While his teammates were congratulatory, there was a different problem brewing on the Cowboys’ sideline, one that wasn’t an issue on the opposite side. Today’s NFL has made huge strides in game management, thanks to technology. Every team in the league uses electronic tablets to get real-time pictures of each player and the pre-snap alignments. It has become a vital part of coaches’ sideline adjustments, especially since the photos and video are usually available for viewing by the time the players get back to the bench.

  However, in the second quarter, the tablets did not function for the Cowboys during two straight series. When Jason Garrett was informed of the issue, he went straight to referee Walt Anderson, figuring this was similar to when the headsets go out on one sideline.

  NFL rules state that one team cannot use its headsets to radio from the sideline to the assistant coaches upstairs in the booth if the other team cannot. And
erson told Garrett he would make sure the Redskins stopped using their tablets.

  A few plays later, though, the Cowboys coaches realized the problem hadn’t been fixed. And to make matters worse, Dallas couldn’t even go back to its “old-school” way of printing the photos because the sideline printer was also not powering up.

  Garrett again called Anderson over. “Walt, we can see what’s happening over there. Ours aren’t working. And they’re using theirs. So, do something. Stop the game or something.”

  Anderson eventually had to get clarification on the rule from the NFL office, and relayed the message that the tablets were not under the same rules. Therefore, the Redskins didn’t have to stop using them. Garrett was beside himself, but all of this was happening in between series, and sometimes even between plays.

  With the Cowboys chalking it up as yet another “home-field advantage,” the situation never got fixed. Cassel, a 10-year veteran, said it was the first time he’d ever gone through a game without looking at some kind of overhead pictures.

  Perhaps the malfunction was one reason the Cowboys had a hard time getting Dez Bryant open, but trailing 9–6 midway through the fourth, Cassel finally delivered a strike to the star receiver for a 42-yard catch, his first of the game. After Dallas failed to take the lead with a touchdown, another Dan Bailey field goal tied the score.

  But that would be the start of a special fourth quarter that saw the Cowboys’ special teams take over. A forced fumble on Washington’s DeSean Jackson during a punt return, one that saw him backtrack thirty yards to try to get around the corner, was recovered by punter Chris Jones with 1:26 to play.

  Oddly enough, the Cowboys hadn’t scored a touchdown all game, but when they finally did, it wasn’t exactly what the coaches wanted. From the sidelines, Garrett had wanted the offense to pick up some yards, chew off the final seconds of the clock, and then let Bailey win the game with another field goal. But Darren McFadden ran out of bounds on first down, and then scored on the next snap, giving Dallas a 16–9 lead, but with too much time on the clock.