Russell, Linwood Lead No. 5 Baylor Past Texas Tech 63-35
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ARLINGTON (AP) — Seth Russell passed for 286 yards and four touchdowns and ran for two more scores while Shock Linwood rushed for a career-high 221 yards and two touchdowns as No. 5 Baylor began its pursuit of a third consecutive Big 12 championship with a 63-35 win over Texas Tech on Saturday.
Baylor (4-0, 1-0) entered with the FBS' top offense in scoring (64.0 points per game), total offense (767.0 yards per game) and rushing yards (379.7 per game). The Bears gained 680 yards, 368 rushing.
Corey Coleman caught touchdown passes of 24, 16 and 16 yards.
Russell was 15 for 23 with one interception.
The Red Raiders (3-2, 0-2) dropped their second straight game after sweeping their nonconference opponents — they lost 55-52 to No. 4 TCU last week.
Texas Tech's Patrick Mahomes was 32 of 50 for 415 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. Mahomes hurt his left ankle last week in the first quarter against TCU, was listed as day to day during the week, but started and played into the fourth quarter.
Baylor went into the game as the only FBS school ranked in the top 10 in both rushing and passing offense.
The Red Raiders entered ranked fifth in total offense (594.5 yards per game), third in scoring (53.8 points per game) but 122nd in total defense (556.3 yards per game).
Linwood gained the fourth-most rushing yards in school history. His previous high was 187 against Texas Tech in 2013.
Linwood scored on runs of 79 and 8 yards, both in the first half. The longer score came on the Bears' third play from scrimmage, when he broke through the middle of the line and was untouched after 10 yards, racing down the right sideline.
Mahomes' touchdown passes were 55 yards to Zach Austin, 37 yards to Cameron Batson and 13 yards to Tony Brown. Mahomes also ran for a 25-yard touchdown.
Baylor gained 499 yards in the first half, scoring touchdowns on its first five possessions and seven of nine. Five of the scoring drives covered 75 yards or more and took fewer than three minutes each.
The Bears converted two of Texas Tech's four turnovers into touchdowns.
The Bears are 4-0 for the third consecutive season for the first time since 1915-17. This 28-point win was their smallest margin of victory yet.
Baylor has won five straight against Texas Tech, all at AT&T Stadium, averaging 58.4 points. The win gives the Bears a 37-36-1 edge in the series, which began in 1929.
The Red Raiders came off the TCU loss, in which the Horned Frogs scored the winning touchdown on a tipped pass with 23 seconds to play. They faced top-5 opponents in consecutive weeks for the first time.
Third-year Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury is 0-5 against top-10 opponents.
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