Bryson Washington scored his first college touchdown, Richard Reese added another, and Baylor used a strong second half to win 31-3 over Air Force on Saturday night.
Quarterback Sawyer Robertson, who filled in for the injured Dequan Finn, threw for 248 yards and ran for a touchdown as the Bears (2-1) ended a nine-game home losing streak against FBS teams.
Robertson completed 18 of 24 passes without an interception. This was a bounce-back performance after Finn had a tough game last week against No. 12 Utah, where he lost a fumble and was sacked three times.
Finn, wearing a sling on his right arm, watched from the sideline in street clothes. Coach Dave Aranda mentioned that Finn has a shoulder injury and the team hopes he will return “sooner rather than later.”
“Really happy for Sawyer,” Aranda said. “Sawyer has been in a bunch of battles. For him to have his time and to make the most of it is really cool to see. There’s a lot of fans of his in that locker room right now.”
Baylor got revenge for their 30-15 loss to Air Force (1-2) in the 2022 Armed Forces Bowl, which was played in very cold conditions.
Air Force, which had previously won five straight games against power conference teams, struggled to get its strong rushing attack going. The Falcons still haven’t topped 200 rushing yards in a game this season, finishing with 193 yards against Baylor.
“I think defensively, you look at the size, I mean, my goodness,” Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said about Baylor’s strong run defense.
“And the experience, they have a bunch of guys that we played against tonight — there are probably six or seven of them — that got a good number of snaps when we played them two years ago.”
After a 51-yard field goal by Isaiah Hankins broke a 3-3 tie at halftime, Robertson led the Bears to score 25 unanswered points in the second half.
