Bryson Washington scores 4 TDs, Baylor beats TCU 37-34 on field goal on final play

WACO, Texas (AP) — Bryson Washington had career highs with 196 yards and four touchdowns rushing, and Isaiah Hankins kicked a 33-yard field goal on the final play to give Baylor a 37-34 victory over TCU on Saturday night.

The Bears faced fourth-and-9 from the TCU 44 with 16 seconds left when Sawyer Robertson threw a 15-yard pass to Michael Trigg. Washington then ran 13 yards to set up Hankins' kick with five seconds to go.

“We’re going to go for it,” Baylor coach Dave Aranda said. “Those things are always hard. I think I’ve been up here before when they don’t go well and there’s a whole bunch coming the other way. I think when you attack, then the guys feel like they’re attacking.”

Baylor (5-4, 3-3 Big 12) won the same way TCU did two years ago in Waco, and fans rushed the field to celebrate. The Horned Frogs set up with the clock running for the final-play field goal in a 29-28 victory on their way to a 12-0 regular season in 2022 and a trip to the national championship game.

TCU (5-4, 3-3) got even on Josh Hoover's 24-yard touchdown pass to Jack Bech with 1:55 to go. Hoover threw for 333 yards and two touchdowns while running for a score. Bech had two TDs.

The Bears won a third consecutive game after ending a pair of eight-game Big 12 losing streaks the previous two weeks — one overall and the other in conference home games.

The Horned Frogs also were going for a third straight win and trying to stay on the fringe of the race for the Big 12 championship game.

Washington scored on runs of 8, 40 and 35 yards before a 1-yarder to cap a 13-play, 81-yard drive for the lead. After TCU got even again, Robertson led an 11-play drive to the victory.

Savion Williams had 92 yards receiving and 57 rushing while throwing a touchdown pass for the Horned Frogs.

TCU called timeout when Baylor lined up outside of field goal range. Had the Bears turned over the ball on downs, the Horned Frogs might have had time to set up a winning kick on the same end as Griffin Kell's 40-yarder two years ago.

“We weren't quite sure what they were going to do,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said. “I thought they might try to draw us offsides to try to get a shorter field goal for the kicker. You've got to give them credit. They made a nice play.”

Celebrating titles

Baylor honored its back-to-back Big 12 championship teams from 2013-14 with one notable absence, at least in public view. Art Briles, the architect of those titles, was fired as coach in 2016 over the football program's mishandling of sexual assault allegations. The 68-year-old hasn't coached in college since then.

A few dozen players from those teams took the field briefly at halftime as some of the highlights were announced. There was no mention of Briles, whose son Kendal Briles was on his coaching staff and is now TCU's offensive coordinator.

The takeaway

TCU: Williams bobbled and dropped a mildly difficult over-the-shoulder catch that would have been an 81-yard touchdown early in the second quarter. A punt followed, and four plays later, Washington's 40-yard TD put the Bears up 13-7. Hankins missed the extra point.

Baylor: Robertson's four-game streak of at least three touchdown passes ended, but he had three completions for first downs on the drive for a 34-27 lead. He also converted a fourth-and-2 with a 3-yard run and set up Washington's go-ahead TD with a 5-yarder.

Up next

TCU: Oklahoma State at home next Saturday.

Baylor: At West Virginia on Nov. 16.

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Schuyler Dixon, The Associated Press