West Virginia vs. Baylor: 10 Things We Learned in Mountaineers' Loss

The West Virginia Mountaineers ran into the offensive juggernaut that is the Baylor Bears this Saturday.

It wasn't pretty.

Baylor gained almost 900 yards of total offense and put 73 points en route to a 73-42 victory over the Mountaineers.

WVU just didn't have the horsepower to keep up the Bears, who didn't make near as many mistakes as the Oklahoma State Cowboys did last week when they were upset by West Virginia.

What did we learn about these two teams? Read on to find out.

We'd seen Baylor put up ridiculous offensive stats against teams like Wofford and Buffalo, however, we hadn't seen them go up against a "real" team yet.

West Virginia looked to be that first test. After all, they'd just beaten an Oklahoma State teamed ranked No. 11 at the time. Surely, they could slow down the Bears.

Well, anyone who thought that was very, very wrong. Sure, WVU forced four turnovers, but the majority of them came after this game was already over.

Baylor was in control of this one throughout and most of their starters never even saw the field in the second half.

West Virginia beat Oklahoma State fair and square. No one can take that away from them.

However, after the trouncing Baylor just handed WVU, it makes you wonder if the Mountaineers upset last week was more about the Cowboys having an off-day than West Virginia being a good team.

Obviously, we'll never really know, but it doesn't look like the Mountaineers are going to make much more noise in the Big 12 this year.

Lache Seastrunk made headlines during the offseason when he said that he thought he could win the Heisman this season.

That prediction is looking a lot less like hyperbole now.

Seastrunk has 589 yards and seven touchdowns through four games. The crazy part is that he's really only played eight quarters so far this season.

If you extrapolate those numbers over a full game, Seastrunk would have 1,178 yards and 14 scores.

If he continues to produce at this rate and Baylor can run the table, it's going to be hard to ignore the young tailback.

Clint Trickett didn't have the best statistical game of his career, but he impressed at least one viewer.

Trickett played with an obvious arm injury throughout the contest, but he continuously chucked the ball deep to try to get his team back in it.

He wasn't able to do it; that said, you have to admire his toughness.

His gutsy performance might not get noticed in the box score, however, you know his teammates saw the pain he went through and that could lead to increased confidence in Trickett going forward.

Art Briles sure knows how to groom a quarterback, eh?

First he had Robert Griffin III, then Nick Florence and now Bryce Petty.

Petty was almost perfect against West Virginia, throwing for 347 yards and scoring three total touchdowns in basically one half of work.

No. 14 did throw his first interception of the season, but with so much good, it's easy to overlook the bad.

Lache Seastrunk might have a fellow Bear joining him in the Heisman race soon (if Petty isn't already in the running).

I've mentioned it already, but anyone who watched this game knows that the West Virginia Mountaineers never quit, even though they were down by a lot throughout.

That comes back to the coach and I give Dana Holgorsen all the credit in the world for motivating his team to continue to compete and work when they knew they were going to lose.

If nothing else, that builds confidence in a team and is something that should be commended.

Holgorsen's boys were overmatched tonight, but that wasn't for a lack of effort.

Admittedly, this one is very personal and subjective.

However, if you watched this game and didn't fall in love with Baylor's third-string running back, you must not have a pulse.

Shock Linwood (saying his full name is a must) has arguably the best name in the country, which is enough to make him a fan favorite even if he didn't run through tacklers like Marshawn Lynch.

However, he does. Or at least, he did against West Virginia.

Shock Linwood's rumbled through would-be tacklers like a knife through butter and was a devastating force in the third quarter.

I officially have a new man crush.

Quite a few teams rolled out some sick uniforms this weekend. Notre Dame and Arizona State, in particular, had people talking.

However, for my money, I'll take Baylor's black uniforms with chrome gold helmets any day.

Black uniforms are always a good choice in my book, but it's the helmet that really sets this one off.

Baylor needs to wear these more often, especially if they keep putting up more than 850 yards when they do.

Look, West Virginia got demolished this weekend, but consider this: In the 2012 version of this matchup, West Virginia beat Baylor 70-63. In that game, WVU put up 807 offensive yards, and 92 percent of those yards are no longer on the team in 2013.

This is a rebuilding squad, one that just upset No. 11 Oklahoma State.

They might not make too much noise in 2013, but don't be surprised if they come back next year and make a run at a Big 12 Championship.

Is it too early to predict this? Has Baylor really played enough quality teams to warrant this much confidence? Can this defense keep up with the Big 12's best offenses?

Maybe.

However, there isn't a hotter team in the Big 12 right now. Obviously, all of that can change at any point, however, Baylor looks like the favorite for now.

They will likely go 3-0 over the next few weeks and meet the Oklahoma Sooners in a battle of unbeatens in Waco, TX. That game could go a long way towards deciding who will ultimately win the conference, and you have to like Baylor's chances at home.

Anything can happen in college football, but it's going to hard for anyone to beat the Bears if they keep putting up 70 points per game.