Casey Legg’s 22-yard field goal with 33 seconds remaining lifted the West Virginia Mountaineers to a 43-40 win over visiting Baylor in a Big 12 game on Thursday night in Morgantown, W.Va.
Legg’s kick was set up by a 37-yard run by Tony Mathis Jr., who finished with 163 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. Quarterback JT Daniels went 24-for-37 passing for 283 yards with a score and an interception as the Mountaineers (3-3, 1-2) knocked off the defending Big 12 champion Bears (3-3, 1-2).
West Virginia’s Kaden Prather had eight receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown, with Bryce Ford-Wheaton adding five catches for 51 yards.
Baylor’s Gavin Holmes caught seven passes for 210 yards and a touchdown, while Drake Dabney had five receptions for 66 yards.
Trailing 24-17 at halftime, West Virginia tied the game on Daniels’ 24-yard touchdown pass to Prather less than five minutes into the third quarter.
On Baylor’s next possession, backup Kyron Drones came on in relief of Blake Shapen, who had thrown for 326 yards and two touchdowns before exiting the game with a head injury midway through the third quarter. Shapen was in the process of sliding feet first after a short gain when Andrew Wilson-Lamp dove into him, hitting him in the helmet; Wilson-Lamp was ejected for targeting.
Baylor regained the lead when Drones, who finished 7-for-14 with 95 yards and an interception, threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Hal Presley for a 31-24 lead with 5:21 left in the third quarter.
West Virginia tied the game on Justin Johnson’s 19-yard touchdown run with 1:42 left in the third quarter.
Baylor jumped ahead on Qualan Jones’ 4-yard run, but its extra point was blocked and scooped by Dante Stills, who returned it 87 yards for two points, trimming the Bears’ lead to 37-33 with 13:39 left.
Mathis gave the Mountaineers a 40-37 lead with a 34-yard touchdown run with 7:06 remaining before John Mayers tied the game at 40 with a 44-yard field goal with 1:40 remaining.
The Mountaineers drove 61 yards, with Mathis accounting for 49 of them, in just eight plays in a minute to set up Legg’s game-winner.
–Field Level Media
