In a penalty filled game, Baylor outran Oklahoma State, to a 38-28 win on Saturday at McLane Stadium in Waco, Tex. It was the Bears’ first conference home win since they beat Kansas on Oct. 22, 2022, ending an eight-game home losing streak in Big 12 games.

“The step today was, man, we won a game, there’s all the pressure of trying to win games,” Baylor head coach Dave Aranda said. “Everybody understands the situation here. I think we’ve got some things to build on after this step that we took.”

Oklahoma State (3-5, 0-5 Big 12) was flagged for 12 penalties for 84 yards, while Baylor (4-4, 2-3 Big 12) committed eight penalties for 93 yards. It’s the first time since 2014 that OSU has had a five-game losing streak.

“I told the team that we were not disciplined today,” Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy said. “We had 84 yards in penalties, which is not like us. I felt like we missed opportunities.”

Gundy admitted his team has to play better and it begins with self-evaluation.

“We have to be better than that,” Gundy said. “They need to do some soul searching. They need to watch the video and look and give themselves an honest opinion of how they played.”

Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson along with three other players rushed for a total of 345 yards, and the Bears had 565 total yards on offense. It was the first time in three years that the Bears ran for over 300 yards in a game. Dawson Pendergrass led the way with 142 yards rushing.

OSU’s Brennan Presley had a great game as he caught 15 passes for 183 yards and one touchdown. Presley became the sixth player in program history to eclipse 3,000 career receiving yards and now has 3,111 for his career.

The Cowboys totaled 433 yards on offense.

Robertson was 11-of-19 passing for 222 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. He also ran for 73 yards and one touchdown.

OSU quarterback Alan Bowman completed 28-of-42 passes for 359 yards and one touchdown. Bowman said after the game he believes the Cowboys can still turn things around.

“We can still have a winning season,” Bowman said. “We can still make a bowl game. So, we can still…at least kind of send the program going with the boat floating, and I think that’s what we have to fight for.”

The Cowboys scored first when Logan Ward kicked a 45-yard field goal with 10:00 left in the first quarter. A few minutes later, Bears kicker Isaiah Hankins answered with a 30-yard field goal.

Both teams scored a pair of touchdowns in the second quarter, and they were tied 17-17 at halftime.

Baylor broke the tie in the third quarter when Robertson connected with Ashtyn Hawkins on a 33-yard touchdown play, and the Bears led 24-17. Hawkins led the Bears with 74 yards receiving.

Ward kicked a 26-yard field goal to pull the Cowboys within four points.

With 8:55 left in the fourth quarter, Robertson carried the ball 41 yards for a touchdown, extending the Bears lead to 31-20.

Four minutes later, Ollie Gordon II scored his second touchdown of the game, this one from three yards. Gordon connected with Presley through the air to make Oklahoma State five-for-five on two-point conversions this season. The Cowboys entered Saturday tied for the most two-point conversions in the country at four. OSU cut the Baylor lead to three, 31-28.

Gordon finished the game with a total of 77 yards rushing.

With 3:06 remaining in the game, Pendergrass sealed the Bears victory with a 55-yard touchdown run, after breaking a couple tackles at the line of scrimmage. It was his second touchdown of the game.

“We’re not in a position to have a lot of mistakes and then overcome them,” Gundy said.  “I felt different in this one. I felt like we missed opportunities. We had opportunities we didn’t take advantage of.”

Oklahoma State will be at home this Saturday to take on Arizona State at 6:00 p.m.