WACO, Texas – Five games after BYU’s first season in the Big 12 ended with a disappointing 5-7 record, nothing is still easy for these Cougars.

Not even when things were.

Re-ranked as the No. 22 team by the Associated Press and the AFCA Coaches Poll, the Cougars matched their win total from a year ago with a 34-28 victory over Baylor – their first win in Big 12 road play since joining the conference a year ago .

Things could have gone differently, which might seem impossible after Jake Retzlaff led touchdown drives on his first four possessions and the Cougars (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) even led 28-7 in the second quarter.

But Retzlaff, who finished the game with 216 passing yards and two touchdowns and added another 53 rushing yards and a score on the ground, also threw two interceptions that helped get the Bears right back into the game.

As has been the case this year, BYU’s defense continued to be the calling card, helping the Cougars surpass their win total of 4.5 projected by most Las Vegas-area sportsbooks in the fifth week of the season.

Jay Hill’s unit posted a season-high three sacks, and interceptions from Blake Mangelson and Crew Wakley helped lead Baylor to its third loss in its last four games (2-3, 0-2 Big 12).

“It was a little dramatic at the end,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “I would like to see us finish better, but you knew Baylor would respond.”

Still, it is only the eighth time in program history that BYU has started 5-0 and the third time under Sitake. The former BYU fullback matched College Football Hall of Fame coach LaVell Edwards – his college coach – in 5-0 starts in his best opening salvo in five weeks since doing the same in 2020 and 2021 had.

He did so with perhaps his best offensive performance of the year – that is, in the first half – led by Darius Lassiter’s first 100-yard game since transferring from Eastern Michigan.

“I feel like I played decently,” said Lassiter, who caught eight passes for a career-best 120 yards, including a 44-yard touchdown, in the first score of the game, 28-7. “I left a lot on the field and had two drops in the third round. I was able to make amends, but something like this shouldn’t happen. I pride myself on catching the ball whenever it’s near me.”

But the battered and struggling BYU team was outscored 14-3 in the second half after Will Ferrin’s career-high 54-yard field goal gave the Cougars a 31-14 halftime lead.

“It just shows that the hard work we’ve put in from the winter to now is paying off,” Lassiter added. “We probably didn’t realize how it was going to turn out, being 5-0 and things like that.”

“But we trusted the approach of our strength training staff, our nutritionists and everyone else throughout the winter and summer, and you can see that everything worked out exactly as they said it would.”

The adversity that existed on the field wasn’t just overcome by a Baylor team whose defensive front was changing for the better under head coach and renewed defensive end Dave Aranda.

Quarterback Sawyer Robertson threw for 324 yards and three touchdowns with just one interception before Wakley’s dramatic game-winning pick at the 48-yard line erupted a good portion of the announced crowd of 39,583 fans at McLane Stadium, who happened to be wearing blue that day .

It wasn’t just Jordan Cameron, who caught seven passes for 125 yards and scored two scores to lead the comeback.

Give all of these bears credit – and more. Like a wounded boxer hanging on the ropes, Baylor fought back against a BYU team that was itself wounded.

The Cougars were down two running backs in LJ Martin and Sione I. Moa and saw starting center Connor Pay leave the game in the first half with an apparent ankle injury. Wide receiver Kody Epps joined him on injured reserve after halftime with an undisclosed injury, and left guard Weylin Lapuaho almost did too before returning in the second half.

Choe Bryant-Strother, Evan Johnson, Harrison Taggart and Isaiah Glasker also missed time due to injury concerns, among others, as the Cougars prepare for a much-needed week of recovery.

The injured triage list held few answers at the moment, including for Pay’s parents, who tried to find their son in the locker room after the game while being escorted from the stands by assistant athletic director Brian Santiago.

Sitake said Pay’s injury will be reevaluated over the weekend and he will know more about it by Monday before BYU’s (much-needed) bye week.

Meanwhile, backup center Sonny Makasini and sometimes converted center Bruce Mitchell led a group of reinforcements trying to fill the gaps and get forward where they could.

“I’m proud of the guys who stepped in,” Sitake said. “This is a strong team; Even the guys who couldn’t play and were injured were there on the sidelines.”