Wally Burnham has seen just about everything in his 40 years of coaching defense. From a smash-mouth offense to the ever-evolving spread offense, Burnham has faced it all.

But when he sat down to watch Baylor on film earlier this week, preparing to prep his defense, Burnham still managed to be in awe.

“Wow,” Burnham said of his reaction to watching the Baylor offense. “You sit down and watch Baylor wide receivers and it’s actually scary, it’s really scary. The speed and athletic ability that those guys have is amazing. It really is amazing.”

The offense of No. 12 Baylor (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) is athletic, fast and around the top in the country across the board in each offensive statistical category. The Bears average a national best 63.4 points and 715.4 yards per game.

Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty averages 338 yards passing per game, throwing 18 touchdowns to one interception so far this season. Running back Lache Seastrunk is averaging 9.9 yards per carry on the ground.

Opponents have had the ball an average of 10 minutes longer than Baylor this season, yet the Bears still average more than a point per minute and have held their opponents to an average of 18 points per game.

“They’re just so simple in how they get it done,” said ISU coach Paul Rhoads. “The ball is out of the quarterback’s hand so fast — vertically or horizontally or handing it off — and everything they do … is fast and largely efficient because of that. They perform at an alarming rate to anybody in the country thus far in the season.”

Iowa State (1-4, 0-2) doesn’t have the expectation of stopping Baylor’s offense, which hasn’t been shutout since the 2007-08 season when it opened with a 27-0 loss against TCU That doesn’t mean all hope is lost.

“You can’t do much. We know what they do out of certain personnel groups, but being able to stop it is the main thing we’re trying to work on,” Burnham said. “Trying to slow it down I should say.”

The Bears finished No. 2 in total yards per game a year ago. The Cyclones managed to slow the Bears down last season with a 35-21 victory at Jack Trice Stadium. In that game, the ISU defense allowed 541 yards, but its offense kept the ball nearly 40 minutes and put up 557 yards of its own.

The key to slowing Baylor offense down a second-straight season?

“With no humor intended, the first thing you’ve got to do is keep them all in front of you,” Rhoads said. “You’ve got to keep them in front of you and try to control them.”

Iowa State had a similar plan last week in its 42-35 loss against Texas Tech, who sits behind Baylor in the Big 12 averaging 41.8 points per game.

Burnham and his defense have seen this before. Such is life against Big 12 offenses.

“It’s an opportunity for us; it’s a great challenge,” said linebacker Luke Knott. “That’s why you come and play in the Big 12 is to face an offense like [Baylor] and try and find out solutions to a powerhouse offense like theirs.”