Iowa State: Will McDonald (DE)

Last season, Will McDonald was one of a few pass rushers in the nation that was tied for the most sacks, with 10.5.

None of those sacks came in the 2020 edition of the game against the Baylor Bears. In that game, McDonald was limited to three tackles, none of them for loss. In fact, he has yet to record a sack against Baylor since arriving at Iowa State in 2018, although he wasn’t a full time starter until 2020.

Jump ahead to Saturday’s game, he and the rest of the Iowa State defense are facing a Baylor offensive line that has allowed just one sack so far this season. 

So far this season, McDonald has made six tackles, three for loss, and two and a half sacks. Against UNLV, McDonald had just one tackle and zero sacks, but was held on multiple occasions by the UNLV offensive tackles, preventing him from doing potentially more damage.

That will not be the case this Saturday, as I think McDonald will break through a couple of times and get some hurries on the quarterback, possibly get multiple TFL’s and multiple sacks.

Baylor: Gerry Bohanon (QB)

A quarter of the way through the 2021 season, Baylor’s quarterback Gerry Bohanon has yet to commit a turnover.

In fact he’s been very efficient and effective three games into the season. Bohanon has connected on 51 of his 70 pass attempts for a 72.9 completion percentage, five touchdowns and zero interceptions.

On top of that, Bohanon has shown the ability to be a very good dual-threat quarterback. In three games, Bohanon has rushed for 76 yards on 14 attempts and scored three touchdowns.

In Baylor’s Big 12 opener at Kansas, Bohanon completed 19 of his 23 passes for 269 yards and two touchdowns through the air. He also added 33 yards on five rushes, which resulted in one touchdown. 

With the ability to use his legs and run the ball, works well with the Baylor rushing attack that has totaled nearly 1,000 yards (971 to be exact) and 11 touchdowns.