Baylor vs. Iowa State 2012: Rest in peace, Year of the Bear

Baylor's high-powered offense sputtered to a halt Saturday night in Ames, as the Bears fell 35-21 to the Iowa State Cyclones. Baylor managed to take a 14-7 lead on the Cyclones early in the second quarter, but four unanswered Iowa State touchdowns provided the hosts with an insurmountable 21-point margin. Baylor is now 0-4 in the Big 12 and 3-4 overall, with games against Kansas State, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech still on the schedule.

Saturday's game marked Baylor's fourth consecutive loss, and comes on the heels of a heartbreaking 56-50 defeat against Texas last week. Our Daily Bears, the SB Nation Baylor website, is not taking things well:

I thought I was disappointed in this team after last week's loss to Texas. I didn't even know what disappointment was. 2012 has been an absolute disaster for our football team, and tonight epitomized exactly how bad things could get. 2011 is lost. The Year of the Bear is dead.

Tonight, we saw the first true dropoff from 2011 in an offense that actually contributed far more to the loss than the defense, which obviously had its own struggles. When we needed points we couldn't get them. When we had a chance to keep the game close in the first half and third quarter we couldn't do it. Losing to Iowa State was 100% a team effort.

Baylor hosts Kansas next week, and while the Jayhawks are a mere 1-7 on the season and winless in the conference, Texas' nail-biting 21-17 win over Kansas should be enough to warn the Bears not to let their guard down.

Iowa State hosts Oklahoma next week.