Legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi once said that "football is a game of inches, and inches make the champion."

Watching the dramatic ending to Saturday's Big 12 Championship game at AT&T Stadium, no truer words have ever been spoken.

Trying to rally from its largest deficit of the year, fifth-ranked Oklahoma State got four shots at it from inside the 2-yard line. But, former walk-on safety Jairon McVea made a touchdown-saving tackle to stop running back Dezmon Jackson literally inches from the goal line to help preserve No. 9 Baylor's 21-16 win.

"Everyone dreams of that," said McVea, who also had an interception, a pass breakup that created another pick and tied a career high with nine tackles. "Game on the line, it's up to them to make the play. . . . I just said, I've got to run this guy down. Tried my best to do that, and it worked out, so it was good."

Redshirt freshman quarterback Blake Shapen said he had "major confidence" that the Baylor defense was going to make the play, but he didn't watch the play from the sidelines.
"My head was down, praying," he said.

Prayers answered.

Not only did the Bears (11-2) stop the Cowboys (11-2) on that fourth-down play, they intercepted All-Big 12 quarterback Spencer Sanders four times and held OSU to three short-range field goals on three other trips inside the 10.

"We preach stopping teams on the goal line and making them kick field goals," McVea said. "Anytime we can hold someone to a field goal down in the red zone, we take that as a win on defense. It's a huge game plan thing for sure, and we went out and executed it."

Snapping Oklahoma's string of six-consecutive Big 12 titles, Baylor won its first Big 12 Championship game and third league title overall in the last nine years. The Bears also knocked the Cowboys out of contention for a College Football Playoff berth while keeping their own faint hopes alive.

"I'm sure it will all work out the way it's supposed to," said Baylor head coach Dave Aranda, who was 2-7 last year in a COVID-affected debut season.

The CFP and bowl announcements will be made Sunday, but early projections have the Bears facing eighth-ranked Ole Miss (10-2) in a repeat trip to the New Year's Day Sugar Bowl.

"This moment here is something they can never take away," said fifth-year senior linebacker Terrel Bernard, who shared the team lead with 10 tackles. "We worked so hard to get here, and I'm glad it's finally being seen."

In a game dominated by the league's top two defenses, it was only fitting that it would end with a defensive play that seems destined to go down as one of the biggest in Baylor football history.

"It has been a real treasure for me just to see the growth of our team off the field and how that relates to on the field so that we can win those hard-to-win games," said Aranda, whose first season ended with a 42-3 home loss to OSU last December. "I think today was an example of it."

Other than maybe the lights-out performance by the Baylor defense, the story of the day was Shapen. Making just his second start in place of Gerry Bohanon (pulled hamstring), the redshirt freshman set a Big 12 Championship and stadium record, completing his first 17 passes.

Named the game's Most Outstanding Player, Shapen finished 23-of-28 for 180 yards and three touchdowns and also had the game's longest play with a 28-yard third-quarter run.

"This is something you dream about as a little kid growing up," Shapen said. "We wouldn't be in this position without Gerry and the things that he's done for this team moving forward. My job was just to replace him and try not to lose a beat."
In a 24-14 loss to Oklahoma State two months ago in Stillwater, Baylor picked off Sanders three times and had nothing to show for it. This time, he wasn't so lucky.

When Baylor's promising opening drive ended with a Trestan Ebner fumble at the Cowboys' 26, OSU got the scoring started with a 23-yard field goal by Tanner Brown. Sanders hit Jaden Bray with a 26-yard pass to the Bears' 8-yard line, but he missed Blaine Green on a third-down pass.

After a 33-yard interception return by safety JT Woods, the Bears took the lead with Shapen's two-yard TD pass to tight end Ben Sims, who was wide open on the play-action pass. Sims extended his own school record for a tight end with his ninth career TD reception.

When linebacker Matt Jones came up with his first career interception on the Cowboys' next series, Baylor extended its lead to 14-3 when Shapen connected with Dartmouth transfer Drew Estrada in the left corner of the end zone on the Bears' second-straight three-play, short-field drive.

Taking advantage of another short field after an exchange of punts, Baylor drove 47 yards on nine plays and made it 21-3 on Shapen's perfect-strike 13-yard touchdown pass and an unbelievable catch by Tyquan Thornton.

"We gave them some short fields, so we made it easy on them," OSU head coach Mike Gundy said. "Once we kind of figured it out in the second quarter . . . we did a good job shutting them down. The short fields are what made it look a little bit worse than it really was."

The defense held the Cowboys out of the end zone again, when they had a first-and-goal from the 6-yard line and couldn't punch it in. Brown's second of three field goals cut the deficit to 21-6 with 3:34 left in the half.

Converting twice on third down, Baylor answered with a 13-play, 80-yard drive and ate up the rest of the clock, but freshman Isaiah Hankins' 39-yard field goal attempt was blocked by OSU cornerback Korie Black.

Taking the third-quarter kickoff, it looked like the Cowboys would cut into the lead. But, Sanders was hit by Brayden Utley as he threw a wobbly pass that was picked off by McVea.

"We attack the ball every single day, and we were getting pressure on the quarterback, forcing him to make kind of contested throws and try to fit things into tight spaces," Bernard said. "We were in the right place at the right time sometimes, came up with it, and I think that changed the game."

Sticking with an aggressive, go-for-it philosophy that Aranda and offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes have used all year came back to hurt the Bears when Shapen overthrew Thornton on a fourth-and-1 from their own 36.
Eight plays later, Dominic Richardson went into the end zone untouched on a four-yard TD run that made it a one-score game, 21-13, midway through the third quarter.

Shapen got Baylor's next series started on a good note with a 28-yard run to OSU's 47, and the Bears picked up a first down with a two-yard run by fullback/linebacker Dillon Doyle on third-and-1. But, after a questionable intentional grounding call on Thornton on an end-around pass to Ebner, the Bears had to punt it away.

Cashing in on a muffed punt return by Ebner, OSU cut into Baylor's lead again on a 20-yard field goal by Brown with 8:17 left in the game. It was another victory for the defense, though, when Jackson was stuffed twice from the 1 and then fumbled a handoff that receiver Brennan Presley recovered at the 3.

In what could be defined as the ultimate championship drive, the Cowboys marched 89 yards in 16 plays, but came up inches short on the fourth-and-goal.

"We've worked all year for this," McVea said, "so to see my teammates and coaches with the joy they had in the locker room, it means a lot. We'll see where it goes from here."