Beating a team as good as Baylor is hard enough without beating yourself like Texas did Saturday.

The Longhorns committed half a dozen turnovers and twice as many penalties. Justin Tucker, the reliable senior who split the uprights with a game-winning kick against Texas A&M last week, missed a 31-yarder against Baylor. Marquise Goodwin, who led Texas with five catches for 129 yards, racked up 80 one on long touchdown but should have scored twice as he dropped a pass in the end zone during the fourth quarter.

“We didn’t do our job,” said head coach Mack Brown. “We thought we had to take care of the ball, we had to force some turnovers — we only forced one — and we had to be on the lower end of the penalties to win the ball game.”

In his fourth career start, Case McCoy threw for 356 yards and three touchdowns, both career highs. But McCoy was picked off four times, snapping a streak of 125 interception-free throws to begin his Longhorns career. He also had a snap ricochet off his legs and recovered by Baylor, who trailed in the second quarter. But when Robert Grifin III and the Bears’ offense got into a rhythm, McCoy and his offense sputtered.

“It was really a tale of two halves,” McCoy said. “I threw some great balls in some certain situations and then there were certain balls that I shouldn’t have thrown. There’s no excuse for that.”

A 78-yard toss to Jaxon Shipley set up a game-tying touchdown and McCoy found Marquise Goodwin for an 80-yard scoring strike that gave Texas its first lead at 21-14. But the junior receiver dropped what would have been a 25-yard touchdown catch from David Ash in the fourth quarter. Had the Longhorns scored on that play, they would have trimmed the Bears’ lead to 10 points. Instead, Griffin threw his second touchdown and extended Baylor’s advantage to an insurmountable 24.

“If I catch the ball, it’s a different game,” Goodwin said. “It’s about making plays. When you have that opportunity to go out there and make that play when the whole team is relying on you, you have to step up.”

The Bears were assisted by Texas racking up a season-high 12 penalties. The Longhorns have been flagged 22 times in their last two games, matching their total from the five previous contests.

Printed on Monday, December 5th, 2011 as: Turnovers hurt Longhorns, lead to loss against Bears