3rd and 7 at the Baylor 33. They handed off to Nawahine who got 2 yards setting up a 49 yard FG attempt that missed.

As the Y's Insider noted above, it's reasonable to assume that they hoped to get 4-5 yards setting up a potential "go" on 4th down. That's a reasonable call considering you are already well within the range of your FG kicker. Best case, you pick up the first down. Next best, you get enough yards to consider going for it on 4th. Worst case, you kick a FG to go up 16. That would be a great place to be with 12:39 left in the game. It just didn't work out.

So, yes it was a conservative call. I wouldn't call it "too conservative" considering the game situation at the time.