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Texas Tech football: Turning points in Red Raiders’ win over Oklahoma State

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 05: The Masked Rider, mascot of the Texas Tech Red Raiders, leads the team onto the field before the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Oklahoma State Cowboys on October 05, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 05: The Masked Rider, mascot of the Texas Tech Red Raiders, leads the team onto the field before the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Oklahoma State Cowboys on October 05, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
(Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /

In Saturday’s win over Oklahoma State, these turning points proved to be key as the Texas Tech football team captured its third win of the season.

Playing its best game of the season in Saturday’s 45-35 win over Oklahoma State, the Texas Tech football team pulled off one of the biggest surprises in the nation this past weekend.  The Red Raiders were one of just three unranked teams to take down a top-25 team in week six.

Stanford tripped up No. 15 Washington 23-13 in Palo Alto while Cincinnati moved to 4-1 on the  year with a 27-24  home win over No. 18 Central Florida.  The only other ranked teams to lose this weekend were No. 25 Michigan State (which fell to No. 4 Ohio State), No. 7 Auburn (which lost at No. 10 Florida, and No. 14 Iowa (which dropped a 10-3 decision to No. 19 Michigan).

By upsetting the No. 21 Cowboys, Tech moved to 23-21-3 in the all-time series, which dates back to 1935.  It was Tech’s second-straight win over OSU after a 9-game losing streak.  The last time the Red Raiders had a winning streak over the Cowboys was from 2000-2002.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this game was Tech’s rather thorough domination for four quarters.  After jumping out to a 10-0 lead with five minutes to play in the first quarter, the home team never allowed its guests to cut the margin to single digits.  And had a squirrelly bounce on an onside kick in the 4th quarter not gone OSU’s way, Tech would have won by an even more impressive spread.

It was most refreshing for the fans in Lubbock to witness a home win over the Pokes with their own eyes after growing accustomed to watching Mike Gundy’s team have their way in Lubbock in the last decade.  In fact, prior to Saturday OSU had won its previous five games at Jones Stadium by an average score of 52.6-28.8.

Additionally, in the last two seasons Tech has held the Cowboys to 35 and 17 points respectively.  Entering last year’s game, the last time the Red Raiders had kept OSU to 35 or fewer points was in 2010.

It was a home showing against a Big 12 opponent that Tech fans can finally be proud of.  The Red Raiders had dropped their previous 10 home games to conference teams not wearing a Jayhawk on their helmets.

Of course, there is still a lot of football to be played in 2019.  Life gets no easier for Matt Wells’ team this weekend with a trip to Waco to face the undefeated Baylor Bears.

But Tech fans feel better about the state of Red Raider football than they have in recent memory.  That’s not only because we got to bear witness to a win over a ranked team at home for the first time in six years but because this was a game against a good team that Tech controlled from start to finish.

Still, there were moments when the outcome of the game hung in the balance.  Fortunately, the following turning points went Tech’s way, something that has not happened with much frequency in the last decade.

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