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Texas Tech football: Turning points in loss to Horned Frogs

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 16: Texas Tech Red Rainders mascot the Masked Rider leads the team onto the field before the college football game against the TCU Horned Frogs on November 16, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 16: Texas Tech Red Rainders mascot the Masked Rider leads the team onto the field before the college football game against the TCU Horned Frogs on November 16, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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In the Texas Tech football team’s 33-31 loss to TCU, these turning points were places where the game swung in the Horned Frogs’ favor.

It had been a long time since we’d seen the Texas Tech football team and TCU engage in a typical Big 12 offensive shootout.  But that’s what transpired on Saturday in Lubbock.

In recent years, this series had become decidedly physical and defensively orientated.  In fact, it had been four years since we had seen Tech put up at least 30 points on the Frogs.

The last time the Red Raider offense really went nuts against a Gary Patterson defense was in 2015.  That year, Pat Mahomes threw for 392 yards and DeAndre Washington ran for 188 in a gut-wrenching 55-52 last-minute TCU win in Lubbock.

Since then, yards and points have been tough to come by for the Red Raiders when taking on their rivals from Fort Worth.  The 2016 game was a 27-24 double-overtime win for Tech that saw Mahomes lead his team to victory despite the offense putting up a mere 345 yards (206 of which came through the air).

A year later, Mahomes’ successor, Nic Shimonek, was flummoxed by the Frogs in Lubbock in what was his worst game as a Red Raider.  In a 27-3 loss, the senior threw for only 153 yards and was picked off before being benched in the 4th quarter.  As a team, Tech mustered just 327 total yards that day and managed the program’s lowest scoring output at home in the spread offense era, which dates back to the 2000 season.

Last season, it was another low-scoring affair when these programs met in Fort Worth.  Making his first career start, QB Jett Duffey was shaky for most of the night but he made just enough plays to lead his team to a 17-14 win.

Throwing for only 190 yards with a touchdown and an interception, the sophomore made the game-breaking play not with his arm but with his feet.  His 38-yard 4th-quarter TD run proved to be the game-winner on a night when his rushing accounted for 83 of Tech’s 353 total yards.

Saturday, Duffey didn’t have nearly as much trouble moving the ball through the air.  His 333-yard performance was his 5th-career 300-yard game and the 5th-most yards he’s thrown for as a collegiate.  What’s more, his four touchdown passes tied a career-high.

Given that Tech could not rely on either of its available scholarship running backs, Ta’Zhawn Henry and SaRodorick Thompson, both of whom were rendered essentially ineffective by injuries, it could be argued that this was Duffey’s best game as a Red Raider.

That’s what makes this such a frustrating loss.  You just can’t have games get away when your QB has one of the best days of his career.  It’s similar to losing a baseball game when your starting pitcher gives you eight innings of one-run ball.

So let’s look back at this game to find the moments where the game tilted TCU’s way.  Of course, everyone will point to the McLane Mannix fumble on the final drive of the game for the Red Raiders which sealed the win for bad guys but there were other, more subtle turning points where the victory was there to be had and Tech simply couldn’t grasp it.

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