No. 2: vs. Texas 2018
The only game on this list not from this fall, Duffey passed for a career-high 444 yards and four scores while nearly leading his team to a 17-point fourth-quarter comeback over Texas last year in Lubbock. However, he had an interception and a fumble that both proved to be crippling in the Longhorns’ 41-34 last-second win.
Entering the 4th quarter down 27-10, Duffey caught fire. He hit Antoine Wesley on a 56-yard touchdown to get the comeback started. After a UT touchdown and a field goal by Tech, Duffey then found T.J. Vasher from two yards out to pull Tech to within 34-27.
He next moved his team 77 yards in five plays and when he connected with Wesley on a 9-yard TD strike, the game was tied with 1:45 to play. Unfortunately, that left enough time for the Horns to drive back down for the game-winning TD.
Still, this was a magnificent game from Duffey. It was the first time as a starter that he had shown he could keep pace in a shootout by using his arm more than his feet.
The problem was that his two turnovers were both back-breakers and proved to be the difference. With Tech up 7-0 in the first quarter, Duffey threw one of the most bone-headed interceptions of his career on 2nd-and-goal from the Texas 3-yard-line. On the ensuing drive, UT got a field goal to shake itself out of its early slumber.
In the 3rd quarter, his fumble at the UT 23 after a nice 7-yard scramble killed another possible scoring opportunity. In a game decided in the final minute, mistakes like that are deadly and those types of errors are what kept Duffey from ever being the type of player that we hoped he would become.