Texas Tech football: 5 plays that defined 2019 for the Red Raiders

Today, we look back at five plays that defined the Texas Tech football season, one that was tantalizingly close to being a success.

Given how often the Texas Tech football team has lost close games in the last handful of years, the program’s nickname should be “Moral Victory U”.   That’s a trend that has kept Red Raider football from finally putting an end to its backward slide over the course of the last decade.

Just look at how many close losses we’ve seen against Power 5 teams since 2010.  Four one-score losses in 2019 bring Tech’s total in that awful category to 23 in this decade.  That means 35.3% of this program’s losses have come by eight points or fewer.  Perhaps even more maddening is the fact that since 2016, 48.2% of Tech’s losses have been by no more than eight points.

2010 was the only year in this decade that Tech didn’t suffer one-score defeat.  In 2016, the Red Raiders lost four games by one score or less which was the difference in a 5-7 season and a possible 9-3 season.

A year later, Tech dropped three such games in a season that finished 6-7.  One of those losses was in the Birmingham Bowl to seal another losing record.

Again in 2018, three one-score losses proved costly.  In fact, because the Red Raiders dropped winnable games against West Virginia, OU, and Texas (all home games against ranked teams) Kliff Kingsbury lost his job.  Had he managed to simply win one of those games, he might have been retained by his alma mater rather than being canned after another 5-7 season.

This year was no better despite the new coaching staff.  An OT loss at Baylor, a 3-point loss at Kansas, a 2-point loss at home to TCU, and a 3-point loss to Kansas State in Lubbock were again the differences between a successful debut campaign for Matt Wells one that did nothing to inspire his fan base that better days are ahead.

How you view these games depends on whether you are cynical or optimistic by nature.  Cynics (such as yours truly) are fed up with the fact that this program seems to wet the bed virtually every time a meaningful game is up for grabs.  We sit around and wait for disaster to strike while texting our friends trying to predict just how the Red Raiders will blow another opportunity.

Meanwhile, optimists are able to find the good in these difficult to swallow losses.  For instance, this year they point to the fact that Tech was able to take a team like Baylor (which finished the season second in the Big 12) to OT and should have won the game were it not for an egregious officiating gaffe and take heart in the fact that their team had a chance to win.

In fact, optimists are willing to cut the program slack for the last two years because of the injuries suffered by starting QB Alan Bowman in both seasons.  They find it inspiring to see the Red Raiders continue to fight through injuries and battle back from large deficits to have a chance to win in the final minutes, even though they almost never seem to come through in crunch time.

But cynics and optimists alike are sure to agree on the fact that we are all tired of having to fight through losing seasons, a streak that now sits at four years running.  And even if you look at the close calls this year as positives, you must also be somewhat frustrated by the failures that prevented Tech from taking a much-needed step forward as a program.

So let’s look back at five defining plays from this year because they were when the dye was cast for the Red Raiders in 2019.  And as we do, we will find that all too often, Tech came up short at the most critical of moments.