Texas Tech football: 5 plays that defined 2019 for the Red Raiders
No. 3: Tech robbed of a fumble recovery in OT against Baylor
The single most defining play of 2019 came in the first OT in Waco when the Big 12 officials somehow managed to come up with a new way to show their incompetence. In the process, they cost Matt Wells what would have been a statement win early in his tenure.
On 2nd-and-13 in the first OT, Baylor center Jake Fruhmorgen snapped the ball into his own rear and the loose ball was recovered by the Red Raiders’ Broderick Washington. But somehow, the side judge threw a flag and ruled the play an illegal snap.
An illegal snap occurs when the center simulates a snap but does not let go of the ball. Fruhmorgen clearly let go of the ball and Tech recovered but because this type of play is not reviewable, being as it was deemed to have been no play due to the illegal snap, Tech was screwed out of a win.
Had the play been correctly officiated, the Red Raiders would have taken over needing just a field goal to win. Instead, Brewer hit Denzel Mims for 32 yards on the next play to put Baylor at the Tech 1-yard-line.
You know how the rest of the game played out. Baylor went on to win 33-30 in 2OT. But think about what this win would have meant for Tech and how this game could have shaped the landscape of the sport.
Don’t forget, Wells’ team was coming off of a home win over No. 21 Oklahoma State the previous week and should have notched it’s second-straight victory over a ranked team. It’s possible that this win would have put the Red Raiders in the top 25 or at least very close, something that would have done wonders for Wells’ perception among Tech fans.
It’s also fair to wonder if the 20-0 hole the team fell into the next week at home against Iowa State was a result of a hangover from this game. Thus, this blown call may have beaten Tech twice.
Extrapolating this a bit further, what if Baylor would have won the Big 12 title game, which they took to OT against OU? Had the Bears won that game, they would have been in the college football playoff, an opportunity they would not have been afforded had they gone into that game with two losses. Thus, if Baylor would have beaten OU in Arlington, a school like No. 5 Georgia or No. 6 Oregon would have been screwed out of a playoff spot all because of a botched fumble that should have given Tech a win in Waco back in October.
Of course, it is up to the Red Raiders to prevent such a carryover effect as we saw the next week but it is also imperative that the officials working games in a conference that generates hundreds of millions of dollars per year not cost teams games with gross incompetence. Is it any wonder why fans around the nation despise the officials that we trust to call games correctly?