Texas Tech football: The most painful plays in Red Raider history

Botched fumble call vs Baylor 2019

Whenever officiating incompetence costs your team a huge win, the rage that ensues is as intense as possible.  That’s what Red Raider fans felt in spades after an unfathomable call in Waco this past season.

By now, the play is seared into the brain of just about every Tech fan.  In the first OT of Tech’s 33-30 double-OT loss, Red Raider DT Broderick Washington recovered a fumble after the Baylor center snapped the ball off of his own rear end.

However, the side judge somehow deemed the play an illegal snap, which is a dead-ball foul that stops the play at the moment it occurs.  Thus, the Bears were glad to accept the five-yard penalty being as it meant they retained possession.

Had the play been correctly officiated and the ball given to Tech, Matt Wells’s team would have needed just a FG to win the game.  Instead, Baylor scored a TD on the possession, forcing Tech to answer to keep the game alive, which happened thanks to a T.J. Vasher diving TD grab.

After the game, the Big 12 admitted to Kirby Hocutt that the call was incorrect and that Tech should have been awarded the ball.  That did nothing but increase the consternation of everyone in the Scarlet and Black.

A week after upsetting No. 21 Oklahoma State in Lubbock, Tech was robbed of an opportunity to beat No. 9 Baylor on the road.  Think of how different the 2019 season might have gone had that occurred as the Red Raiders would have had some serious momentum heading back home to face Iowa State.

But instead, the Red Raiders let that outcome linger into the first half of the Cyclone game as they fell behind 20-0.  It was a shame that the buffoonery of the Big 12 officials cost Tech a crucial win and it was aa painful of play to have to live with as we’ve ever seen.