Texas Tech football: Three backups deserving of game balls vs. KSU
Another year, another loss to Kansas State. Saturday’s 31-21 loss makes five consecutive defeats in the series for the Red Raiders as Tech now trails KSU 12-9 all-time while fans in scarlet and black continue to hate the color purple.
Saturday’s game followed a similar script to the previous four editions of this Big 12 rivalry with KSU making all the plays down the stretch to pull out a closely-contested game. After Tech took a 21-17 4th-quarter lead, the Wildcats would close the game on a 14-0 run as they once again proved to be the program that finds a way to win while Tech is the program that invents ways to lose.
We’ve seen similar scenarios play out between these two programs lately making this result nothing to be surprised by.
Last year, Tech was down just 30-27 to KSU with 3:58 to play. But unlike what we ever see from a Red Raider offense, the Wildcats were able to kill the remainder of the clock by running the ball eight times in a row.
In 2018, the Red Raiders trailed just 15-6 to open the 4th quarter. But they would go punt-lost fumble-turnover on downs on their three possessions in that quarter to lose 21-6.
The Red Raiders led 35-27 with 3:40 to play in 2017’s game in Lubbock when Clayton Hatfield missed a 31-yard FG to leave the door open for the Wildcats. So of course, K-State would score a TD and a 2-point conversion on the ensuing drive to send the game to overtime, where they would win 42-35.
In 2016, the Red Raiders and Wildcats were tied at 31 when the fourth quarter began. But of course, KSU would score a TD and two field goals on their final three drives while the Red Raiders would only manage to score with five seconds left on the clock with the game already salted away.
The point is that this series continues to follow the same script. Every year, the two programs seem to be evenly matched through three quarters before Kansas State takes their play to another level leaving Tech in the dust.
It happened again on Saturday in a game that was there for the taking. But while Tech wasn’t able to pull out the latest game in this frustrating series, it wasn’t for a lack of performance from some individual players who stepped up and tried to carry their team to a win. So let’s hand out game balls to a trio of backups that helped keep their team in the game all afternoon.