Texas Tech football: Looking back at Alan Bowman’s five best games as a Red Raider

No. 5: vs. Texas in 2020

Bowman never secured a truly signature victory in his time as a Red Raider but he came close on more than one occasion.  One such time when he could have picked up a win that would have had the fan base buzzing was this past fall when he and his teammates let a 15-point fourth-quarter lead slip away in a 63-56 OT loss to Texas at Jones Stadium.

That day, Bowman was at his best for most of the afternoon.  He ended the game with 325 yards and 5 TD passes, the latter number equaling his career-high.

But the problem is that he also had three interceptions on the day, two of which were inexplicable and absolutely back-breaking.  The first came one play after Tech recovered a surprise onside kick and the second came on the second play after the Red Raiders took over at the Texas 17 following a blocked punt.

Unfortunately, those two picks are the defining plays from Bowman’s afternoon against the Horns.  (His third pick was a desperation heave on 4th-and-14 in overtime).  And they can’t help but taint what was an otherwise strong showing from Bowman.

With a QB rating of 132.2, Bowan led Tech to what one would think would have been enough points to win just about any game.  But this was another wild Big 12 shootout and as Texas made its comeback, Bowman and the Red Raider offense lost all semblance of momentum as the home team failed to score on its final two possessions when points were desperately needed.

In many ways, this loss to UT is representative of the Bowman era of Tech football because as was so often the case in his tenure, Bowman played fairly well but made critical mistakes that cost his team a key win. Unfortunately, he did just that again in the next game on our list.