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

No. 4: @ Oklahoma State in 2020

In another game that saw Bowman almost lead Tech to a win over a ranked team, this year’s contest against Oklahoma State in Stillwater, a crucial turnover tainted what was an otherwise strong performance.

Though his pick-six in the third quarter of the 50-44 loss was not the game’s defining play, it was perhaps just as damaging.  We all remember the ill-fated onside kick that Tech attempted which was returned for an OSU touchdown but don’t forget that on the next series, Bowan threw an INT right to Tre Sterling who took it to the house.

That play was critical because it further buried Tech under an avalanche of negative momentum as OSU would score a pair of non-offensive TDs in the span of four minutes to take a 10-point lead.  And it put a damper on what was a pretty solid showing by Bowman for the rest of the afternoon.

Completing 31 of 46 passes for 384 yards, he had his sixth-best game as a Red Raider in regard to passing yards.  What’s more, he tossed three TD passes.  Additionally, his 154.7 QB rating was the seventh-highest of his career thus far.

Ultimately, he almost led the Red Raiders to a late comeback.  His 32-yard fourth-quarter strike to Erik Ezukanma and his 31-yard strike to Loic Founji cut Tech’s deficit to just six points but that was as close as the Red Raiders would get.

What was most impressive from Bowman in this game was his resilience, not only in the context of the game but also in the context of the season as a whole.  It was his first start since being benched in place of Henry Colombi four games earlier and he nearly delivered the upset.  But as was too often the case in his Big 12 starts, Bowman couldn’t quite get Tech over the hump against a good team.