Texas Tech football: Hidden moments from Red Raiders’ win over Mountaineers

WVU QB Jarret Doege misses an easy TD throw

Those on the West Virginia side of this equation still have to be sick about the missed TD throw QB Jarret Doege had late in the 4th quarter.  In fact, that was essentially the game’s defining moment.

With Tech leading 20-17 and only 4:46 to play, WVU had a 3rd-and-4 at Tech’s six.  On the play, Doege had all day to survey the field and he would eventually find running back Leddie Brown standing all alone in the endzone.

An easier throw Doege did not have all day.  But being the inaccurate passer that he can be, especially in the clutch, the Lubbock native fired the ball wide of Brown who tried his best to stretch out and make a circus catch but the ball was simply too wide for him to do anything with it.

Doege is not a great passer.  In fact, in every year of his career, he’s completed less than 66% of his passes.

For context, understand that elite passers like former Red Raider Graham Harrell are typically near 70% completion percentage (Harrell completed over 70% of his passes in each of his last two seasons as a collegiate in fact).

But on Saturday, Doege was able to hit on over 75% of his 33 pass attempts.  It was by far his most accurate day of the season thus far.

Fortunately, when the game was on the line and he had a chance to put his team up by four points, he reverted to his usual ways.  And that was a moment when this game took a huge swing in Tech’s direction as WVU would have to settle for three points to tie the game.

They would not see the ball again until there were 18 seconds remaining and Tech was up 23-20.  By that point, there was no time left for Doege to atone for his mistake.