Texas Tech will pull away in the second half to win by at least two scores
There are a lot of similarities between this game and the 2008 road game the Red Raiders played against Nevada. That year saw massive preseason expectations for Tech but a sneaky week-two road test against a mid-major team in a mountain state threatened to be a potential stumbling block.
That night in Reno, Tech was sluggish out of the gates leading only 14-10 at the break and 21-13 to start the 4th quarter. In the end, though, Tech’s high-end talent took over as Graham Harrell would find Michael Crabtree for an 82-yard TD pass and Shannon Woods would scamper for a 21-yard TD run in the final quarter to push the Red Raiders to a 35-19 win. That could be a script that tonight’s game follows.
Wyoming will consider this game their Super Bowl. It is an opportunity for the Cowboys to make some noise on the national scene by upsetting a top-tier Big 12 team.
Expect the Cowboys to battle and keep things close for much of the game. However, there will be too much talent on the Red Raider roster for the Cowboys to handle.
If we were to list all of the NFL Draft prospects playing in this game, would more than one or two be Cowboys? Likely not. On the other hand, Tech has at least 10 players that could conceivably be drafted next spring. That will give McGuire’s team a much larger margin for error and that’s why Tech will pull away.
Also, this Cowboy team doesn’t have an offensive weapon like Colin Kaepernick, who was the Nevada QB in 2008, to help keep them in the game. By the end of the night, Tech will separate from the Cowboys and will put up a final margin of at least two scores. It won’t be easy but the Red Raiders will cover the two-touchdown spread and move to 1-0.