Texas Tech football 2023 rewatch: What went wrong in Wyoming?

Two early turning points hurt Texas Tech

The Red Raiders had this game by the throat early. However, two plays would serve to let Wyoming back into the game.

The first happened on the fourth Wyoming possession of the day. With Tech already up 14-0, the Red Raiders' middle linebacker Jacob Rodriguez stripped the ball from Wyoming's D.Q. James and then recovered the fumble. But as Rodriguez was tackled he immediately grabbed his foot/ankle area in obvious pain. He would not return.

To that point, Wyoming had taken the ball four times and had lost two fumbles, and gained a grand total of 23 yards on 12 plays, an average of less than two yards per play. Without Rodriguez on the field, Wyoming would average 4.5 yards per play with much of their yardage coming up the middle.

That day, Tech didn't turn to Ben Roberts to fill Rodriguez's shoes as it would for the rest of the season leading to Roberts racking up over 100 tackles on the year. Instead, Tyrique Mathews would be called into duty and he struggled mightily, including running himself right out of position on the game-winning two-point conversion by Wyoming.

For the day, Rodriguez had two tackles, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery on four Wyoming drives. Meanwhile, Matthews would end up with only five tackles in over three quarters of playing time.

The second turning point was Tyler Shough's inexcusable first-half interception. At the time, Tech was ahead 17-3 with 13:53 to go in the second quarter.

To start the day, Tech had scored on three of its first four possessions and on that drive, the offense was already at the Tech 40 thanks to a nice kickoff return and a 7-yard Tahj Brooks run. But on second down, Shough tried to throw a deep out route only to leave the ball short and behind his target and let the Cowboys pick it off.

Had Shough completed that ball, Tech would have been set up with a first down inside Wyoming territory and would have been close to being in scoring position once again. Instead, that play seemed to take all the life out of the Red Raider offense.

Tech would not score again until the final possession of regulation and would punt on three of its next four drives. One has to wonder how differently that game would have gone had Tech been able to keep that drive alive and put more points on the board. Instead, Shough's awful throw gave Wyoming new life. Five plays later, Wyoming would be in the endzone and the game was forever changed.