Texas Tech football wakes up late in second half to take down Arizona

Saturday night, the Texas Tech football team appeared to fall asleep in the second half of a game that kicked off at 10 p.m. Central time. Fortunately, the Red Raiders woke up just in time to come away with a 28-22 win over Arizona to move to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in Big 12 play.

After leading 18-3 at the intermission, Tech gave up 16 unanswered points to Arizona to trail 19-18 with 10:07 to play in the fourth quarter. However, the Red Raiders would rip off the next ten points to put Arizona behind the 8-ball.

Though the Wildcats would hit a late field goal to cut the Tech lead to one score, the Red Raiders would recover the ensuing onside kick to seal the win. It is just the fourth road win for head coach Joey McGuire in his time at Texas Tech and it might have been the most impressive given the quality of the team that the Red Raiders beat on Saturday night/Sunday morning. Here are some quick thoughts on the win.

Texas Tech defense comes up big despite injuries

The story of this game has to be the job the Texas Tech defense did. Holding Arizona to just 22 points in their own stadium, the Red Raiders held their own despite being without starting safety Chapman Lewis and starting outside linebackers Amier Washington and Isaac Smith.

Tech certainly deployed a bend-but-don't-break strategy. Arizona racked up 422 yards (301 through the air) but that wasn't enough because the Red Raiders played solid defense near the goal line.

Forcing Arizona into five field goals, Tech gave up just one touchdown. That was a huge reason the Red Raiders were able to pull out the win.

Texas Tech RB Tahj Brooks has a strange game

What an odd night it was for Texas Tech running back Tahj Brooks. For the game, he managed to run for 128 yards on 21 carries.

That doesn't tell the story of his game, though. It is rare for Brooks to fumble but that's what he did not once but twice in the second half.

Each of those fumbles led to Arizona field goals on the ensuing drives. And for a moment, it appeared that they would be the defining moments of the game.

However, Brooks also scored all three of Texas Tech's touchdowns. That included the game-clinching 32-yard TD run with 1:53 left in the game.

Brooks isn't known as a fumbler and he might go the rest of the season without losing the ball. Though he had two uncharachteristic fumbles in this game, when it came time to put the Wildcats away, it he was the one who rose to the occasion as we've come to expect him to.

Texas Tech seems to be putting it's penalty woes to bed

Early in the season, it was commonplace for the Red Raiders to be penalized double-digit times each week. However, after being flagged six times for only 56 yards against Arizona, that issue seems to be improving.

Last week, the Red Raiders were flagged only 5 times for 37 yards in their 44-41 win over Cincinnati. In other words, in the last two weeks, Tech has been penalized about as much as they were in any of the first three games of the year. Though it might not seem like much, that's a big part of winning one-score games.

Texas Tech battles one of the best receivers in the nation and lives to tell about it

Finally, give the Red Raider secondary credit for holding Arizona's stud wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan in check. There's no question that he's a future early-round NFL draft pick and he's one of the best wideouts in the nation.

However, he didn't have a huge impact on this game. Yes, he did go for 161 yards on eight catches (an average of 20.1 yards per catch).

However, McMillan didn't find the endzone, which was critical. What's more, his fumble in the fourth quarter sealed his team's fate. Credit to Jacob Rodriguez for hustling down the field to knock that ball out of McMillan's hands for what was the turning point of the game.