Texas Tech tops Cincinnati thanks to last-second FG miss by Bearcats

Saturday night in Lubbock, the Texas Tech football team moved to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in Big 12 play by taking down Cincinnati 44-41. Here are some rapid reactions to what we saw in this wild shootout.

Texas Tech wins this game because of special teams

In the end, this game came down to field goal kicking. Fortunately, the Red Raiders got the best of that exchange. The strange place-kicking rotation continues for Texas Tech and yet, it remains a flawless plan thus far.

With Gino Garcia making FGs of 45 and 27 yards and Reese Burkhardt making a kick of 38 yards, Tech remains perfect on the season when it comes to field goals. Rotating those two kickers bucks conventional wisdom which would say that it is smarter to let one kicker get comfortable with being "the man". However, through almost half of the season, the Red Raiders are getting the most out of their unique kicking situation.

On the other hand, Cincinnati can't be happy with their kicking situation after this game. Not only did Nathan Hawks miss a 42-yard kick at the end of the first half but, of course, he also missed the game-deciding kick of 51 yards. One-score games often come down to special teams and that was the case in this one as the Red Raiders won this game because they were better in the kicking game.

Texas Tech has a massive advantage at running back

In a game that was supposed to feature two of the best running backs in the Big 12, only one made a difference for his team. Tahj Brooks ran for 172 yards and two touchdowns on 32 carries. In the process, he passed Byron "Bam" Morris for fourth place on the Texas Tech all-time rushing yardage list.

Meanwhile, Ciny's Corey Kiner carried the ball only three times for nine yards. After playing the first series for the Bearcats, he would leave the game with an injury and not return.

What's more, the Bearcats also lost backup running back Evan Pryor to injury in the second half. Thus, Tech had a massive edge at running back.

The Red Raiders ran for 231 yards against a defense designed to stop the run. Meanwhile, UCF was led in rushing by QB Brendan Sorsby who had 52 of the 129 yards his team would rush for. Still, when one team is led in rushing by its star running back who goes for 172 yards and the other is led by its lead-footed QB, that's a huge difference.

Texas Tech wins the turnover battle

Though the Red Raiders didn't get to their weekly goal of three takeaways, they did win the turnover battle 2-1 and that proved to be a massive development.

The Red Raiders did lose a Josh Kelly fumble on a first-quarter punt return. However, the Tech defense was able to come to the rescue by forcing the Bearcats to settle for a field goal.

Meanwhile, Tech recovered a fumble on the first possession of the second half and turned that into a touchdown. Then, early in the fourth quarter, Red Raider safety A.J. McCarty had a game-changing pick-six.

In all, the Red Raiders won the points-off-of-turnover battle 14-3 and that was one of the biggest factors in this win.

Texas Tech survives massive injury issues in the secondary

This was not a defensive performance to be proud of. Tech gave up 555 yards of total offense and 426 of those were through the air.

Much of the struggles were because the Red Raiders were without an unusually high number of key players in the secondary. Tech's best corner, Bralyn Lux did not play, nor did backup corner Jalen Peoples.

Then, during the game, Tech would lose safeties Chapman Lewis and Jordan Sanford forcing third-stringer Joseph Plunk to play key snaps. That's a lot of adversity to overcome.

This Red Raider secondary isn't deep. It also isn't great when it is at full strength. Still, the Red Raiders overcame the massive injury problems within that position group to make just enough plays to win.

Texas Tech has to find a way to rush the passer

Yes, the Red Raiders did manage to record one sack tonight. However, it was on a play where Sorsby was tackled for loss when trying to run the ball.

Still, the pass rush was non-existent except for one critical play. On McCarty's pick-six, Tech sent linebacker Ben Roberts on a blitz and he was a step away from sacking Sorsby. Fortunately, he did force Sorsby to throw the ball early and it went right to McCarty who took it to the house.

However, edge rushers like Isaac Smith, Amier Washington, Harvey Dyson, and Charles Esters simply aren't generating any pressure off the edge. Eventually, that is going to catch up to the Red Raiders and cost them a win.