The Texas Tech football team somehow found a way to get a lead by beating No. 19 Kansas 16-13 on the road Saturday.
The Red Raiders are 5-5 this season and 4-3 in Big 12 play. They will host UCF next week and have a chance to become bowl eligible for the third straight year.
Well, that was easy…
Kansas took the ball early in the game and made a three-pointer. Texas Tech responded by feeding Tahj Brooks. A short 50-yard field meant nothing to Brooks, who had six carries for 31 yards before scoring the touchdown.
Another three by the Tech defense followed another good push by the offense. The only downside was that Brooks’ second touchdown was negated by a hold call, but Gino Garcia converted the field goal to make it 10-0 with 3:26 left in the quarter.
Brooks had 70 yards on two drives. The Jayhawks had two.
Shoe on the other foot
Texas Tech knows the difficulties of having to play against a freshman quarterback due to injury. Kansas took care of that on Saturday.
Jason Bean suffered an apparent lower-body injury late in the first quarter, forcing freshman Cole Ballard to play. Similar to Jake Strong’s solid start to his time against Kansas State, Ballard was serviceable in his first action, even driving the Jayhawks from goal line to goal line in 8:43. That was before the Texas Tech defense made a stop on fourth down.
Rabbit continues his hot streak
The Red Raider’s surest tackler has started to come into his own with takeaways.
Dadrion Taylor-Demerson had two interceptions in last week’s win over TCU – he could have had about six. His most impressive game of the season came against the Jayhawks.
The man known as Rabbit put his arm in the perfect position to rip the ball away from the KU receiver, turning what would have been a big play in Tech territory into a turnover to give the ball back to the Red Raiders.
Taylor-Demerson has four interceptions this season.
In the fourth, Rabbit blitzed and sacked Ballard for an 11-yard loss, right after a missed field goal by Gino Garcia.
… Almost too easy
It seemed inevitable. The Jayhawks are too good overall to be completely shut out for an entire game, even with a freshman QB.
Kansas got its mojo back in the fourth quarter. Trailing 13-0, Devin Neal took advantage of the option pitch and scored a 60-yard touchdown. Texas Tech was then forced to punt and put Kansas in the red zone, but the Red Raiders held and forced the field goal, a 24-yarder that made the score 13-10 with 4:44 left.
That escalated quickly
With Kansas tying the game 13-13 overall, the Red Raiders needed just 19 seconds to get from their own 25 yards to the Kansas 12 and set up Gino Garcia’s game-winning 30-yard FG with three seconds left.