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RECAP: Texas Longhorns defeat Texas Tech Red Raiders in close game

The Texas Longhorns defeated the Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock Saturday evening in a very close game.

LUBBOCK, Texas — Texas Tech played without starting quarterback Alan Bowman, who was out after a recurring collapsed lung. With backup quarterback Jett Duffey in his place, the offense didn’t miss a beat in the beginning. Duffey led the Red Raiders to the end zone after lobbing one up to TJ Vasher to score on their first drive of the game. Texas Tech held a 7-0 lead.

After Texas’ offense stalled on its first trip, the defense came up with a huge interception by Davante Davis inside the five yard line to give the Horns the ball back. Sam Ehlinger was missing one of his favorite targets, Collin Johnson, who was sidelined after tweaking his knee the past week. Fortunately, his weapons are aplenty. Lil’Jordan Humphrey caught two passes to convert on third down and extend Texas’ second drive of the game. It paid off in the form of a 52-yard field goal by freshman kicker Cameron Dicker. It’s the longest kick of the Lake Travis alum’s career. Texas trailed 7-3 in the second quarter.

After the Texas defense forced a 3-and-out, the Longhorn offense cashed in on the ensuing drive. At one point, Texas faced third and 34 but a personal foul was assessed against Texas Tech, giving the Horns new life with a first down. A couple of plays later Humphrey hauled in his fifth catch of the game in the form of a 9-yard touchdown. That gave Texas the lead, 10-7 with 3 minutes and 46 seconds left in the first half.

Once the offense got going, the Longhorns were rolling. Following a huge defensive stop on fourth and one, Ehlinger led his unit on a four-play, 34-yard drive ending with a 2-yard touchdown by Keaontay Ingram. A much easier score stretched the UT lead to 10.

A Texas Tech field goal right before halftime would send the Horns in the locker room with a 17-10 lead. However, Texas got the ball to start the second half and kept their offensive rhythm. Getting down to the goal line, the Texas Tech defensed bowed up and forced a fourth and goal. But a play-fake by Ehlinger worked perfectly when he hit Devin Duvernay in the back corner of the end zone for a one-yard score. Texas rolling at that point to increase it’s lead to 24-10.

After Texas’ first possession that ended in a punt, the Horns scored on their next five drives including another field goal by Cameron Dicker in the third quarter. A 46-yarder put Texas up 27-10 late in the third quarter.

Texas Tech unraveled at that point in the game. Kris Boyd came up with a huge forced fumble after he stripped the ball out of Duffey’s hands on the following drive. It was the third red zone turnover by Duffey. Texas scored six points off of Tech’s three turnovers through three quarters.

Meanwhile Ehlinger continued his string of passes without an interception, setting a Big 12 conference record of 274 consecutive passes.

Texas Tech would keep it interesting though. Antione Wesley would make his first appearance of the game. Duffey threw a bomb pass to Wesley downfield who finished it off for a 58-yard score to pull the Red Raiders within 10 points with 13 minutes left in the game.

The Horns weren’t done yet, though. Devin Duvernay would come up again for Texas. Ehlinger would find Duvernay for a 39-yard touchdown. Duvernay’s fourth of the season and second in the game. Texas began to pull away with a score of 34-17.

But while the Horns weren’t done, Tech still refused to go away. Executing an onside kick, the Red Raiders recovered the ball, turned around and scored to make it a one possession game, 34-27, all with almost five minutes left on the clock. On the next series Tech’s defense forced a three-and-out to get the ball back with a chance to score with three minutes left in the game. The Red Raider offense needed just five plays to score and tie the game up. Duffey had a 9-yard strike to Wesley for the touchdown, and the game was knotted up at 34 with under two minutes to play.

But that was plenty of time for Sam Ehlinger and the Texas offense. The sophomore quarterback hooked up with Humphrey once more for the go-ahead touchdown.

Texas pulls out the road win, 41-34 over Texas Tech improving to 7-3 on the season.

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