2021 Week 5: Red Raiders squander early lead, drop to 0-4 on the season

[rcarlson77]

The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season of 2021 continues for Texas Tech and their fans. Despite one of their stronger performances of the season, the Red Raiders were unable to overcome the talent gap losing to the Texas Longhorns by a score of 33-20. The loss dropped the Red Raiders record to 0-4 and 0-1 in conference play.

 

After a horrendous start to the season, coach rcarlson77 pulled the plug on quarterback Reggie Chavis and made the change to fellow senior Jordan Madero prior to the game. While the end result was the same, Madero looked much more capable than Chavis has this season. Texas Tech received the opening kickoff and promptly put together a terrific drive that ultimately stalled at the Texas 16 yard line. Luis Terdoslavich would kick a chip shot field goal to put Texas Tech out front 3-0. After forcing a three and out, Texas Tech would go right back to work. On the third play of the drive, Madero connected with wide receiver Neil Faulkner for a 49 yard touchdown. Just eight minutes into the game, Texas Tech found themselves with a 10 point lead and had silenced the Texas faithful.

 

The teams would trade possessions before Texas would put together a scoring drive of their own ending in a five yard touchdown pass from quarterback John Saffold to wide receiver to Ty Mizzell. With one second left in the first quarter, the lead would be trimmed to three. From here, the Longhorns would start to take control of the game. After forcing a three and out, Texas would score two plays later as John Saffold connected with running back Kelvin Okogie for a 71 yard touchdown pass. And just like that, the Texas Tech lead was gone. Neither offense could get much going for the remainder of the second quarter and would head to the locker room with the score 14-10 in favor of the Longhorns.

 

Texas Tech returned to the field feeling pretty good about their performance, but that excitement would be ripped away quickly. Texas would receive the kick to start the half and would take only three plays to find the endzone. Saffold would connect with Okogie for the second time and stretch the Texas lead. A missed extra point would make the score to 20-10 just 40 seconds into the third quarter. The Red Raiders would turn the ball over on their next two possessions and Texas would make them pay on the second turnover. After an interception, Texas would need just three plays to find the endzone as Saffold would once again connect with Okogie through the air to make the score 27-10. The Red Raider sideline was completely deflated.

 

Texas would force another three and out and add a field goal to stretch the lead to 30-10 with a few minutes left in the quarter. Texas Tech wasn’t quite ready to roll over despite giving up 30 unanswered points. A quick three play drive capped by a 55 yard touchdown pass from Madero to Faulkner would make the score 30-17. Tech would get the defensive stop they needed with an interception of Saffold on the next possession. The Red Raiders would put together a good drive, but would once again stall out in the red zone and would settle for a field goal to trim the score to 30-20. Despite settling for a field goal, there was once again life on the Texas Tech sideline.

 

Unfortunately, that was as close as Texas Tech would get. Another Texas field goal would increase the lead to 33-20 and Texas Tech simply could not get anything going on offense. Eventually, the clock ran out and Texas Tech had suffered another defeat at the hands of a Top 25 team.

 

Afterwards, it was much of the same from the Red Raiders head man. “There’s not much else to say that hasn’t already been said. We played one of our better games of the year, but it clearly wasn’t enough. Far too often would our offense stall out and we would turn around and give up a big play or a score in just a few plays. Those sudden changes are a killer and we weren’t able to overcome them. When you give up 30 unanswered, you’re making your life difficult. Hats off to Texas though. That’s a good team with a talented quarterback. There’s a reason they're in the Top 25 and 4-1 on the season.”

 

Life won’t get any easier for Texas Tech next week. Heading to Lubbock will be the 4-1 Baylor Bears who are ranked 14th in the country. It’s yet another top 25 opponent for a defeated Texas Tech team, their fourth through the first five games.