Stagnant offense, too many big plays by Texas Tech, inopportune mistakes shatter BYU's undefeated season

LUBBOCK, Texas — It was early in the first quarter, BYU had just stopped the Texas Tech offense, and the Cougars' Parker Kingston bobbled the punt return, which was picked up by the Red Raiders — a play foreshadowing the Cougars' luck on the day.

BYU ended up losing the game 29-7, which somehow makes the game look closer than it was.

The Cougars found themselves down 10-0 at the end of the first quarter, behind a sloppy first quarter from the BYU offense and special teams. BYU coach Kalani Sitake credited Texas Tech and its ability to give the Cougar offense problems.

“A lot of miscues in the first half,” Sitake said. “We didn’t help ourselves at all … Texas [Tech] did a great job at controlling the game.”

Texas Tech had a monopoly on the dynamic play game, with huge runs and deep field bombs that proved to be too much for BYU to handle.

Senior BYU safety Tanner Wall thought that the game was decided by not preventing enough of these plays.

“I thought defensively … we were in some tough spots,” Wall said. “There were a couple big plays that we gave up, that we’d love to have back.”

The Red Raiders have made it their mission all season long to feed off of the other teams mistakes and punish them for it, which Texas Tech did against BYU.

“We definitely left some plays out there on the field,” said Wall. “We have got to play great, and I didn’t think we played great.”

BYU’s defense started the game off great, but the offense took too long to get going, making it near impossible for this game to be close.

Quarterback Bear Bachmeier finished the game with 188 yards on 23 of 38 attempts, with one interception and one fumble. Bachmeier looked restless all game due to the incredible defense of Texas Tech.

Photo by Christina Hsiung

“This is going to be a moment for him to really establish who he is as a quarterback,” BYU receiver Chase Roberts said. “I’m excited to see how Bear handles it, we’re going to rally behind him, and he’s going to lead us.”

This was the first game this season for BYU where the moment might have looked too big for the talented freshman.

Photo by Christina Hsiung

“I think they made things difficult for him,” said Sitake about Texas Tech's defense. “We can’t just blame our one guy that didn’t get much complement on special teams and defense.”

It was the dominating play of Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez that gave the BYU offense problems. He finished with 14 tackles, one sack, an interception and a fumble recovery.

Rodriguez formed an impressive duo with David Bailey, which made it nearly impossible for BYU’s offense to get much momentum.

It was a 10-play, 80-yard drive that put the exclamation point on this win by Texas Tech. The Red Raiders took a 26-0 lead early in the fourth quarter, crushing BYU’s chances of making a late-game comeback.

BYU now looks ahead to its matchup next week against TCU at home. The Cougars should come into the game with extra motivation after their poor performance against Texas Tech.

“We’re going to have an opportunity to play Texas Tech again,” Roberts said, “and beat them, so that’s what we have to do.”

BYU hopes Roberts' confidence is justified as the Cougars still find themselves in the Big 12 title race, as long as they win out.

This game should serve as a great opportunity for Bachmeier to grow and learn from his mistakes, giving this BYU team the chance to compete for higher stakes, late-season football.