For the first time since 2018, Texas Tech played a regular season game on Thursday, and they did it for the first time at Jones AT&T Stadium since 2016.
The 2018 game was also the last time Tech beat TCU and took the Saddle Trophy, funny enough.
This year, it was a night to remember because it felt a bit strange: college football on a Thursday; no horse for the Masked Rider; a drone show before the fourth quarter; and maybe most importantly, the opossum on the field (we’ll get there, or you can skip to No. 8).
It was also a night to remember because Tech got the win and the Saddle Trophy over TCU 35-28.
Tech was led by 146 rushing yards and a touchdown from Tahj Brooks on 31 carries, a seemingly healthy quarterback Behren Morton getting three touchdowns (one rushing, two passing) and 282 passing yards, and two interceptions from safety Dadrion “Rabbit” Taylor-Demerson.
The two interceptions from Taylor-Demerson were the first turnovers for Tech since Oct. 7 and the first interceptions since Sept. 23, and they were key to Tech’s victory.
One set up a Brooks touchdown that they desperately needed at the end of the third quarter, and the other effectively ended the game with 55 seconds left.
The Red Raiders improved to 4-5 on the year and 3-3 in Big 12 play. Most importantly, a bowl game feels within reach, even if it still will be difficult with the position they’re in.
The IMPORTANT questions 😉
There were a lot of important questions I had before and during Thursday’s Texas Tech-TCU football game at Jones AT&T Stadium, and I was mostly pleased with the answers.
- Would Texas Tech fold and pack it in at 3-5 on the year?
- Was Behren Morton actually healthy?
- Could the defense get turnovers to help the offense?
- How did the offensive line look with the switch?
- Will the bye week actually help this team?
- How many people would show up on a Thursday night for a matchup between teams that aren’t better than .500?
- After three punts to start the game, would it be a boring night in Lubbock?
- Why didn’t they free the opossum and let him score a touchdown?
- Is the opossum actually @MateoNoMayo, or at least related?
No. 1: They didn’t pack it in
Look, they may have put themselves in a hole they can’t get out of with two tough road games left against Kansas and Texas that they have to win one of, but they aren’t a team that will quit.
Should they have been in this position at 3-5 needing to win three of four games to be bowl-eligible? Absolutely not.
The loss to Wyoming is still inexcusable for multiple reasons, and Tech played awful at West Virginia. Injuries didn’t really help them against Kansas State and BYU, especially having Morton out for the second half of K-State and all of BYU.
After having a 20-7 halftime lead, they went down 21-20 in the third quarter, and the last touchdown came on a short field after Tech didn’t convert a 4th-and-one with Brooks.
With everything that’s happened this year, this team could’ve folded. It’s not like they haven’t blown a 17-0 lead or other leads this season.
Then, the Taylor-Demerson pick and two Brooks rushes gave them the lead right before the third quarter ended, and the two-point conversion pass from Morton to Jerand Bradley was a nice exclamation point. The fourth-quarter bomb from Morton to Drae McCray was all they ended up needing on offense to get the win.
Whatever happens, maybe this is a turning point for the program, even if it doesn’t ultimately result in a postseason like it should have. Maybe this entire season becomes something the staff and players remember in the future.
If they go down, they’ll go down swinging.
No. 2: “70-80%” looks pretty good
Brooks helped a lot, as usual, by going for 146 yards and becoming the first 1,000-yard rusher at Tech since DeAndre Washington in 2015 (1,492) while moving into the top 10 in all-time Tech career rushing yards.
His impact is understood, but whether we should or not, we expect him to be the man he is.
What really felt big was the passing game. People like Xavier White having 60 yards after the catch helps, but being able to hit the middle and have big bombs on passing plays makes this offense so much better and closer to what we thought it would be all season.
Morton threw 5-for-6 over the middle overall and 2-for-2 on passes that went at least 15 yards.
What were those two passes? The first one was 25 yards to Myles Price for a touchdown, and the second was the final touchdown to Drae McCray that went 41 yards as McCray ran the last three in for the score.
Sept. 30 was the last time this team didn’t have any turnovers until Thursday, and Morton deserves credit for not throwing an interception.
When the quarterback throws for 282 yards and two touchdowns with no picks and the running back runs for 146? That’s good offense no matter how you slice it.
Morton said he’s probably about 70-80% now, and he’s happy to be as close to 100% as he has been. It’s day-to-day with him, but if Tech gets this out of Morton, this season is definitely salvageable.
No. 3: Forced two turnovers at the biggest moments
The interceptions’ importance cannot be overstated.
Taylor-Demerson had chances all night. One was called back due to a roughing the passer call, and one was dropped that he probably thought he could’ve gotten.
When he finally got one with 40 seconds left in the third quarter, it was a huge momentum swing that allowed Brooks to make two good runs and put six on the board.
Taylor-Demerson said they had a psychology session a couple days before the game about talking to themselves, and he kept telling himself that he was going to change Thursday’s game.
“I was just telling myself the whole day, ‘I’m going to be a game changer,’ just constantly in my head,” Taylor-Demerson said, “like, ‘I’m going to change this game.’ I told my group before the game, ‘I’m going to change this game for us, and I want them to be a part of that.’ So, when it happened, man, I’m happy right now, man…I’ve always dreamed of getting the game-winning interception, and it happened tonight, so I can’t even express what this means to me.”
The offense isn’t going to be perfect, and it shouldn’t be expected to be. Neither should the defense, of course, but both sides of the ball have to give the other side some good situations in key moments.
The defense wasn’t particularly bad the last two games, but not getting turnovers hurt. That pick in the third quarter changed the game, and it’s possible Tech doesn’t win if Taylor-Demerson doesn’t catch that.
No. 4: The offensive line did its job
Dennis Wilburn was a major surprise last season at center, so the idea of moving him back to his more natural position at right guard was something that made Wilburn and the team excited.
Unfortunately, grad transfer Rusty Staats had more issues snapping the ball than anyone expected. The team made the change for Thursday to put Staats at right guard and move Wilburn to center.
McGuire credited the offensive line switch for a part of why the offense played as well as it did. He said when you can get a clean snap, it makes everything easier for the quarterback. They only allowed two sacks, and McGuire said it was basically one sack because Morton ran out of bounds for a one-yard loss on one of them.
The line was good, but a lot of credit still has to go to Brooks and Morton, especially Brooks. Brooks can break tackles at an amazing rate, but you hate having to rely on him to do it every single time. He ran for 4.7 yards a carry Thursday, but in the third quarter, he ran for eight yards on his first six carries, and it wasn’t really on him.
He ended the quarter with two runs after Taylor-Demerson’s pick to get Tech the lead again, but it shows that Brooks, and even Morton, can’t be expected to do it all. It is still something to watch in the last three games.
No. 5: The bye week was huge
Injuries have plagued this team. It’s a part of football, but it can be hard losing a starting middle linebacker, your left guard, and your top two quarterbacks, among other positions throughout the season.
Even Thursday, edge rusher Steve Linton was a late scratch after McGuire said his back locked up late in the week, and they couldn’t get him healthy.
Tyler Shough was the starting quarterback the first four games, but he got hurt against West Virginia and may not come back this season.
Having 12 days to rest is nothing to scoff at, though, even without the injuries. On Monday, defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter said the bye week helped the team mentally decompress and get away from them for a bit.
They’ll still get a slightly bigger break after this game since it was Thursday as their next game is against Kansas on Nov. 11.
TCU got a bye week, too, but maybe theirs didn’t go as well. Tech’s did, and it might give them a spark.
No. 6: The crowd wasn’t bad
Honestly, it was a solid crowd, all things considered. The official attendance was 51,185 people in the Jones, which isn’t bad with a Thursday night game. People have to go to work Friday, people can’t travel as much, and the crowd had to fill in a bit early in the game.
Unlike the last home game, though, the crowd was happy at the end.
No. 7: Three punts to start made it seem like it could be boring, but in the end…
Absolutely not. The drone show before the fourth quarter was great, we got confused why the Masked Rider didn’t have a horse, and it made up for the game running long at certain moments.
After one first down on the first three drives of the game, the teams combined for nine first downs on the next two drives as they both scored touchdowns in what became a close battle.
No matter what happened, a Tech win tends to make it fun in Lubbock.
All of this is great, but you know what’s the most important thing…
No. 8: OPOSSUM
The opossum running on the field stole the show. Who would’ve thought a win over a CFP team from last season and an amazing drone show would be nationally overshadowed?
Sure, we could say the MVP was Brooks, Morton or Taylor-Demerson, but the real MVP? The opossum. It made everybody start talking about this game.
If we knew an opossum was coming to the field, no doubt the game would’ve sold out.
Also, if you’re Texas Tech or a store with Tech apparel, you HAVE to start selling opossum Tech merch. This is a huge marketing opportunity that you can’t waste.
Tech President Lawrence Schovanec petted him, too. Mad respect for Schovanec, by the way, understanding the importance of this small creature. Never let this picture get destroyed.
Officially, a Tech spokesperson said the opossum was taken humanely by Lubbock Animal Services. Wherever the opossum is, we hope he’s okay.
#FreetheOpossum
UPDATE: Lubbock Animal Services announced the opossum was safely returned to a natural habitat.
No. 9: Was the opossum @MateoNoMayo or related to him?
Yes. It was Matty. He can’t deny that he was.
Rats and opossums are basically the same thing. All your facts can’t change the truth. Him tweeting after the game when the opossum was taken away means nothing.
Besides, we know now he’s back in a natural habitat 🙂
Seriously, whoever this opossum is, maybe it was a strange sort of sign. A fox ran onto the field when Tech beat TCU in 2013 at the Jones.
Considering he was released, we won’t get to ask the opossum questions Monday, but one can dream, right?
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