With the regular-season finale against Baylor at McClain Stadium looking like an nearly certain loss, Texas has two games to pick up two wins, giving the players a little bit of extra incentive to overcome those road woes.
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Mahomes had two first-half scoring passes, but the Red Raiders got no points on two other trips inside the West Virginia 25 in the second quarter and had to settle for a pair of second-half field goals after getting interceptions and driving inside West Virginia’s 20.
What the loss means for Texas Tech: Since jumping to a 7-0 start two years ago in Kliff Kingsbury’s first season, the Red Raiders are 0-17 against Big 12 opponents not named Kansas or Iowa State. The highly productive back has 954 yards and 6 touchdowns on 6.7 yards per carry this season.
West Virginia was at the Tech one when time ran out.
Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who entered as the nation’s No. 3 passer at 370 yards per game, was victimized by four dropped throws and held to 196 yards on 21-of-34 passing. “Jovon Durante has made plays for us this year and will continue to get better”, Holgorsen explained. Dana Holgorsen said he was OK with the plays, but it would appear those plays were Skyler Howard’s plays. The two-time defending tournament champions, WVU will face the victor of No. 4 Oklahoma No. 5 Texas Tech on Friday at 6:30 p.m. ET. The passing attack for WVU was a different story.
“When you’re dealing with the group that we have, it’s that we can play better and we just haven’t played better”, Texas coach Charlie Strong said.
“They’re like the previous teams we have faced, ” Mountaineers defensive line coach Bruce Tall told reporters about the Red Raiders. We felt like we could come in and run the ball. Washington rushed for 102 yards for Texas Tech, while Mahome ran for 73. “Even last night when we went to work, I didn’t have to say much because they went out and they were locked in and focused, and they understood just how big this game is”.
My Final thoughts: The Texas Tech defense may be dead last in the Big 12 in stopping the run.
WVU had 300 yards rushing. But West Virginia has had a tough Big 12 schedule, thus far.
After running for 10 yards on third down, Smallwood broke off a 28-yard rush to, eclipsing 100 yards on the day and putting the Mountaineers inside the red zone.
The Mountaineers are coming off a 31-26 win over Texas Tech. The 5-foot-7 senior is 110 yards away from overtaking Eric Stephens for the school record for kick return yards and is 155 yards from passing Michael Crabtree as the career receiving yards leader.
If Strong orchestrates a third consecutive upset over Holgorsen, we’ll pronounce it a trend.
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SUFFERING SKYLER: When West Virginia won its first three games, quarterback Skyler Howard completed 69 percent of his passes for nine touchdowns with one interception. The maligned Texas offense beat up on the Jayhawks, piling up 598 yards of offense in Saturday’s 59-20 win.
