West Virginia Snuffs Out Texas Tech Comeback Attempt [PHOTOS, VIDEO]
Saturday's battle of Top 25 teams in Lubbock came down to quarterbacks and turnovers. No. 12 West Virginia (4-0, 2-0) beat no. 25 Texas Tech (3-2, 1-1) 42-34 at Jones AT&T Stadium in a Big 12 Conference game.
The Red Raiders spotted the Mountaineers a 21-0 lead in the first quarter before getting on the board with a 40-yard touchdown pass from Alan Bowman to Antoine Wesley with 2 minutes left in the quarter. In his postgame comments, head coach Kliff Kingsbury said it was his fault for not having his team ready to play in the first half. He also noted that the team wasn't focused, with "9 or 10 dropped passes."
As the Red Raiders treaded water in the first half, Bowman was knocked out of the game with a torso injury late in the second quarter. Kingsbury didn't have an update on Bowman's injury during his postgame press conference, but did admit that he was taken to a local hospital for treatment. After Bowman's injury, Jett Duffey was inserted into the game and quarterbacked the Red Raiders the rest of the way.
Once it hit the second half, the Red Raider defense forced four punts and a missed field goal on the Mountaineers' first five drives. During that span, Duffey led the Red Raider offense to two touchdowns and a field goal to tighten the score to 35-27, West Virginia.
With 7:50 left in the game, West Virginia tried to milk the clock, but were forced to punt after a six-play drive.
With Duffey still leading the Red Raiders offense, Texas Tech had a chance to tie the game with less than 4 minutes to go. However, five plays into the drive, a Duffey interception was returned 51 yards for a touchdown by Keith Washington to ice the game for West Virginia. There were only three turnovers in the game, all from Texas Tech. West Virginia scored 14 points off those turnovers.
West Virginia quarterback Will Grier went 27/41 passing for 370 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
In other injury news, quarterback McLane Carter didn't suit up for Saturday's game, still suffering the effects of a high ankle sprain.
Texas Tech has a bye next week, before playing a Thursday night game at TCU on Thursday, October 11th. Countdown to Kickoff can be heard on 1340 The Fan from 3:30 - 5:30 p,m. that day. You can listen on the air (1340 AM), online via our website or with the free 1340 The Fan app.
Saturday's announced attendance was 55,283, with parts of the student section empty throughout the game.
Texas Tech-West Virginia Game Photos (Courtesy: Paul Roberts)
Texas Tech Football vs West Virginia - 2018
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