That one is going to linger and sting for a long time. For as embarrassing as 82-27 was last year, it wasn't nearly as heartbreaking what happened this afternoon.
Everyone expected a shootout and we got it. It didn't look great for the Red Raiders early, but they clawed out of an early 16-7 deficit and, from that point, hung swing for swing with the Frogs.
There are a few decision points in this game that folks will look back on and question, given how the game ended. The first is Kingsbury's decision to call a timeout with less than a minute to go in the first half -- presumably in an attempt to get the ball back with some time left -- but TCU converted a third-and-long in that series and eventually scored a touchdown. The second is the play-calling on the team's final real drive of the game, where the Red Raiders had a chance to ice the game with a sustained drive -- like they did against Arkansas last week -- but went three-and-out and burned just 1:42 off the clock.
Good news. Texas Tech will never face Trevone Boykin or Josh Doctson ever again.
I thought, considering he was playing through obvious discomfort, Pat Mahomes played admirably. He completed 55.5 percent of his passes for 392 yards, rushed for 36 yards and scored three total touchdowns. Most importantly, he didn't the the ball over.
The Red Raiders came within a hair's width of topping the third-ranked team in the country and Kingsbury's offseason areas of emphasis were big reasons why. Texas Tech had just three penalties to TCU's 10 and the Red Raiders basically kept a clean sheet from a turnover standpoint -- although the safety should probably be counted as one.
DeAndre Washington played his ass off today -- 22 carries, 188 yards and four touchdowns. He carried this team in a lot of ways, especially in the immediate aftermath of Mahomes' injury.
That was a game that was there to be had and Texas Tech couldn't make the plays at the end to win the game. Folks, I'm sure, will spend a good amount of time over the next few days trying to assign one person the blame for the loss -- Kingsbury, David Gibbs, Mahomes, Justis Nelson, etc. -- but collectively they failed to execute at the end.
I am extremely curious to see how this team responds to this. It's one thing to lose, another thing altogether to lose like that. They've got another huge opportunity in front of them in less than a week. How do they handle this adversity? I think we'll learn a lot about both this team's players and its coaching staff next Saturday.
Kudos to the crowd. I don't want to get caught up in the moment, but easily one of the two or three best crowds I've seen in Jones Stadium since I moved back to Lubbock.
