Can Texas Avenge Last Year’s Loss to BYU? Vegas Big 12 Predictions for Week 2 Here.

Vegas Big 12 Predictions

Texas Tech at UTEP

Line: Texas Tech by 11

The Red Raiders are safe from a week of embarrassment after they had to win a shootout last Saturday against Central Arkansas. The team put up big numbers on offense the way it usually does, but 2 costly turnovers and allowing 406 yards on defense hurt. As Texas Tech travels on the road this year, they’ll have to be much better at taking care of the football and much tougher on defense, especially throughout the rest of the season if they’re trying to go to the next level with Kliff Kingsbury. A road game against a 1-0 UTEP team may not be as easy for Texas Tech as fans might think.

UTEP scored a major road win against New Mexico last week in the fourth quarter, led by 237 yards rushing from Aaron Jones and another 84 from Nathan Jeffery. The rushing attack is what they’ll try to use against Texas Tech, which allowed 178 yards on the ground on Saturday. If the Miners can get that going, not only could they have a field day against a suspect Red Raiders rush defense, but they could also control the clock and keep Kingsbury’s up-tempo offense off the field.

Prediction

UTEP has the perfect recipe to pull off an upset here against Texas Tech on paper, especially since the Red Raiders almost lost to Central Arkansas last week, but they’ll be fine. Texas Tech will still put up big numbers, while UTEP will try, unsuccessfully, to keep them off the field. This will be a very solid Red Raiders win.

Texas Tech: 38 UTEP: 21