Texas Tech Football: Miscues doom Red Raiders in Iowa State loss

Texas Tech football‘s miscues were too much to overcome on the road in Ames against Iowa State as the Red Raiders fell in a critical Big 12 match-up.

In a game that lived up to the hype of a couple of Big 12 contenders, Texas Tech’s miscues proved too costly to pull out a road win over Iowa State as the Cyclones took down the Red Raiders 40-31.

Freshman quarterback Alan Bowman finally played like his age, making four critical miscues that proved extremely costly.

Bowman threw three interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown in the third quarter by Iowa State’s Marcel Spears. Bowman was routinely pressured by the Iowa State front seven, heaving throws off of his back foot repeatedly; a critical mistake was just waiting to happen, and it happened on the pick-six after a hesitation.

The biggest mistake of the game for Bowman, however, was late in the fourth quarter of a tied game when he was pressured by JaQuan Bailey into his own endzone and threw the ball away, unable to get it to the line-of-scrimmage. He was flagged for intentional grounding in the endzone, which resulted in a safety that gave Iowa State a 33-31 lead.

Iowa State put the game away on the ensuing possession with a 48-yard touchdown pass from Brock Purdy to Hakeem Butler.

It was a familiar refrain for the Red Raiders, as the nation’s 115th ranked team in penalty yardage, was flagged 10 times for 105-yards, with several flags coming in crucial situations.

On Iowa State’s two first half touchdown drives, they were aided by personal foul penalties that turned would-be third-and-longs into first downs. David Montgomery punched in a one-yard touchdown the first time, and Purdy threw a touchdown pass to Charlie Kolar following the second critical penalty.

Texas Tech’s defense was up to the challenge on the road, holding Iowa State for much of the day. They finally broke after the safety, allowing a 25-yard run by David Montgomery after bottling him up for most of the day, and then the backbreaking touchdown pass from Purdy to Butler finished them off.

A couple of non-offensive touchdowns created a spark for Kliff Kingsbury‘s club on a day when their offense struggled to ignite against a physical and attacking Iowa State defense. Thomas Leggett blocked a punt in the first quarter and pounced on it for a touchdown, and Riko Jeffers produced a strip-sack in the fourth quarter that Dakota Allen jumped on to tie the game at 31.

Special teams miscues have hurt Iowa State the last few weeks, and they struggled in that department once again on Saturday. Along with the Texas Tech punt-block in the first quarter, the Red Raiders consistently won the field-position battle, pinning the Cyclones inside their own 10-yard line on three occasions. Kicker Connor Assalley missed a 37-yard field goal, and punter Corey Dunn averaged just 37.5 yards per punt, including one off the side of his foot that led directly to a Texas Tech field goal in the first quarter.

Matt Campbell’s defense has continuously baffled Kingsbury. The previous two years the Red Raiders managed just 23 points combined. Take off the two non-offensive touchdowns in this game and Tech managed just 17 points.

Both teams proved that they will be very dangerous to the powers-at-be in the Big 12 down the stretch of the season. Iowa State’s win puts both teams at 3-2 in the Big 12, both still very much alive for a spot in the Big 12 Championship game.

Iowa State has games left against the bottom of the Big 12 (at Kansas, Baylor, and Kansas State), while also having a critical road showdown in Austin against Texas on the November docket.

It’s a little more complicated now for Tech having already lost to West Virginia as well, but both Oklahoma and Texas have to come to Lubbock in November.

The improvement on the defensive side of the ball has Texas Tech in position to make some noise down the stretch, even after a discouraging loss. The next step in their progression will be cleaning up the miscues like they suffered today.