Coming off last week’s embarrassing loss to TCU, the Red Raiders got a huge win to move to 5-2 on the season after their Saturday blowout in Lawrence over the Jayhawks.
First Quarter:
Texas Tech dominated in this one from start to finish to earn a much-needed conference win.
Tech started with the ball after they elected to receive and had no issue moving the ball down the field. A 21-yard pass from Quarterback Henry Colombi to Wide Receiver Kaylon Geiger and a 15-yard pass to receiver Myles Price set Tech up in scoring position to strike first.
After Running Back SaRodorick Thompson got them down to the one-yard line, Colombi finished it off with a one-yard touchdown run to give Tech the early 7-0 lead in the first.
Kansas would put together a nice opening drive of their own, but after a stop by Tech’s defense, they would attempt a 47-yard field goal by Jacob Borcila who would kick it wide left setting up Tech with great field position.
On their next series, the Tech offense would make one of their only mistakes of the game after Colombi was picked off by Safety Kenny Logan Jr.
It would not take Tech long to get the ball back after Jayhawk Quarterback Jason Bean was picked off by Dadrion Taylor-Demerson to give the ball back to the offense to open up the second Quarter.
Second Quarter:
Beginning the second quarter, Texas Tech would drive down the field and the offense would stall in the red zone and have to settle for a Jonathan Garibay field goal. He would knock it through from 28-yards to extend their lead 10-0.
Tech’s defense would make a nice stop and force the Jayhawks to punt it back to the Tech offense.
They would put together a 10-play drive getting their star wideout Erik Ezukanma more involved in the offense and he would take a handoff from 9-yards out and take it in for the score to put Texas Tech up 17-0 late in the 2nd.
The Red Raider defense would step up again and force another punt by Kansas to give Tech the ball back with 2:38 left remaining in the half.
Colombi would put together a nice little two-minute offense to drive the Red Raiders down while WR Myles Price finished it off with a 7-yard rushing score to go up 24-0 at the half.
Third Quarter:
Coming out of the half, Kansas’s offense still could not get anything going and would punt on their opening drive of the second half.
Texas Tech came out firing on their opening drive of the half with an 11-play, 92-yard drive combined with a Colombi passing display and some nice runs by Thompson.
The drive would be finished off after backup QB Donavan Smith gets in on the action and runs it in from five yards out and adds a little English to it by lowering his shoulder and sent the Kansas defender five yards into the end zone to give Tech the lead 31-0 halfway through the third.
Kansas’s offense was non-existent for three-fourths of this game and would come out and turn the ball over on downs on their next drive setting the Red Raiders up once again to add onto their lead.
Tech would go 57 yards in five plays with 47 of them coming on a pass play from Smith to Ezukanma.
Colombi would cap it off with his first passing touchdown of the game after a two-yard toss to tight end Travis Koontz to put them up 38-0.
Colombi finished the game 14/20 with 124 yards, one touchdown, and 35 rushing yards with a touchdown on the ground as well.
To close out the third quarter Kansas would go three-and-out again and punt the ball back to the Red Raiders who would start the final quarter with the ball.
Fourth Quarter:
Smith would come in relief for the Red Raiders and put together a nice drive but would have to settle for a Garibay field goal who knocked it through from 49-yards which is a season and career-long for him. Garibay is tied for 1st in the nation for field goal percentage of 100% after he went 2/2 today.
This would extend Tech’s lead to 41-0 early in the fourth quarter.
The Kansas offense finally decided to make an appearance after QB Miles Kendrick found wideout Luke Grimm for a 14-yard score to get on the scoreboard.
On Tech’s next drive having most of their second and third stringers in, wideout Nehemiah Martinez would fumble the ball and Kansas would recover with 0:41 seconds left in the game.
They would go down again and get one more score before the end of the game after Kendrick hit Lawrence Arnold for a 13-yard score to close the gap 14-41.
Texas Tech would kneel it out from there securing the win and giving them their second Big 12 conference win and moving them to 5-2 on the season and 2-2 in conference play.
The Red Raiders are one win away from being bowl eligible with five games remaining. And these next five games will not be a walk in the park for them as they face: Kansas State, Oklahoma, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, and Baylor.
They need to steal a win or two in these last five games if they are to make a bowl game for the first time since 2017 and would be the first time in the Matt Wells era.
We will see Tech’s true colors during this last stretch, but if the defense can make stops and this explosive offense can score touchdowns, Tech has a chance to do something special.
K-State will come to town next weekend who is 3-3 on the season and 0-3 in conference play. They will face off against the Red Raiders at Jones AT&T Stadium with an 11:00 a.m. kickoff set to be televised on FS1.
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