LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — After three road losses this season, the Longhorns finally got a win away from Austin to keep their bowl hopes alive
Texas coach Charlie Strong gave his offense high marks for its 658 total yards, especially D’Onta Foreman, who had career highs with three touchdowns and 341 yards, and Shane Buechele, who threw for two touchdowns to lead the Longhorns over Texas Tech 45-37 on Saturday.
“This was a big road win for us,” he said. “We’ll just build on this one. We’ve got a big one next week at home.”
It was Foreman’s 10th straight game with more than 100 yards rushing. His 33 carries was also a career high.
The offensive line stepped up, which is why Foreman had such a good day, Strong said.
“You look at how D’Onta Foreman’s done, the yards that he had — the offensive line blocking as well as they did — it’s amazing just how he just continues to get better and better.”
He almost had a fourth rushing touchdown for Texas (5-4, 3-3 Big 12), but had the ball stripped from him near the goal line, which was returned for a Red Raiders touchdown.
Foreman said he understood there was a lot more football ahead.
“Everyone knows it’s a long game,” he said. “I just didn’t worry about it. I thank these guys, the whole line, for their encouragement.”
Texas Tech (4-5, 2-4,) had leads in the first half but played from behind most of the second. They got close on a 9-yard touchdown run by Da’Leon Ward to pull within 45-37 with 10:50 to play.
Patrick Mahomes completed 36 of 59 passes for three touchdowns and 367 yards. Cameron Batson caught two of those TD passes.
Texas Tech never led in the second half after leading by nine points midway through the second quarter.
“We just hit a lull and never came out of it,” Red Raiders coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “We weren’t as sharp as we needed to be.”
THE TAKEAWAY
Texas: The Longhorns did a lot to get in their own way. A wide open Jerrod Heard dropped a pass from Buechele late in the first quarter on what would have been a 75-yard TD. Then Foreman had the ball stripped from him by Texas Tech freshman DB Douglas Coleman, who took it 100 yards the other way for a Red Raiders score. Replay footage showed that Coleman stepped out of bounds at the 2 but the refs apparently only reviewed the fumble by Foreman.
Texas Tech: The Red Raiders defense, which came into the game allowing about 214 yards rushing, struggled to stop Foreman. They held him to 37 yards in the first quarter but after that there was no stopping the junior RB. He had runs of 55, 38 and 74 yard
JOHNSON COMES UP BIG
Freshman WR Collin Johnson got the first two touchdowns of the year, pulling in one for 16 yards and the other for 9 yards in the first half. It’s the sixth time a freshman at Texas has caught two TDs in one game and the first time since 2008.
TEXAS TOUGH
The Longhorns defense held the Red Raiders well below their season average for total offense (600.3 ypg to rank second in the nation). Texas Tech got just total 482 yards. “We knew what we were up against, knew that we were going to go against a highly potent offense and we needed to go out and make plays and we were able to make those plays, even just to get the ball back for our offense,” Strong said.
BIG 12 — Texas Tech
Kingsbury hasn’t had a winning conference season since he took over the program four years ago. The Red Raiders need to win their last three games in order for the team to get to 5-4 in the league. Overall, Kingsbury is 23-24 at Texas Tech.
UP NEXT:
Texas: The Longhorns return home to play West Virginia.
Texas Tech: The Red Raiders travel to Oklahoma State.
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