Texas 41, Texas Tech 34: Humphrey’s monster performance holds off late Raider rally

By Rickey Brown

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In a play that had shades of Michael Crabtree’s 2008 game-winning catch that knocked off No. 1 Texas, Lil-Jordan Humphrey flipped the script with a late touchdown of his own that helped the Longhorns to a 41-34 victory in Lubbock.

Here’s three takeaways from the Longhorns’ seventh win of the season.

Humphrey stepping up

With star receiver Collin Johnson sidelined with a knee injury suffered in practice earlier this week, Lil’Jordan Humphrey had his number called upon repeatedly as Texas’ No. 1 receiver for the evening. The junior put up a career game, catching eight passes for 159 yards and two touchdowns on the night. The second was a strong catch in traffic to win the game. However, his play went deeper than the box score. 

Humphrey is often lined up opposite Johnson, who typically draws safety help to his side. Without Johnson to attract defenders his way, Humphrey was clearly quarterback Sam Ehlinger’s go-to target. The Tech defense treated him that way. But that didn’t stop Humphrey, who frequently fought off the Raiders’ best defenders on his way to the best game of his Texas career thus far.

Key takeaways

One cause of the skid the Texas defense has been on as of late is the lack of turnovers forced. In the last two losses, the Longhorns did not have a single takeaway against two offenses that will make you pay if you aren’t aggressive. Texas Tech’s offense seemed to pose similar issues to this defense, despite being on their third-string quarterback Jett Duffey.

Texas was able to take advantage of Duffey, but not due to poor play by the converted receiver. Duffey threw for 444 yards and 4 touchdowns on the day, but it was the turnovers that haunted him. The Longhorns picked him off one time and stripped him twice. Tech only punted one time on the day. Had it not been for those takeaways, particularly a momentum-shifting strip in the red zone by corner Davante Davis, the high-octane Red Raider offense would have run even more wild.

Nearly coughing it up

It has been a theme the last two seasons for this Texas team to play to the level of its opponent. Saturday’s game felt eerily similar to this year’s Red River Showdown, where a late lead disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Strange things tend to happen in night games in Lubbock, and this year was no exception. Down 14 with 6:23 left, the Red Raiders elected to onside kick by kicking it as hard as possible at a player on the front line of the Texas return team. Tech recovered, drove down and scored quickly. It then forced one of only three Longhorn punts on the day.

Texas Tech added several big plays to set up a touchdown pass from Duffey that tied it with 1:49 left to play. However, Ehlinger commandeered the offense down the field for a game-winning drive, capped off by the throw to Humphrey. After Texas Tech quickly gobbled up the Texas lead, it seemed like Texas was finding a way to lose the game. However, Texas managed to grind out a victory despite the poor plays. 

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