Texas Tech kept its perfect season alive and knocked off Houston in a 28-26 thriller from Lubbock. Despite the historic start for the Red Raiders, Joey McGuire is ready for them to take the next step.
LUBBOCK -- No. 13 Texas Tech welcomed No. 22 Houston for a Friday night showdown in front of a sold-out crowd in Lubbock that was anticipated throughout the entire offseason.
And the matchup lived up to these expectations, as the Red Raiders held on for a 28-26 victory over the Cougars after denying a game-tying two-point conversion at the goal line.
This nail-biting finish came after Texas Tech dug its way out of a 10-0 hole at the end of the first quarter and rallied to take the lead for good early in the final quarter.
For the second straight season, Texas Tech is perfect through three weeks of the season and is undefeated to begin Big 12 play.
Prior to last year, the Red Raiders had not accomplished this feat since 2013, when they opened the season on a 7-0 run.
Needless to say, it was a historic moment for the program, especially considering the Coogs were no slouch themselves in the conference opener.
While there is cause for celebration for Texas Tech, there is also room for improvement with nine games left on the schedule.
Those sentiments were echoed by Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire following the heart-pounding result inside Galaxy Stadium.
"I will tell you this. We've had three games that we are causing ourselves a lot of headaches," said McGuire.
Not only taking into consideration the aforementioned 10-0 deficit, Texas Tech committed two turnovers and had a handful of costly penalties, which goes a long way in proving his point.
Although he was frustrated with some of these unusual errors, McGuire also expressed his appreciation that the Red Raiders can address them off a victory instead of reeling from a loss.
"We don't have to learn off a loss. We can learn a lot off a win and just keep building," explained McGuire.
"We learned last week. We'll learn from this week."
Despite all the issues and failures to reach the same height as last season's vaunted squad so far this year, McGuire had a simple yet succinct takeaway.
"We don't look the same, but we're 3-0," remarked McGuire.
It undoubtedly will not be dispatching foes by 50 points or more every week this season, but Texas Tech is still winning and appears to only be trending upward.
Texas Tech takes on Sam Houston next in another sold-out home clash to close out its non-conference schedule, which should offer a much needed break from the dramatics and give the Red Raiders a chance to continue ironing out some glaring weaknesses.
