A 75-yard rushing touchdown by SaRodorick Thompson with 3:13 to go in the fourth quarter looked to be the nail in the coffin for the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the Big 12 opener against the No. 8 Texas Longhorns. For Sam Ehlinger and the Longhorns, there was plenty of time left to at least get a score.

That, they did, and with ease.

The Longhorns were able to march down the field, score a touchdown, corral an onside kick, and once again score with under a minute to go regulation. The Longhorns then tied the game on the ensuing two-point conversion.

And as history tells, Texas Tech has not been the most winning team in extra time, and that proved to carry on as the Longhorns converted on an unanswerable 12-yard pass from Ehlinger to Joshua Moore, lifting Texas over Texas Tech 63-56 in overtime.

“What a ballgame,” Texas Tech head coach Matt Wells said in his opening statement postgame. “I’m proud of our guys. They fought. They’re resilient. What a college football game, and we’ve got to find a way to close it out.”

Unprecedented plays occurred in Xavier Martin’s touchdown off a blocked punt. Martin was originally recruited as a dual-threat quarterback until he arrived at Tech, where he was moved to many positions. Jacob Morgenstern also blocked a punt and had five total tackles, including one tackle-for-loss.

Arizona transfer and linebacker Colin Schooler made his Red Raider debut as well as Texas A&M transfer and defensive end Tyree Wilson and each made their presence felt. Schooler was credited with seven total tackles while Wilson had a sack and a quarterback hurry.

Wells saw a lot of positives ranging from special teams to newcomers to the dominant offensive production. Wells said guys like Schooler, Morgenstern, and Tyree Wilson really showed out tonight in their first action of the season. Special teams also proved to step up, and Wells credited that pointed out other things he saw like third down play and the turnover margin.

“There are some things that we did well,” Wells said. “I thought we played really well on third down. Third down defense was really good. We did not get enough turnovers. We lost the turnover margin. That was a key to their victory. I think we were minus-two there on both sides because that’s a team stat. We didn’t finish in the red zone a couple of times. Special teams, there were big plays for us and there were big plays against us, so it was probably a wash.”

Wells said there were a few things he liked including Alex Hogan’s play and the Seth Collins move to safety.

“Alex Hogan, I think played well,” Well said. “It was good to have (Adrian Frye) back and Ja’Marcus Ingram back. Those two guys, you know what they move Seth, moving Seth Collins to safety will help, still doesn’t have enough time back there for reps and everything, but I thought he came in and played well, I was happy with him for what I saw before I watch it on tape. But yeah there’s still room to improve but definitely some improvement was made, it was noticeable a little bit.”

The two interceptions by quarterback Alan Bowman were a result of two special teams plays. Kicker Trey Wolff surprised the Longhorns kickoff return team with an onside kick to himself and a blocked punt that gave Tech great field position deep in Longhorn territory. Bowman was also 31 of 52 for 325 yards and five touchdowns on the night.

The Red Raiders were out-ran on the ground with the Longhorns’ 214 rushing yards to their 116, 104 of those yards being produced by SaRodorick Thompson, who had himself quite the outing with two scores.

KeSean Carter, yet again, had another impressive outing with seven catches for 77 yards and two touchdowns. Carter said just the pace the offense was going helped them click.

“Just executing on our plays,” Carter said. “Just came back out of halftime and executed our plays even more and just turned it around.”

Receiver TJ Vasher, who rallied in four catches for 74 yards and two touchdowns as well, said this game hurt not finishing it.

“Since I got here in 2016, it feels like we have always found ourselves in battles,” Vasher said. “The energy exerted feels normal now. Playing hard and trying to play through the whistle is something that we pride ourselves in. We’re always trying to finish things off and get that last step so we can go home with a win.”

Going into the game, the Longhorns were a 17.5-point favorite and much-talked about to have a chance to finally make a run at a Big 12 championship, and the Red Raiders exposed that. However, Wells made it clear the close loss was no moral victory.

“There is no moral victory at all in that for us,” Wells said. “What we need to do is use that to springboard us in the coming weeks going on the road. I’m proud of our guys, and I’m proud to be their coach. We gotta keep digging in, dig deeper and find a way to close it out.”