PROVO \u2014 Like much of the ground under the west Texas oil fields, BYU’s undefeated season sunk in the Lubbock desert Saturday.<\/p>\n
Cameron Dickey ran for 121 yards and a touchdown, and No. 8 Texas Tech handed seventh-ranked BYU its first loss, 29-7, Saturday afternoon at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas.<\/p>\n
Behren Morton threw for 219 and a touchdown, and Stone Harrington nailed five field goals for Texas Tech (9-1, 6-1 Big 12) to put itself back in the driver’s seat for a spot in the Big 12 championship game.<\/p>\n
BYU, too, controls its own destiny for a berth in the conference title game Dec. 6 in Arlington, Texas. But the Cougars have no room for error, with a head-to-head tiebreaker over two-loss Utah, and a late-season tilt with one-loss Cincinnati still remaining.<\/p>\n
More pressing is how the Red Raiders held BYU scoreless until Bear Bachmeier found Chase Roberts for a 6-yard touchdown with 7:35 left in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
The Cougars (8-1, 5-1 Big 12) had just 157 yards of offense before Bachmeier capped an eight-play, 75-yard drive midway through the final quarter.<\/p>\n
But the visitors were down 26-8 at that point in their first loss of the year.<\/p>\n
“Coach McGuire had his guys ready to play,” said BYU coach Kalani Sitake, calling Texas Tech “one of the best teams in the country.”<\/p>\n
“They did a good job of holding us off, and we were trying to make a run and get the momentum switched. We weren’t able to do that. … We just didn’t do enough against a really good team at home. They found a way to play better than we did.<\/p>\n
“This is going to be a really good experience for us to learn from.”<\/p>\n
Bachmeier finished with 188 passing yards, but just 17 on the ground. LJ Martin ran for 35 yards on nine carries and added 29 yards on a team co-leading six receptions, while Roberts finished with 61 yards on six catches for the Cougars.<\/p>\n
Texas Tech outgained BYU with 368 yards to 255, including holding the visitors to just 67 rushing yards while forcing three turnovers.<\/p>\n
Texas Tech gained -24 yards on its first two drives, but opened with a field goal and outgained the Cougars 68-46 en route to the 10-0 first-quarter lead.<\/p>\n
Special teams didn’t help the visitors, with a shanked punt, a muffed punt and a missed 51-yard field goal attempt leaving three consecutive empty possessions before Harrington stretched the lead to 13-0 with his second field goal with 8:08 left in the half.<\/p>\n
In between, of course, was Morton’s 9-yard touchdown strike to a toe-tapping Caleb Douglas to complement a defense that forced five straight empty possessions and held BYU to 2-of-8 on third downs.<\/p>\n
The Cougars sacked Morton four times in the first half \u2014 including twice by former Weber State transfer Jack Kelly<\/a>, with another quarterback hurry \u2014 but the veteran quarterback with 40 games of collegiate experience completed 8-of-15 passes for 134 yards en route to a 13-0 halftime advantage.<\/p>\n BYU’s defense was as advertised in the first top-10 matchup in program history.<\/p>\n