LUBBOCK, Texas — After the No. 8 Texas Tech Raiders thoroughly thrashed the No. 7 BYU Cougars 29-7 Saturday afternoon at sold-out Jones AT&T Stadium, Cougars receiver Chase Roberts provided the home team plenty of bulletin board material if the two Big 12 leaders meet again in four weeks in in Arlington, Texas.
After complimenting Tech for being the better team in the top-10 matchup in Lubbock, Roberts said the Cougars (5-1, 8-1) would love another shot at the Red Raiders (6-1, 9-1), who are now on top of the Big 12 standings and a half-game ahead of the Cougars and Cincinnati (5-1, 7-2), which was idle Saturday.
“Yeah, of course,” Roberts said, when asked if he his hoping to face Texas Tech again in the Metroplex in the Big 12 championship game. “You always want to play the best, and especially when you feel like you left a lot out there. So we are gonna meet them again, promise you that, and we’re gonna go beat them.”
Roberts was targeted by freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier 12 times, and came away with six catches for 61 yards and a touchdown. His longest reception went for 14 yards, as BYU had only one passing play of more than 20 yards, a grab by Parker Kingston in the fourth quarter.
All that explosiveness that BYU showed in come-from-behind Big 12 wins over Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Iowa State dried up on the dusty South Plains as 20-mph winds swirled throughout the day.
Texas Tech’s star-studded defense, with an NIL payroll of $7 million for its defensive line alone, held the Cougars to 188 passing yards and 14 first downs.
The Cougars averaged only 3.9 yards per play, and were just 3 of 14 on third down.
“I just think we needed a big play to get the momentum rolling. I feel like I left some out there that I could have made, just catching the ball to get our offense rolling,” Roberts said, putting the blame on himself for the lackluster offensive performance.
“You know, as a leader and as a veteran, you want to step up and be the guy to get the offense rolling. I personally felt like I could have done better in that regard, and (should have) been able to put Bear in better positions to throw to open guys.”
Kingston caught five passes for 43 yards and running back LJ Martin caught six passes for 29 yards as the Cougars used the ailing RB (shoulder) in the pass game, but not effectively.
Bachmeier completed 61% of his passes — Tech QB Behren Morton also struggled throwing into the wind, completing 53% of his throws — and was intercepted once. Bachmeier finally looked like a freshman after a tremendous start to his first season.
“We are excited to go forward, especially with a freshman quarterback like Bear, and the way he’s been playing, and how much love we have for him,” Roberts said.
“We got a lot in store for the next few games, and however many games we play after that, and then for Bear, the rest of his career.”
Speaking of the next few games — against TCU at home next Saturday and then at second-place Cincinnati in two weeks — Roberts acknowledged that the Cougars will have to win those and again on Senior Night against UCF in late November to get to Arlington.
“Going forward, we don’t care about the outside noise. We don’t care about the eye test. We just got to take care of the next three games, and when we do that, and we’re a one-loss team, we’re going to have an opportunity to play Texas Tech again and beat them,” Roberts said.
“So that’s what we got to do. When you have critics out there that don’t respect BYU, then they don’t know. They haven’t been in our workouts, they haven’t been in our practices. They don’t know what we do, so we got to put it out on the field. We didn’t do that today. We got to do that going forward so that they can’t say anything and we just win games.”
Texas Tech will be in every game it plays because of its defense, which Pro Football Focus has rated as the best in the country. The Red Raiders looked the part Saturday, holding the Cougars to a season-low yard and points total.
The Red Raiders host UCF next Saturday, then have a bye before finishing the regular season at West Virginia.