Turnovers, offensive futility, and atypical execution failures on special teams, among several other factors all worked against a Cougar team that has used their brand of complementary football so well through the first eight games played this season, all of them wins. But all of it was upended in definitive fashion on Saturday at the hands of a Red Raider team that proved well-prepared, athletic and solid in their execution throughout.

“I’m proud of the guys. The guys played hard. We just didn’t do enough against a really good team,” said BYU Coach Kalani Sitake in his opening comments to the media following the game. “This is a really good team at home, and they found a way to play better than we did. But this is going to be a great experience for us to learn from and we look forward to getting better.”

The Cougars will have to get a lot of things better, based on what they showed on Saturday, should they hope to turn the tables on the Red Raiders should they meet up in the Big 12 Championship Game, a scenario that is still a strong possibility despite the loss.

Presenting a viable offensive attack that will probably have to make do with limited contributions from running back LJ Martin should be high on the priority list to get better. Martin saw action throughout Saturday’s contest, sure, but was clearly battling through some pain issues due to his shoulder injury sustained two weeks ago in a 41-27 win over Iowa State. Central to just about every facet of BYU’s offensive attack, Martin ran the ball just 10 times for 35 yards while adding six catches for 29.

“He can carry the ball more, but we were trying to work him into it,” Sitake said when asked of Martin’s relatively paltry run total. “We knew that he wouldn’t be able to be full strength, but we needed him in some fashion, and we were able to get some yards in the beginning. We just got to keep plugging away.”

As has been the case all season, little to no production was to be found from the running backs backing up Martin. Converted safety Preston Rex managed just 10 yards on four carries as the Cougars failed to mount a viable running threat and ended the game with just 67 yards rushing.

As for BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier, who has been able to add substantial gains to his team’s running attack, he was limited to just 12 yards on 11 carries while finding little to no space to operate in the open field.

And the gains made through the air weren’t much better.

Sure, Bachmeier was able to guide the team downfield for late score, but overall the offense found no consistent groove evidenced by just 188 yards passing with an interception and an unforced fumble to add to the relative futility.

“We just weren’t able to get the momentum swinging our way,” Sitake said. “We weren’t able to get anything going on offense, so that was a struggle, and special teams wasn’t really an advantage for us.”

Special teams didn’t just fail to help BYU’s cause on Saturday, but played a big role in hindering it.

From the get go BYU’s typically exemplary special teams play was lacking on Saturday, beginning with a muffed punt return from Parker Kingston that ultimately led to a Red Raider field goal. A little later saw punter Sam Vander Haar shank a punt that went for just 19 yards while Will Ferrin couldn’t connect on a 51-yard field goal attempt.

Just about all the bright spots for the Cougars were found on the defensive side of the football which was very good in spots from issuing good pressures that accounted for four sacks while proving stout in multiple redzone situations. Overall the defense yielded just 368 yards of total offense, which is more than 100 yards below Texas Tech’s average, but gave up a few too many chunk plays and third-down conversions to leave Lubbock even close to satisfied.

“I thought we played good, but not great,” assessed BYU safety Tanner Wall. “Defensively we were in some tough spots, and we were able to hold them to field goals on some short fields. There were a couple of big plays that we gave up that we’d love to have back…We definitely left some plays out there on the field, and we’ve got to play complementary football…We’ve got to play great, and I don’t think we played great. We just played good.”

As mentioned, the likelihood of BYU squaring off again against Texas Tech remains strong despite the loss, which was BYU’s first of the season. The teams with just one loss in Big 12 Conference play are now BYU, Texas Tech and Cincinnati, a team BYU will play against in a couple of weeks.

So the Cougars still control their own destiny, a fact receiver Chase Roberts was apparently very well aware of when he took to the postgame podium while expressing some fairly surprising bravado given what had just transpired on the field.

“We’re going to meet them again. I promise you that, and we’re going to beat them,” Roberts said.

But Roberts readily noted that a lot of wound-licking and learning will have to transpire quickly should the Cougars hope to win out and turn things around if they’re indeed afforded the opportunity to meet up with the Red Raiders again.

“We’re such a good team (and) it sucks when we don’t play like that,” Roberts concluded. “…We know what we can do and we know the type of team that we have. So going forward we don’t care about the outside world. We don’t care about the eye test. We just got to take care of the next three games, and if we do that…We’re going to have the chance to play Texas Tech again and beat them.”