Harrington's 5 field goals, Rodriguez's takeaways lead No. 9 Texas Tech past No. 8 BYU 29-7

“I told the team we have another gear,” Tech coach Joey McGuire said. “We can play better.”

BYU (8-1, 5-1, No. 7 CFP) had never played in such a game, though the teams could meet again in the Big 12 championship game in four weeks in Arlington, Texas.

Harrington kicked field goals of 47, 39, 34, 29 and 27 yards.

Rodriguez, the FBS leader with seven forced fumbles, had an interception midway through the third period leading to Harrington’s fourth field goal. He recovered a backward pass late in the fourth quarter that set up Harrington’s final kick.

Tech has gone from ranking 121st last season in the FBS allowing 34.8 points per game to fifth at 13.2 going into Saturday, and lowering that to 12.6.

“Yeah, we are a better (defensive) team than we were last year," Rodriguez said. “But … we’ve still got a lot of things to clean up.”

BYU snapped a 10-game winning streak dating back to last season. The Cougars avoided their first shutout since 2017 when Bear Bachmeier threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Chase Roberts midway through the fourth quarter.

The Cougars went into the game third in the FBS in turnover margin at plus-1.25. They lost two fumbles, threw an interception and muffed a punt.

Bachmeier was 23 of 38 passing for 188 yards. The true freshman also had two turnovers, the interception and backward pass for a fumble.

“A couple of passes and a muffed punt cost us, I think, 13 points,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “Even after that, I thought we were going to be able to respond and make a game of it in the second half, but we weren’t able to do that.”

The Cougars went into play averaging 36.3 points and 434 yards per game. Its previous low offensive output this season was 332 yards in the 27-3 win over Stanford on Sept. 6.

Both teams have home games remaining against UCF, while the Cougars also play at No. 25 Cincinnati — the only other Big 12 team with one league loss — after hosting TCU next week. The Red Raiders host UCF next week before an open date and then their regular-season finale at West Virginia.

Not so special

BYU struggled on special teams early. The game's opening possession ended with a shanked 19-yard punt for the Cougars, and after Tech went three-and-out they muffed a punt recovered at their 17 to set up Harrington's first field goal. Then in the second quarter, with the wind at his back, BYU's Will Ferrin was wide left on a 51-yard field goal attempt.

The Takeaway

BYU: LJ Martin, who is from El Paso, Texas, and was committed to Tech before opting for BYU, took a league-leading rushing average of 98.6 yards per game into Saturday. He was held to 35 yards on 10 carries, primarily in the first half, against the nation’s top rushing defense. Martin’s status going in was questionable after he sat out last week’s second half at Iowa State with a shoulder injury.

Texas Tech: The Red Raiders, charter members of the Big 12 in 1996, are in position to play in the conference championship for the first time. Their remaining two opponents are a combined 3-10 in conference play.

Up Next

BYU hosts TCU next Saturday.

Texas Tech will try for its first unbeaten home season since 1995 playing UCF next Saturday.

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football