Halfway through Texas Tech's game on Saturday, the question of whether Oklahoma State would beat Oklahoma as a favor toward the Big 12 Conference Championship vanished.
Tech quarterback Graham Harrell was playing with an injured non-throwing hand, receiver Michael Crabtree left the game for good with an ankle injury and the Red Raiders trailed Baylor by 14 points.
"They came out and they just hit us in the mouth and played harder than we did," Tech running back Baron Batch said.
So the new question was if No. 7 Tech could survive Baylor's upset bid, and Tech delivered by scoring touchdowns on three-straight possessions in the second half to seal a 35-28 comeback win on Saturday, which was Senior Day at Jones AT&T Stadium.
All Tech could do after the win was sit and wait for the result of the game between Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, which ended in a 61-41 victory for the Sooners. If OSU had won, it would have given Tech a Big 12 South championship, sending the Red Raiders to their first conference championship game to face Missouri. Instead, with OU and Tech winning two days after Texas beat rival Texas A&M 49-9, a three-way tie atop the Big 12 South division created a mind-boggling question: Who deserved to go to the Big 12 Championship?
While the win over Baylor gave the Red Raiders a share of the Big 12 South championship - their first in school history - the 65-21 loss to Oklahoma last week dropped them below Texas and OU in the BCS Standings.
Because the tiebreaker defers to the BCS Standings, where the highest ranked team will represent the South division, the standings released Sunday sent Oklahoma to the title game. The Sooners are narrowly ahead of the Longhorns, who beat OU 45-35 earlier in the year, by .0128 points.
Batch said he was not feeling sorry for his team, admitting that Tech once controlled its own destiny but losing to the Sooners erased a chance at making Tech's dream season even sweeter.
"It was all on us, all we had to do was go into (Norman, Okla.) and beat Oklahoma," he said after the win against Baylor. "It's nothing I can say, 'Poor us, we're getting messed over, or anything.' All we had to do was go out and win and we didn't."
Baylor almost ended the conference puzzle by jumping out to a two-touchdown lead in the third quarter, giving the Bears a shot to spring Texas to the Big 12 Championship with a Tech loss.
However, the Red Raiders used as many resources as they possibly could to storm back.
Harrell connected with receiver Detron Lewis on a touchdown to the corner of the end zone to take a 35-28 lead midway through the fourth quarter. The drive was set up by middle linebacker Brian Duncan's interception off a pass that safety Jordy Rowland tipped into the air.
On Baylor's ensuing drive, Tech defensive end McKinner Dixon sacked quarterback Robert Griffin on fourth down, allowing Tech to run the clock out and escape with a surprisingly close victory. Tech allowed more than 200 yards rushing for the second-consecutive game.
"I don't have anything good to say about the first half," Tech coach Mike Leach said, "and I don't have anything bad to say about the second half, and really I didn't see much in between throughout the course of the game. You had the first half, which was pitiful, and you had the second half, which was impressive."
Down 21-14, Tech (11-1, 7-1) played the first half about as poorly as it did the whole game against Oklahoma last week.
Baylor (4-8, 2-6) had Griffin, who Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill said has Olympic speed. He completed all seven of his passes while gaining 75 yards on the ground in the first half.
He led Baylor to four touchdowns on its first five possessions with a missed field goal thrown in between.
Meanwhile, Harrell threw an interception early in the first quarter and fumbled in the second, squandering a chance to take an eight-point lead heading into halftime.
He lost Crabtree when the star receiver left the game with an ankle injury after catching a pass and landing incorrectly at the 1-yard line during the second quarter. Crabtree's right ankle was wrapped on the sideline, and he tried to walk it off but later was carted off the sideline into the bowels of Jones Stadium.
He came out in the third quarter in street clothes and an orthopedic boot shielding his right ankle.
Even with his star receiver out, Harrell, whose left ring and pinky finger were taped up, led Tech to touchdown drives of 72, 95 and 38 yards.
"It always hurts not to have Crab out there but everyone else stepped up," Harrell said.
McNeill said the team just settled down at halftime while he made some defensive adjustments, such as taking a spy off Griffin, who was gashing the Red Raiders on the ground.
"It wasn't clicking at that time," he said, "so I just went four-man front; let's go with it and see how it goes, didn't have a spy guy on him the rest of the night because I thought it made us hesitate."
The only person who did not dismiss the notion that Tech was a little hungover from last week's loss to Oklahoma was McNeill.
"I'm glad we shook off Oklahoma," he said. "I thought it was on us a little bit the first half, I thought it was. I'm glad we were able to show our character there in the second half. I think that's what this team is; character is what you are when nobody's watching."
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