ACU had first-and-10 at the Texas Tech 15 with 11 minutes left Saturday night. Four plays later, the Wildcats had gained a single yard and handed the ball back.

This was the deciding play, and the one the Wildcats should focus on. Not the 33-10 final.

The drive started with 1:44 left in the third quarter and lasted 6:49. Fifteen plays, 61 yards, the longest drive ACU put together all night. Senior running back Alex Broome ran for 14 on third-and-10 to keep it alive, then ran for 10 more on third-and-5 to reach the 15. John David Black hit Cristian Driver three times on the possession.

Then Rovaughn Banks Jr. lost a yard. Black threw for Driver in the end zone and missed. Banks got two back.

On fourth-and-9 from the 14, the play broke down. From the back of the end zone, I watched Black fight to stay upright, 14 yards away, trying to shake a hand off his ankle. He didn’t. Jaylon Laventure and Aiden Trick are credited with the tackle. Black shakes that and ACU has a first down at worst. From the 14, it could have been more than that.

He stayed face down on the turf until his offensive line picked him up. The offense came off with the body language of a team that knew, and the defense went back out anyway. Division I football players, at all levels, are not very good at quitting.

Ten minutes and three seconds left. Score: 26-3.

It was the only time ACU got inside the Texas Tech 20 all night.

Here are my top observations from the loss.

The defense earned a better night than it got

Texas Tech scored on its first two drives, 75 yards and 87 yards, and ate more than 10 minutes doing it. Then the Red Raiders did not reach the end zone again for roughly 45 minutes of game clock.

They kicked instead. Stone Harrington went 4 for 4, from 23, 28, 33 and 45 yards. Three of those came on possessions that started deep in ACU territory, a number head coach Keith Patterson counted off himself after the game.

Javeon Wilcox, who was on Texas Tech’s roster in 2024, jumped a route and slid under it at ACU’s 7-yard line for the first interception of his career. The play was ruled incomplete before Patterson challenged it from the sideline.

“I knew he was in because I saw it,” Patterson said. “I was standing right there.”

Dillon Williams had 10 tackles and 2.5 for loss. Gabe Brown and DeAngelo Ponder both set career highs.

Two years ago in this same building, ACU gave up 15 points before it could blink. This time the defense adjusted and then held one of the most dangerous offenses in the country to three points per possession for two straight quarters.

The offense gave it back one field goal.

ACU fixed what Lamar exposed. It didn’t matter.

At Lamar, the Wildcats were penalized 12 times for 106 yards, four of them false starts, and lost a game they outgained by 80.

Saturday? Four penalties for 17 yards. In the loudest building ACU will play in all season, against a Power Four front, with a quarterback making his first career start.

Patterson also stopped hedging at quarterback. Black, the redshirt sophomore from Flower Mound who came off the bench at Lamar, got the start and completed his first seven passes. Patterson said the staff is settling in on a quarterback this week, and that aside from a throw or two, Black would probably like back; he was proud of him.

“You can lay your head on your pillow at night and feel good about him being the quarterback,” Patterson said.

So the two things that sank the opener got cleaned up.

ACU gained 194 yards.

Black finished 18 of 32 for 119, which is 3.7 a throw. Driver caught eight of those for 93 and had the best night of his career. Everybody else combined for 10 catches and 26 yards. The ground game went for 75 on 29 carries, 2.6 a pop, down from 5.2 against Lamar.

Fifteen first downs, and four came on Texas Tech penalties.

Settled is not the same thing as solved.

And then they punted

ACU got the ball back with 8:44 left and moved it again. Black found Driver for 18 to cross midfield. Broome picked up two. On third-and-8 from the 50, Black checked it down to Broome for a 2-yard gain.

That set up fourth-and-6 from the Texas Tech 48. Six minutes and 34 seconds left. Down 26-3.

Hugo Nash punted.

It was a good 43-yard punt, and Malcolm Simmons could only bring it back to the 9. Patterson praised his punters afterward, and this is one of the reasons.

Nine plays and 91 yards later, Will Hammond hit Simmons for 64 and a touchdown, and the game was over for real.

Here’s what I vehemently disagree with: Patterson told his team last Sunday that it had three non-conference games left after Texas Tech to focus on becoming a better football team.

“That’s all I really care about,” he said.

He said the same thing a different way later in the postgame. “We don’t chase results,” Patterson said. “We chase the process.”

At 26-3 with 6:34 on the clock, the result was already gone. The only thing left in that game worth anything was reps.

A quarterback making his first career start, a receiver room still working out its timing, and an offensive line Patterson himself described as having a lot of moving parts. All of them standing on the sideline watching a punt on fourth-and-6 from the opponent’s 48.

You can’t say the only thing that matters is getting better and then pass on the chance to get better.

Nobody outside Abilene will believe this one was close

Broome ran the next kickoff back 98 yards. It got him UAC special teams player of the week, and it got ACU to 10. It was also the only touchdown the Wildcats scored, and it came with 2:45 on the clock against a team that had stopped trying.

Anybody reading a box score sees an FCS team that took its check and went home.

Patterson was asked why ACU never got in the end zone. He gave the credit to Texas Tech first, calling the Red Raiders well coached and never out of position.

“They were probably dominating the line of scrimmage, if the truth be told,” he said.

Then, in the next breath, he brought up his own offensive line, the moving parts, guys beat up and missing practice time.

Both are true. Only one is ACU’s to fix.

He did say one thing with a due date on it.

“I can promise you we won’t be the same team three weeks from now as we are right now,” Patterson said.

That’s a promise I will be interested to see if ACU keeps.

No. 13 Stephen F. Austin comes to Wildcat Stadium at 7 p.m. Saturday, the team that ended ACU’s season in December. Patterson was the first to bring up the result of that game in the postgame presser.

ACU has scored 17 offensive points in two games. In Lubbock, the difference between a long night and a real one was four plays from the 15 and one shoestring.

The first check comes this week.