Oklahoma State had never beaten Texas A&M in Big 12 Conference play, suffering six straight losses before last Saturday’s 28-23 victory at Stillwater, Okla.

A week earlier, the Cowboys defeated Nebraska for the first time since 1961 with a 24-21 triumph in Stillwater.

Today, the Pokes (4-4, 2-2 Big 12) will hope their luck holds up away from Lewis Field in a 1 p.m. game at Texas Tech (6-4, 3-2) in Lubbock, Texas.

“This team enjoys the distinction of reversing the trends against Nebraska and A&M,” OSU coach Les Miles said. “Now we have the opportunity to go to Lubbock. We have not won there since 1944. We are going to go in there with renewed enthusiasm with this victory. It will be a great challenge. They are a great football team.

“Our guys, especially our seniors, are enjoying the fact that they are doing some things that have not been done in awhile.”

A win against the Red Raiders could put OSU in bowl contention, and the Cowboys haven’t played in the postseason since 1997.

After Texas Tech, OSU is likely to be favored in its next two games, facing Kansas (2-8, 0-6) next Saturday in Lawrence and playing host to Baylor (3-6, 1-4) Nov. 23 before wrapping up the regular season against in-state rival Oklahoma (8-0, 4-0) at home.

“We will concentrate on the fact that we have Texas Tech this weekend and we need to concentrate on their offense and what they are able to do,” defensive back Vernon Grant said.

Tech leads the all-time series with OSU 17-9-3 and has won six of the last seven meetings.

Led by quarterback Kliff Kingsbury, Tech leads the Big 12 and ranks third in the nation in passing offense with an average of 379 yards per game. OSU ranks 10th in the league in pass defense, allowing an average of 156.9 yards per game.

Kingsbury leads the conference with an average of 355.7 passing yards per game. He’s thrown for 3,557 yards and 31 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 10 games.

Four Red Raiders rank among the Big 12’s top seven receivers.

“We are going to emphasize tackling the receivers,” Miles said. “If it is a 2-yard reception it should be a 2-yard gain. If it is an 8-yard reception it should be an 8-yard gain. It is the broken tackles that we cannot have.”