POORLY WORDED THOUGHTS ON TECH’S WIN OVER RICE

       Good morning West Texans and all you fine, friendly folks out there who wish you were. . .

 

TECH 59-24 OVER RICE, GAME THOUGHTS

 

We said in our prediction for the game Saturday that anything less than a 55-13 win or so would be considered a poor effort. Consider it a good effort then, based on the way the offense scored more or les at will, and Rice couldn’t get Will out of the game, as well as a defense that finally settled in and shut down a woeful Owl offense in the second half.

 

There are a lot more good things than bad that come out of this game. Michael Crabtree is proving to be, to this point, everything and more that folks wanted Jarrett Hicks to be. Crabtree has the physical strength to body up and make plays against college DB’s as well as enough flat-line speed to take it to the house. A great combo that Big 12 teams are going to have to take away from Graham Harrell if they’re going to have any success in slowing down Texas Tech. How well Harrell adjusts to that will determine his success this year in close games.

 

It was nice to see Shannon Woods show some signs of life. Tech will need him in a major way in Big 12 play. Kobey Lewis continues to push him which is great, but Woods has to be the guy for Tech to have a solid running game this year. Lewis is a great change of pace and is proving to be more durable than I thought he might, but Woods is still the guy.

 

With Harrell racking up over 400 yards through the air and everyone’s favorite back-up Taylor Potts chunking it for another 67, every WR that had working hands got in on the fun with 11 Red Raiders catching a pass Saturday. Enjoy it while you can ‘cause Tech won’t face a worse pass defense this year. Rice was horrible, but the good news is that Tech made ‘em look like they were horrible.

 

Now on to the not so great stuff.

 

Anytime you play a totally out-manned opponent with a much better team coming up in a week, you have to really nit-pick your performance in order to make sure you’re operating with a valid map of where your team is and where it’s going. There were certainly things going on Saturday in Houston for Tech that could get them beat next week in Stillwater.

 

First and foremost, you’ve got to eliminate the penalties. Absolute killers. 16 for 183 yards is unacceptable no matter how you try to spin it. Both the offense and defense were guilty of 7 each. Now that’s balance.

 

Speaking of the defense, it’s going to be popular sport to beat up on Lyle’s bunch again this week. That’s like hunting in a baited field at this point though. The tackling was better this week than last, but there’s still some major problems that better teams than Rice will expose in a hurry. One thing that must change is the playing of the CB’s ten-yards off the ball. Rice moved the ball at times just by running 7-yard outs that Kress or Tulia’s sophomore team QB could have completed against the Tech CB’s. For sure, OSU will see that and pick it a part. I don’t understand why you take a great athlete, maybe the best pure athlete on the defensive side of the ball, in Jamarr Wall and completely neuter his ability by playing him so deep. On first, second or third down, it didn’t matter. Think it was about mid-way in the second before we saw the corners roll-up in more of a press look. If you can’t press Rice, who can you press?

 

I think you’ve got to trust your corners to play that tighter coverage more often this year or it won’t matter what goes on with your front seven. You’ll be nickel and dimed to death in the Big 12. If you gave up 24 to Rice, what do you think Mizzou, OU, heck even OSU will do to you?

 

Aside from that scheme issue, I thought the defense did what it needed to do to get a win.

 

On to special, or not so special, teams. Still very disappointed in the kick-off return game. Tech MUST take advantage of this new rule to get better field position in Big 12 play. Penalties on the first two returns of the day also were brutal. With teams doing more directional kicking and concentrating on hang-time, I think you’ve just got to get the ball and get up field fast, making one person miss. There are as many theories on the return game as there are coaches, so take it for what it’s worth. This year though, I think your best bet is middle return with an occasional reverse thrown in just for fun. Mainly though, get your butt up field fast.

 

All in all it was a productive day for Texas Tech playing a road game where they should never have to play, namely Rice Stadium. If they ever play the Owls again in Houston it has to be at Reliant Stadium. Now the Red Raiders can look forward to going to Stillwater and playing a team that has been kicked around and probably has a burr under their collective saddle. Not a good time to go play the Pokes. I’ve had and have great reservations about this game. We’ll look more in-depth later in the week.

 

Enjoy your Sunday, play with your kids and root on the Green Bay Packers to a victory over the hated New York Football Giants.

 

HYATT

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