Good morning West Texans and all you good, fine, friendly folks out there who wish you were . . .
SO, WHO ARE THESE RED RAIDERS ANYHOW AND WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT THEM?????
Don and the A-J have the game recap here incase you’ve missed it somehow: http://www.redraiders.com/?p=1848 . About the only good thing coming out of the “low” scoring game last night is that it didn’t last too long and they were able to get the score in the paper. Other than that, last night created more questions and more doubt about the 12th ranked Red Raiders than it did to solidify them as a legit top-ten candidate team.
So far after two games I feel comfortable saying that we haven’t seen Texas Tech resemble anything like a team that can challenge Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and maybe even Texas at Jones Stadium. After two games we’ve seen a team struggle offensively with cohesion, consistency and tempo. After two games we’ve seen a defense give up chunks of yards through the air and then on the ground to two teams that have no business being considered top-half of the Big 12 competition.
Right now, Graham Harrell isn’t playing like a Heisman Trophy Candidate, Mike Leach isn’t coaching like a BCS Bowl-Game Coach and the Red Raiders aren’t playing like the 12th ranked team in the country should.
The good thing about this is that it can all change, but it needs to change fast. If you struggle at home against Eastern Washington, still the most talented team Tech plays in non-conference (just ask Colorado) and you struggle at Nevada, what do you think road trips to Manhattan, Lawrence, College Station and Norman are going to be like?
It is hard to make too many value judgments this early, but you are who you are right now and this team hasn’t impressed. If you were just talking about a team that folks thought could be o.k. this year, could maybe win 8 or 9 games, then 2-0 would be fine no matter how you got there. This year’s different though for Tech. This year “style points” matter. People around the country are looking at Tech right now for a reason to love them or a reason to tear them down and right now the Red Raiders are giving them a reason to tear them down.
ABOUT LAST NIGHT, WHAT HAPPENS IN RENO STINKS IN RENO
It is really hard to bag on the defense at all because they won this game by bailing out the offense over and over on the night. They were solid on 3rd down and did most everything you need to do to win. It is still startling though how many yards they gave up on the ground, even to a good offensive scheme like Nevada has. Tech’s talent needed to prevail and assert itself last night, and I’m just not sure we saw that. Again, if Nevada can run like that on Tech, what will the Big 12 do? Fair question I think.
True though, that the Tech defense was subverted by disastrous special teams gaffes and inexplicable play-calling on the offensive end.
ON TO THE OFFENSE
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you like Tech football under Mike Leach get ready for some penalties, get ready for some decisions to go for it that most coaches wouldn’t dare try and get used to it happening over and over again.
Last night, the decision early to go for it just didn’t make sense to me. If you’ve got any confidence in your improved defense, punt it, flip the field, get a stop, go score and get up 7-0. There was just no need on the road to even take the chance to give Nevada confidence. I love a good gamble. I love playing craps, but I don’t do the prop bets until I’ve got a few chips banked away as the night goes on. That was one of those decisions by T.S.O. that I just didn’t see the need for. I think it set a tone Tech spent the rest of the night trying to overcome.
Where was Detron “The Truth Hurts” Lewis last night? At one point Hamby had more catches that he did and for most of the night I had as many catches, not good! Smith’s playmaker and he’s got to get the ball. If Crabtree ain’t getting it there ought to be more than an Elf open. Again, Tech seems to lack any tempo and any consistency right now on offense and I’m not sure why.
NOT-SO SPECIAL TEAMS
I’m at a loss. You get a great return and you block one, then you give it back with your own attempts getting blocked and horrible penalties on punt coverage that throw-away a three-and-out. Either all three sides of the ball are important or they aren’t. Right now Tech’s kicking game for sure is worth a loss or two in Big 12 play, certainly the way the offense is looking. I don’t know what the answer is. Go for two every time and never punt? Oh wait, we just went over that last part, never mind. Ok, you can punt, but you can’t try field goals. There are nearly 30,000 students at Texas Tech. Go find 11 that can block, snap the ball, hold it and then kick it through the uprights. Seriously.
SMU NEXT
It sounds absurd, but Texas Tech goes into the SMU game under pressure here in Lubbock to impressively win and silence the critics and ease the doubts. I heard it build all last week amongst the faithful that Tech was overrated and last night will do nothing to slow down the chorus of calls saying that Tech has the Physicality but not the Mentality to be a championship caliber team. Fair or not, this year people are looking what Tech does and comparing it to what OU does and what Missouri does. Right now, the comparison doesn’t look so good.
Still, 2-0 is 2-0 and Tech can still reach every goal it has set for itself as a program and reach every goal Tech fans so desperately pine away for. It says a lot about where the program is that folks are not just thrilled to win, but expect to win and expect to win looking good. That’s the sign of a maturing program. Of course it also causes heartburn, gives you headaches and robs you of some simple pleasures but please, try to ignore that for the time being and just enjoy the ride. I’ve got a feeling it is just beginning.
MORE LATER
HYATT
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Good write-up, Ryan. Can’t disagree with anything you said. I hope this team can prove both of us wrong, but at this point, this team looks alot like the the 2006 edition.
2006 edition would be optimistic. The 2006 version acted like they had something to prove and played like they gave a damn. This group thinks a national-ranking automatically gives them wins.
This season is going to either make or break Tech. With all the national coverage we’ve received we need to live up to the expectations. We have the althletes to win it all. The team needs a huge wake up call. The first 2 games look really bad for us and all it’s going to take is an early loss to take us out of the AP rankings. I’m worried at this point.