THREE AND OUT: ARIZONA STATE

FIRST DOWN

Offensively Tech played lights out football in the first half but struggled in the second. Shimonek went 37/50 for 543 yards and six touchdowns. Keke Coutee led in receiving with 186 yards and one touchdown while Dylan Cantrell two candidates for play of the year and helped win the game with a leaping touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

The running game was effective but underutilized. Stockton played with much better than in previous seasons and Nisby averaged 5 yards per carry. The biggest blemish was a fumble at the goal line by Nisby while trying to reach the ball over; which caused Kingsbury to lose trust in him and kept him on the bench for most of the game.

SECOND DOWN

It's easy to have a sour taste after watching that second half. It seemed like the Red Raiders had no answer for Manny Wilkins after he got going. I don't agree with the consensus that we have the same old defense as last year. It might be surprising to know that Texas Tech held Arizona State to just 168 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Last year the Sun Devils put 351 yards on the Red Raiders and Ballage scored 8 touchdowns.

Apart from one drive that was riddled with penalties the defense played pretty solid the first half. They made tackles on first contact and stopped running plays up the middle. By the second half it was clear they were out of fast and the string of three and outs by the offense didn't help. Even still the defense came up with a crucial stop at the end to seal the win for Tech. It's easy to feel like the sky is falling on the defense again. I can say, at least today, it's not.

THIRD DOWN

One of the things that was talked about leading up to the game was how much special teams played into the loss last year. Aside from a bad opening kick off, Tech dominated the special teams game. Nearly all kickoffs resulted in touchbacks and Tech even recorded a blocked punt. Clayton Hatfield returned from an injury and was 5/5 on extra points and Barron made a 39 yard field goal.

AND OUT

Kingsbury cities some poor play calls that were made due to “over thinking”. The most specific example was a fourth and one situation, where a sweep run by Stockton was called instead of simply running Nisby up the middle. As frustrating as it was however it was encouraging to hear Kingsbury address this issue in the press conference and I think we can expect issues like this to be resolved quickly. Kingsbury is agreed upon to be the best offensive mind in the country after all.