THREE AND OUT: OKLAHOMA STATE

FIRST DOWN

Defense played well against what is probably the best passing offense in the Big 12 and probably the country. Apart from a couple of breakout runs by Mason Rudolph, Texas Tech’s front seven managed to keep the Oklahoma State running attack in check. Dakota Allen was the leading tackler for the Red Raiders, recording 8 total tackles. The biggest challenge of the night was undoubtedly trying to cover the Cowboys receiving corps, however, I thought the secondary did well. Damarcus Fields had a crucial pick six early in the game that may have prevented Oklahoma State from really breaking away early. The cornerbacks actually did a pretty good job of covering the receivers who just continued to make openings and difficult catches. At the end of the day, Tech needed the defense to give the team a chance to win and that's what they did. You can't ask for much more than that, especially against an offense like Oklahoma State.

SECOND DOWN.

The offense played well but failed to make crucial plays when they needed it most. The Red Raiders came back from a 17 point deficit to tie the game. The defense then made a crucial stop forcing a missed field goal to give Tech the ball with less than six minutes left and a chance to run down the clock and win. An earlier injury had taken Keke Coutee out of the game and without his presence on the field, Oklahoma State was able to tighten up the coverage on Cantrell. Shimonek tried to throw to TJ Vasher on fourth down, but a miscommunication caused him to run the wrong route.

THIRD DOWN.

The offensive line may have been the most frustrating part of the game. On the one hand (and I could be wrong) I didn't count a single penalty against the offensive line, which was a huge issue against Houston. On the other hand they just couldn't do anything against Oklahoma State's front seven. The Cowboys  recorded one sack and six tackles for a loss. The running game suffered tremendously from the lack of production and only managed 54 yards total rushing (2.1 yards per carry). The offensive line was more productive against what was a better pass rush against Houston and did manage to clean up the penalties this week. IF THEY COULD JUST PUT IT ALL TOGETHER then we would be in really good shape. Fortunately, this is a young group and they do seem to be progressing reasonably fast. Hopefully they can use this week against Kansas to work out the kinks before West Virginia.

AND OUT.

Last week Tech struggled in the kicking game. Kingsbury said last week that there was a plan to use Ewton for the short kicks and Bardon for the longer ones (think Matt Williams and Donny Caronna back in the day). Ewton was incredibly ineffective and missed two field goals. This week Bardon took over all kicking duties and the result was much more effective as Bardon went 2/2. Kingsbury accommodated Bardon by taking a delay of game penalty in each of his field goal attempts to give him a better angle (something Oklahoma State did not do and suffered two missed field goals because of it). It looks like finally the kicking game will be ok now without Clayton Hatfield.

LOOKING AHEAD…

Texas Tech travels to Lawrence Kansas to take on the Kansas Jayhawks.