Red Raiders Defense Stifles Coogs

It was the only matchup between undefeated teams on the college football schedule for week six. Houston proved this year to be a much-improved team. But when this one ended, the verdict was clear. Texas Tech was the better team by a significant margin, and that was well short of a perfect performance by Joey McGuire’s squad. With plenty of red shirts in the crowd signifying how well the road team filled the stadium and holding up a bold statement by the Texas Tech athletic director, Texas Tech physically dominated from the opening kickoff. The Red Raiders beat Houston without much stress by a score of 35-11.

Red Raiders Beat Houston: Defense Stifles Coogs

Fast Starts Continue

With a tricky road test as a two-score favorite, Texas Tech needed to jump out to a quick lead to suck the energy out of the stadium. After tortillas showered down on TDECU Stadium for the opening kickoff, Mack Leftwich watched his offense march down the field with ease. The Red Raiders got down inside the red zone, but sputtered out and had to settle for the field goal. Houston’s very first play on offense was the sign of things to come. The defense put pressure on Conner Weigman and forced an errant throw that went backwards. Texas Tech recovered the fumble and took over with a short field. Drops doomed the opportunity from ending in a touchdown, but another field goal pushed the lead to 6-0. When the dust settled, the same story played out that we have seen in the first five Texas Tech games. After this win, the Red Raiders have outscored their opponents 192-14 in the first three quarters of their games.

Swarming Defense

Shiel Wood saw a familiar performance from his defense. Unrelenting pressure by his front four disrupted the Coogs’ offense all night. Weigman did not play in the second half due to an upper-body injury. However, it wouldn’t have mattered who the quarterback was for Willie Fritz’s team on this night. David Bailey was a one-man wrecking crew. He finished the game with three tackles for loss, two sacks, and numerous pressures. The defense ended up with three turnovers, two of which came in the first half. Unfortunately for this defense, they did allow a touchdown in the first half for the first time all season. It came on an all-out blitz. But beyond the blown coverage and missed tackle resulting in a touchdown, Houston never came close to the endzone all game.

Stalling Offense

If you didn’t watch this game, seeing the Red Raiders beat Houston by piling up 552 yards of offense and winning by 24 points would lead you to believe that Texas Tech played a flawless game. But the offense had plenty of struggles despite some big numbers. Despite running 35 more plays than Houston, Texas Tech had to settle for seven field goal attempts. This game had the potential to end with a score around 49-11. Quarterback Behren Morton finished the game 28-for-40 passing with 345 yards, but only one touchdown. Four to five of those incompletions were drops by his wide receivers. Morton also appeared on multiple possessions to not feel the Houston pressure well in the pocket. With this team having its sights on big goals this year, this passing attack needs to drill down on the details. The rushing attack was outstanding. Texas Tech almost had two running backs eclipse the 100-yard mark. J’Koby Williams finished with 19 carries for 107 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Meanwhile, Cameron Dickey onlyhad 98 yards on 21 carries. On a night when the offense never seemed to get out of second gear, the ground game was reliably moving the chains when the offense seemed to need it the most.