Top 3 Takeaways From Texas Tech’s 23-0 Loss to Oregon in the College Football Playoff

The Texas Tech Red Raiders made their first College Football Playoff appearance on Thursday, representing the Big 12 Conference, and played the Oregon Ducks in the Orange Bowl. Texas Tech was fresh off its first-ever Big 12 Championship, while Oregon was an at-large representative from the Big Ten Conference. The match up featured two of the top scoring defenses in the country, which was on display for both teams on Thursday.

However, it was Oregon doing more on offense and winning the game 23-0. Oregon will play the winner of Indiana vs. Alabama in the semifinals. Here are the top three takeaways from the game.

Texas Tech’s Defense Could Only Do So Much

Texas Tech’s defense was outstanding. The Red Raiders offense could not get anything going, especially in the first half when they only had three first downs. And despite losing Time of Possession 22 minutes to 8 minutes, Tech’s defense only gave up a pair of field goals. The Red Raiders were down 6-0 after the first 30 minutes. That was a testament to this defensive unit holding the Oregon offense in check.

Oregon’s next touchdown came in the third quarter and was set up by a strip of Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton, which Oregon recovered and took inside the Tech 10-yard line. That one was not on the defense either. And then, after the fourth turnover of the game by Texas Tech early in the fourth quarter, Tech held Oregon to another field goal to make it 16-0 with under eight minutes remaining.

Behren Morton and the Tech Offense was Abysmal

Missed throws. Lack of pocket awareness. Throwing into double coverage. Interceptions. Strip Sacks. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Behren Morton. He had three turnovers on the day (two interceptions, one fumble) and they came at critical times of the game. While he was reportedly near full health after dealing with a lower-leg injury for much of the season, he was simply overmatched by an Oregon defense that did not let up all afternoon. Morton finished 18/32 for 137 yards, while also taking four sacks.

It was noted on the ABC broadcast that Texas Tech didn’t do much contact the last month, to get guys back to full health for this game. It’s not clear if that played a role in this game, but Oregon just looked like a team that had much less rust and was more prepared. And considering teams with College Football Playoff byes are now 0-6 through two years of the CFP, the value of the bye will continue to be questioned. Tech’s performance is another example of that.

Big 12’s Bad Day

I said on the YouTube Channel all week, which you can subscribe to here, that the Big 12 needed Texas Tech to ideally win two games, for the sake of the conference. The Big 12 is clearly destined to be a one-bid league for the foreseeable future, based on how BYU was never seriously considered for the Playoff. But, based on Tech’s performance, it’s hard to suggest that BYU was a worthy CFP team, in hindsight.

I’m the biggest Big 12 homer there is, but calling it like it is is still part of the job. And the reality is the Big 12 Conference still only has one win in the more than a decade of the College Football Playoff. Now, maybe some of that is driven due to access, or lack thereof, but the Big 12 needs to start winning some CFP games, and I for one thought this was the year they could do it and win a couple of games. Instead, we got a performance that actually may have done some damage to the conference.