Let’s take a look at five key stats in this week’s game against Oklahoma.

115

Texas Tech was only able to manage to rush for 115 yards in the contest. 57 of those yards came on the very first drive, meaning for the remaining 22 minutes of possession that Tech had the ball, they were only able to manage an additional 58 yards. We’ve talked ad nauseum about the ability (or lack thereof) for the game plan to shift once the defense makes an adjustment. Tech averaged 3.4 yards per carry (on 34 carries), which just won’t cut it if you’re looking to create balance.

336

I mentioned last week that the rush defense then was concerning as it was the worst we had seen all season. This week was worse. This was 2016-and-earlier vintage Tech run defense. The Sooners were able to rush for 336 yards on 47 attempts, averaging 7.1 yards per carry. It wasn’t like the Sooners were being overly flashy or tricky when they ran the ball. In fact, even the broadcasters caught on most of their runs were the same dang play where they pulled the backside guard and tackle.

11:16

Once Tech turned the ball over on downs on the 1 yard line in the 4th quarter, Oklahoma proceeded to bleed off the remaining 11+ minutes on the game clock. The Sooners ran 18 plays, went 65 yards, and took more than 11 minutes to do it. If you were hoping to make this game closer, the defense has to be able to find an answer and stop someone. As much as this was about not being able to stop OU, this was just as much about the team throwing in the towel. Oklahoma only ran off 11 minutes because that’s all that was left. They could have taken off more had the turnover happened sooner in the quarter. As much as we talk about the team fading we need to talk about giving up. We saw this against Iowa State as well. It’s troubling. For a coaching staff that’s supposedly on the hot seat, giving up isn’t a good look.

281

The Tech pass defense didn’t give up a horrendous amount of yards (considering they gave up 300+ rushing yards). The problem here is that when OU threw the ball, those receivers were wide open. No defenders within yards. On the flip side, Tech didn’t get beat for any long touchdowns. Which is surprising when you see that the OU offense was able to pick up 7.6 yards per snap against Tech.

3/4

Michael Barden went 3-for-4 on extra point attempts, missing the first attempt of the game. Hopefully this marks the turn in the kicking game. Tech didn’t attempts a field goal in this game, which means the last field goal made by this team was against Kansas (where this kicking madness started).