10 Things: Texas Tech 39, Baylor 14

1. Game Links:

2. 25. After watching that game, if I told you that this was the difference of yards between the two teams, Baylor just 25 yards short of Texas Tech. In fact, Baylor had 324 yards passing with 244 of those passing yards off of big plays, which is pretty rare for this defense. But maybe 17 is a more significant number, that’s the total number of net rushing yards for Baylor, which includes -45 yards due to 6 sacks, which we will discuss more shortly. Technically, Baylor averaged 2.6 yards a rush on 17 rushing attempts. Regardless, the yards don’t show how dominating Texas Tech actually was for this game and that was pretty surprising for me. I expected more from Baylor and they didn’t have any juice at all, largely because of Texas Tech.

3. Tahj + Offensive Line Time. I don’t think that you can separate one without the other. Texas Tech ran for 186 yards on 42 rushing attempts, averaging 4.4 yards a rush and it’s even better with adjusted yards for sacks, 4.8 yards a rush. Tahj Brooks was ridiculously good, 31 carries for 170 yards, 5.5 yards a rush, and his patient hunting for gaps to run through and opened up by the offensive line proved to be the ass-whipping that I think Joey McGuire has always envisioned for Texas Tech football. Not only will the running back absolutely run down your throat, you won’t be able to do anything to stop them.

Basically, Texas Tech was a version of Kansas State, who is the opponent next week in Lubbock.

4. Dominating the Line of Scrimmage. It was clear that the offensive line dominated Baylor’s defensive line, but the Texas Tech defensive line and linebackers were manhandling the Baylor counterparts. Shapen had almost zero time to complete anything and he seemed either off or without time to do much of anything. Official team stats were 6 sacks, but it felt like a helluva lot more and also 3 quarterback hurries. That’s 45 yards lost due to just 3 sacks. And if you enjoy seeing the pain of a team, Baylor officially ran for 1 yard in the 1st quarter, 2 in the 2nd quarter, 27 in the 3rd, and -13 in the 4th quarter. That’s painful to read if you are an opposing team. Largely a lot of sacks.

5. Third Down Dominance. We’ve talked about this before, but third down success is largely a result of the distance on 3rd downs. Texas Tech averaged 5.3 yards on 3rd down and Baylor was 9.2 and only had 3 3rd and short opportunities. Texas Tech had 18 3rd downs and Baylor 15, and Baylor was 1 of 5 on 3rd and long and 2 of 7 on 3rd and medium. Baylor could only muster 1 3rd down by rush, while Texas Tech had 6 of their 10 3rd down conversions. Texas Tech’s efficiency was because of those short yardage situations, converting 6 of 8 3rd and shorts and was 7 of 8 for 77 yards on 3rd down. Not surprisingly, Texas Tech was 0-3 on 3rd and long, but that’s normal.

6. 4th Down Defiance. Texas Tech only had 1 official turnover, a fumble, but if you look at 4th downs, Baylor turned the ball over a total of 6 times. Baylor was 1 of 6 on 4th downs and a large credit of the defense was turning Baylor around 5 different times on 4th down. That is the definition of futility and at some point, Baylor had to go for it in order to try to keep pace. Want a punch to the Baylor gut? Baylor was 0-2 on 4th downs in the 3rd quarter and 1-2 in the 4th quarter. Basically 3 turnovers in the 2nd half is a killer.

7. New Faces. Coming out parties for a few guys. We’ve heard about Coy Eakin and we finally got to see him in action, getting 1-on-1 coverage for the first touchdown of the game and then on the exact same play, he gets the same treatment for a 1st down. Baylor Cupp gets 2 targets and turns them into 2 touchdowns. One being a beautiful catch in the corner of the endzone and the other being left wide open because Baylor was so worried about Tahj Brooks. Defensively, say hello to Charles Esters, III, the sophomore outside linebacker from Cedar Hill and Steve Linton, the senior outside linebacker transfer from Syracuse. That poor Baylor right tackle didn’t have a chance against either, Esters had 2 sacks and a forced fumble, while Linton had 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles, all of those forced fumbles because of the hits put on Shapen.

8. Idle Thoughts.

Duda Banks was dominant and he doesn’t look 300 pounds, but he’s listed that way. 4 tackles plus a TFL.
Jessiah Pierre was also really good, 6 tackles, plus half a sack with Myles Cole, and Cole also had 4 tackles.
The defense had 22 players contribute on the box score.
Bralyn Lux had 2 of the 4 pass break-ups with Rayshad Williams having a very important one on 4th down in Texas Tech territory and Dadrion Taylor-Demerson having the other.
I thought when Baylor scored that deep pass over the top of Taylor-Demerson, that we were in store for Baylor-UCF part II, but these teams were actually who they were for the entire game.
C.J. Baskerville also maybe had his best game, 6 tackles plus a TFL.
I’ll write it again, a large reason why the rush offense is working is because receivers are catchign passes. No player was below 50% on catch rate.
I don’t understand the Jerand Bradley offensive pass interference call. Well within 5 yards, I would swear that’s legal and that’s the defensive back’s fault for just basically being bullied.
Baylor had 1 penalty, which was the illegal motion on the 2-point conversion. That was it.
Baylor lost 52 yards, while Texas Tech lost 16.
Texas Tech and Behren Morton was 9 of 9 on short passes, which is what should be done, and 9 of 12 on medium passes (5 to 14 yards).
Morton’s rushing touchdown was a nice exclamation mark.
Sometimes advanced stats don’t tell the story. Rushing success rate is supposed to be over 50 for really good and Texas Tech had a rate of 28.
The run pass split (sack adjusted) was 60 runs to 40 passes.
Special teams was special, again. The Myles Price punt return for 43 yards was huge. Austin McNamara averaged 48 yards a punt, his longest was 53, and pinned 3 of those inside the 20. Gino Garcia was perfect on extra points and made his only 37-yard field goal.

9. Coach Comments. There’s usually a transcript, but not last night. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams:

“We played really well up front on the defensive side of the ball,” McGuire said. “We didn’t get sacks last week. We put a lot of pressure on the quarterback in the second half. We put a lot of pressure on the quarterback the entire game tonight.”

McGuire said it was an emotional victory for him, given that he left the Bears’ staff in his fifth season at Baylor to take over at Tech. One thing his teams haven’t done much of in his first one and a half seasons is win on the road. The victory Saturday made McGuire’s Tech teams 2-6 in that department, the other victory last November at Iowa State.

“We found a way to not just win the game, but pull away and win a big conference game on the road,” McGuire said. “That was huge. Excited for the team.

“They’re really excited because they’re a very mature, intelligent team. They understand we haven’t played well on the road, so I think they were very determined to come and play the way they did tonight.”

10. Tortilla Tossin’ Players of the Game.

Baylor Cupp’s 2 touchdown game with an injured Mason Tharp was big. That contested catch in the end zone is the reason he was so highly rated.

The 3 sack performance of Steven Linton and 2 sack game of Charles Esters, III, and being in the head of Shapen for most of the game.

Tahj Brooks and the offensive line get the 3 tortillas, as a team, 42 carries and 186 yards rushing averaging 4.4 yards a carry with Brooks netting 31 for 170.