10 Things: Texas Tech 28, Arizona 22

1. Game Links:

2. Gritty Win. It’s probably pretty cliche to say that a win like that is gritty, but I’m not sure how else to explain it. It’s a game that Texas Tech should have probably lost, but they stuck with it. Just didn’t give in and give up and gave up 16 unanswered points. And I’m not going to lie, this is going to be a shorter than normal 10 things. I’m pretty tired, I actually stayed up for the entire thing, which included picking up Fitsum from a band competition, and am now up at 5:00 a.m. to get this in and to have something up. I’m not even sure who was healthy enough to play on defense and if you were to ask me who was actually playing in the secondary I’m not sure that I’d really be able to tell you. Same thing for the defensive line, I’m not even sure who played.

3. Blitzing From the Inside. Though the week it was talked about how there wasn’t any rush and in the summer, there was discussion about blitzing the linebackers and I don’t think that Tim DeRuyter and the staff had said that they were going to be unleashed until last night. Something had to change and to give the Arizona quarterback unlimited time to make throws wasn’t going to work. And it did.

4. Tahj Nearly Lost It, But Definitely Helped Win It. There’s probably going to be some criticism about the offense and how it didn’t capitalize on certain plays, but it was definitely not perfect and it likely will never be. Tahj Brooks isn’t supposed to do that, to turn the ball over twice in a game and they weren’t questionable calls, they were fumbles. Texas Tech very well could have lost and the main reason would have been the fact that Tahj Brooks left two on the carpet. But things sort of just worked out and he kept at it and when opportunity presented itself (see below) then he made the most of it, capping off a 100-yard day with a 32-yard touchdown run to seal the game. 128 yards rushing, 3 touchdowns, including the game-winner. It’s not always going to be pretty, and it certainly was not at times, but he stuck with it and sealed that win.

5. Jacob Rodriguez Was Unbelievable. I don’t know that you can just single-handedly point to a guy doing something, but Jacob Rodriguez was the reason Texas Tech won that game. He was it. For the game, Rodriguez had 13 tackles, 1 sack, 1 pass break-up and one very important forced fumble that allowed Tahj to get the win. Before I get too deep, that pass break-up with THE PASS BREAK-UP that allowed Quincy Ledet to intercept the ball, so he was responsible for two of the turnovers in some form or fashion. Oh, and one more thing, when Arizona was threatening to score a touchdown with about 10 minutes left in the 2nd quarter and it was 4th and 1, do you want to guess who was in on that tackle? Credit went to Dooda Banks, and rightfully so, but Rodriguez was there too. When Arizona had the ball back with Texas Tech up by 2 and the dread of knowing what you thought was going to happen, which is that Arizona kicker who could seemingly put it through the uprights from 70, was going to win the game with a last-minute field goal to win the game by one. But Rodriguez had other plans. He punched the ball out of the hands of the All-American receiver to force the fumble that allowed the offense to get back on that field and secure a 6-point win.

6. DeRuyter Is So Good. You look at the final numbers and they aren’t going to be pretty. 422 yards for the Wildcats, 121 on the ground and 301 in the air, but this is a defense that essentially forced 4 turnovers, 3 traditional and 1 4th down stop, was able to still win the game despite Arizona having the ball for 36 minutes, but holding strong and forcing field goals rather than give up touchdowns is sometimes a huge win, and the Texas Tech defense did that 6 times yesterday. The idea to blitz both Rodriguez and Ben Roberts was an absolute terrific way to both spy on Fifita, but to also force him into some really terrible throws and the Arizona offensive line wasn’t ready for it at all. They didn’t know who to block. That pressure saved a beat up secondary.

7. Stats & Stuff.

Texas Tech forced Arizona into 3 of 14 on 3rd downs and their average distance was 7.1 yards, which is great for the Texas Tech defense. Arizona was just 3 of 9 on passing downs (successful on 2) and obviously had 0 successful 3rd downs running the ball, which was 6 times, they only had 1 1st down when they tried to run.
Texas Tech scored 18 points off of turnovers and Arizona only scored 6. That’s Joey McGuire’s definition of complimentary football.
Texas Tech converted only 2 of 11 on 3rd down and was honestly pretty terrible here. The average 3rd down to go was only 5.3 yards, but was 1 of 6 on passing and was obviously much better running, but still only made 2 of them. Texas Tech also allowed 2 sacks on 3rd downs, one of which Morton had zero chance to make a play.
Texas Tech was only in passing downs 29% of the time, which means that the down and distance on 2nd down was less than 8 yards.
Arizona ran 56% of their plays on Texas Tech’s side of the field compared to just 36% for Texas Tech on Arizona’s side of the field.
Arizona had 2 turnovers on 1st down.
Texas Tech had 2 touchdowns on 1st down.
Texas Tech had 17 yards in the 3rd quarter. Not a typo.

8. Idle Thoughts.

Kelby Valsin with one of the plays of the game to recover that onsides kick. Huge.
Special teams does it again, particularly Gino Garcia perfect from the field and Reese Burkhardt never giving Arizona a chance to return a kick. Jack Burgess had to punt the ball away 7 times and averaged 42 yards a punt including 2 inside the 20.
Caleb Douglas dropped that touchdown pass from Morton, that should have been 6 and Morton did everything he could have, Douglas just didn’t make a play.
Morton was 17 of 29, 59%, for 214 yards and no touchdowns. Not great, but he also didn’t throw any interceptions.
Caleb Douglas led the team with 116 yards receiving, including the 57-yarder at the end of the half.
Micah Hudson’s 38-yard catch was great to see and I’m glad they are getting him more involved. Terrific route.
I wasn’t sure how Mo Horn finished the game. He seemed like he was getting beat up every play, jut taking on a ton of hits, but he finished with 10 tackles and a TFL.
Devynn Cromwell had 9 tackles and he basically went from not playing to having to play a lot.
De’Braylon Carroll continues to make plays, he had 4 tackles and a quarterback hurry as well as half a TFL, the other half toing to Bryce Ramirez, who was called into action to rush the passer as well, he had 4 tackles, a QBH, and the other half TFL.
Jacob Rodriguez said that everyone who traveled ended up playing. 26 players contributed in some form or fashion statistically. For example, Terrell Tilmon had a really important sack and that was his only contribution to the game, but it was huge, it was the sack with a minute left and Arizona was driving.
Texas Tech is 5-1 and is at the top of the Big 12 standings. Just like we all planned.
I love that Austin McNamara is there high-fiving the players at the end of the game. .

Bringing a road dub back to the LBK‼️ pic.twitter.com/1OgXucEXOn

— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) October 6, 2024

9. Coach Comments.

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Don Williams: Tahj Brooks’ 3 TDs, Gino Garcia’s 2 FGs lead Texas Tech football past Arizona

“I am really proud of this football team,” McGuire said. “We had a lot of fight tonight, and we finished.”

“I don’t say anything to Tahj,” McGuire said. “He already knows what’s next. There’s nobody out there that wants to win more and puts more work and heart into this game, into this team. I was glad he had the opportunity to kind of seal the victory.”

10. Tortilla Tossin’ Players of the Game.

Tahj gets it for me here, Texas Tech doesn’t win the game without him.

Quincy Ledet and C.J. Baskerville share these two tortillas, each got a pick, Ledet’s ended up leading to a touchdown and Baskerville’s ended up leading to 3 points right before half when it looked like Arizona was about to score yet again.

Jacob Rodriguez gets these three all by himself. Just a monumental game. Can’t say enough about how well he played. All of the tortillas.