10 Things: Texas Tech 23, Iowa State 22

1. Game Links:

2. It’s A Win, But . . . But nothing for me. It’s a win against the #11 team in the nation and what was the #1 pass defense in the nation. Was it messy as hell? Yeah. Okay. That’s football. Perfect football just doesn’t happen. That’s not football. There are no perfect teams (maybe other than Oregon, they good) so I’m not going to compare Texas Tech to that and I’m okay with that. I don’t need to do that to enjoy Texas Tech wins. It doesn’t make me a bad fan or you a bad fan if you expect more. And even then, a fan’s happiness with a win is irrelevant to everything. If at the end of the game you were unhappy with yesterday’s win (and yes, there are people who are not satisfied) then that’s great. Go write a letter to the UIL. I don’t know what to tell you other than that’s great that you have than opinion and there’s no amount of sunshine that I could write that would change your mind and there’s no amount of disappointment that will make fans on the other side feel bad. I don’t and most fans aren’t going to be grousing about how this just wasn’t good enough because life is way too short. And this isn’t to say that this 10 Things will be all Snickers and donut holes, but that was fun and good for me.

3. But What About That 2nd Quarter. It was doo-doo. Yes, Tahj Brooks didn’t get the ball and it was absolute doo-doo. Look at this. 19 plays and 27 yards with 2 interceptions, 1 of 5 on 3rd downs, and 1.4 yards per play. It was trash and that’s okay. That’s football. What would have been worse was if that type of football was what we saw the rest of the way. We didn’t. The third quarter wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible. Texas Tech did score a touchdown and Iowa State fumbled the ball and that was part of the 98-yard touchdown drive, which absolutely whipped and by the end of the 4th quarter. That 4th quarter saw Texas Tech gain 121 yards, 24 plays, 5 yards a play, and a very important rushing touchdown.

4. This Was Emotional. At the end of the game, Joey McGuire was really emotional about the win. I’m probably more similar to McGuire than I’m not because after a gutty 7th grade win for Youssouf I’m strangely emotional and proud (I’m absolutely okay with this and don’t feel bad about being emtional at all) about how he’s played because he plays so hard.

THAT’S OUR COACH 🥹@JoeyMcGuireTTU | #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/4Cc8HGVGkP

— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) November 2, 2024

This is raw and it is emotional and it is meaningful, and the guy that McGuire hugs at the end of the video is his dad. That’s not just a hug, that’s an embrace, and that’s what I do to Youssouf after a game (win or lose)

5. Near Disaster. At the end of the 1st half, Iowa State scores a touchdown and it felt like the game had swung and the avalanche was about to roll in favor of Iowa State. As an aside, that end-of-half touchdown was definitely on the safety not coming over to help as there was no one in his vicinity an Lux for sure thought he had someone over the top. That was a bad play and Brendan Jordan running past Becht on a blitz, he should have had a sack and been more in control.

Iowa State was set to receive the ball 1st in the 2nd half and the Cyclones looked like they were about to score and here comes Jacob Rodriguez, the guy who has a wife is an Army helicopter pilot, punch the ball out yet again. And that was a drive where Iowa State had the ball for nearly 6 minutes and had gained 61 yards and was down to the Texas Tech 14 yard line. Iowa State was about to come away with points. But that fumble then led to Texas Tech having to punt themselves after a terrible 3-and-out, Iowa State doesn’t do much better as they go 4 and out an punt the ball to the 2 yard line and that’s when the magic happens.

6. Improbable. That last drive was absolutely improbable given what had happened most of the game. Iowa State scores the go-ahead touchdown and Texas Tech is down by 5 and has to score a touchdown to win.

The drive started off with a penalty on Buchanan for a false start, so already, the offense is in the hole at 1st and 15. Brooks immediately erases that and gets 16 yards. A run for no gain and then an incomplete pass and then another false start, this time by Caleb Rogers. it’s 3rd and 15 yet again and Morton does the right thing, which is that he runs for 8 and gets out of bounds and it being 4th and 7, Morton connects with Kelly just right past the sticks.

Morton tries to go deep with Jordan Brown, apparently the staff saw something and Brown is in this drive, but that pass falls incomplete. On 2nd and 10, Brooks runs for 14 and the offensive line absolutely imposed their will. I think that Iowa State thought that Texas Texas was in a passing mood only and with Brooks and the time left (about a minute) there was no reason to pass every play. Morton makes a helluva pass to Josh Kelly for 13, then another to Caleb Douglas, and then a terrific pass to Brown that was correctly called down at the 1 yard line. Brown sort of had to come back to the ball from the end zone, but that was the right call.

It’s 1st and goal from the 1 and yet another penalty, Rogers with another false start puts Texas Tech back to the 5. That’s 3 penalties on a final drive to win, 2 of which were on Rogers. Thankfully, Kittley had a final play in his bag of tricks, 3 receivers and Morton lined up to the left and Brooks takes a direct snap with a terrific block by Jalin Conyers to win the game. It was absolutely right to go for 2 as an extra point wouldn’t have done anything for Texas Tech.

7. Some Stats.

10 penalties for 84 yards. Announcers kept talking about how Iowa State was not a heavily penalized team, but they had 8 for 59 and Campbell couldn’t believe it.
Both teams weren’t great on 3rd down, 6 of 15 for Texas Tech (40%) and 5 of 17 for Iowa State (29%). Texas Tech average on 3rd down was 7.8 yards, which is too much. Was just 1 of 8 on 3rd and long, but 4 of 5 on 3rd and short.
Texas Tech’s defense had 6 tackles for a loss, 1 sack, 4 quarterback hurries, an interception, a forced fumble, and a 4th down stop. Iowa State had 432 total yards, 299 passing, so again, despite the 23 points, there were yards given up.
The defense did give up just 3.5 yards a rush.

8. Idle Thoughts.

That 4th and 1 that ended up as a delay of game was weird. I would like an explanation of that because there was a timeout to take there and McGuire seemed upset that this didn’t happen. This was not a great officiating crew.
There was really just one sideline report on Texas Tech during the game and it was Clay McGuire wondering what the hell the offensive line was doing in that third quarter and that the line needed to man up and go dominate the line and stop getting pushed around.
Clay Aiken and Coy Eakin are not the same person. Eakin was robbed of a touchdown, that was not offensive pass interference.
The 4th and 6 decision ended up not costing Texas Tech any points because Iowa State missed wide right. Like really wide right.
That touchdown that Iowa State scored to go ahead was on Ben Roberts. That tight end was covered and Roberts just took a step the wrong way and that was all that he needed to score.
Charles Esters, Harvey Dyson and Isaac Smith are starting to play really well.

9. Coach Comments.

On the game:

“Every Friday, we go to a movie, and we come back and Pat Clancy does a phenomenal job with a highlight video, and then it’s kind of a competition. Eric, our video coordinator, does a highlight video. We walk in the same room that we’re in three years ago, and just so many memories came back. We actually talked about that as a team, that the tire actually started here Ames, Iowa and just putting your foot in the tire and being a tougher team, and I’m so proud of our guys. There were so many opportunities for both teams to back down, and I don’t think either one backed down. Tahj Brooks that last drive did such a good job picking up yardage. I think he passes up James Gray for number two. He gets a 100-yard game closer to Hansbard. Now he’s got 20 100-yard games and I’m just so proud of him. I’m so proud of the team because there were so many times when you’re talking about highs and lows in a football game, with us causing turnovers and not getting anything out of it, and us being able to stand up on defense whenever we turn the ball over. Huge win for us. We get bowl eligible, and it keeps us in the mix. And I couldn’t be more proud of this
football team.”

On Coach (Matt) Campbell, Iowa State:

“Coach (Campbell) does such a great job there. They are a tough football team. When I took over this job, one thing we talked about all the time was building a really tough football team, and to come into this place, they had a phenomenal crowd. It was really, really loud that last drive, I thought they affected us a couple of times, as y’all saw, we got a couple penalties on the drive. And hats off to their fans, because they had a big part in that. But beating the number 11 team in the country is huge for us. There’s so many things that we talked about on Sunday that are still in front of us, and the boys beating a ranked team on the road. It’s probably been a long time since that happened, and we were able to get it done tonight.”

On Iowa State defense against Josh Kelly and overall:

“They did a good job taking him away. That was part of the game plan. We really wanted to come out and their corners are really good. Their safeties are really good. It’s one of the best defenses in the country. But that’s where we felt like the space between the linebackers and the safeties is where we felt like we could make some yardage. You know, he had eight catches for 127 yards, two touchdowns. Man, I’m really proud of him. Proud of all these guys. Proud of Jordan Brown coming in and making the play after he’s probably frustrated. I mean, you got a deep ball that you feel like you’re going to catch for a touchdown, and you don’t make the catch. The defender makes a good play and you come back and make a play, get down on the one yard line, and so proud of this team.”

10. Tortilla Tossin’ Players of the Game.

Would be a crime not to have a defensive player lead the way, 13 tackles, 2.5 tackles for a loss, including 2 sacks, and an incredible forced fumble. Another forced fumble.

Tahj Brooks looked really great and his lone rushing touchdown was a really important one, 122 rushing yards, 25 attempts, 4.9 yards per attempt and 1 touchdown.

Josh Kelly was absolutely terrific and the game plan was to target him, to the tune of 19 targets and only 8 catches for 127 yards, and 2 touchdowns. As an aside, that’s a catch rate of just 42%, some of those weren’t his fault, but that’s a ton of targets.