Gritty. Excruciating. Cold. Ballsy. Painful. Clutch.
Whatever you want to call it, that was one hell of a win.
No one's going to care. It will be the tiniest blip on the national college football radar. But Tech just won in Ames without its best player, while getting nearly doubled up in total yards.
Joey McGuire is one win away from the best regular season in almost a decade and a half.
Tyler Shough did enough. Almost mistake free. He picked up some tough, gutsy yards on the ground. He was efficient in the air. After accounting for sacks, Shough carried the ball 14 times, including the two most important carries of the game (4th and short on the TD drive & 1st & 10 on the last drive). Sometimes I mistake him for Jerome Bettis. He may look like a softie from California, but that guy is a warrior.
The OL held up. Caleb Rogers got beat one time by a future NFL edge rusher. And the other sack was of the coverage variety, and it only occurred after Shough bailed from the pocket into their pass rush. Our inability to move the ball offensively was not a result of the OL's deficiencies, like it has been at other points of the year.
Adrian Frye catches some flack, some of it warranted. But he played a ton of snaps tonight in relief for Malik Dunlap. He had 7 tackles, including a big one for a loss late in the second half. Kudos to him for sticking it out this season after losing his job. He runs down on every kickoff 100 miles per hour, too.
We ran the ball on almost 2/3rds of our snaps. It was extremely tough sledding -- around 3.2 yards per carry after you take out the 16-yard loss on the botched snap. But it sustained our two scoring drives. And we picked up a game-winning first down on the ground to ice the game. The little production that we did have on the ground won us this game.
Muddy Waters is a beast. On 4th and goal from the 2 yard line, Muddy wins a pass rush move on Iowa State's right tackle. It forced Dekker to step up into the waiting arms of Tony Bradford (I think?) for a massive, back-breaking sack. On 3rd and 12, on what was Iowa State's final drive, Muddy wins a pass rush move on Iowa State's right guard, forcing him to commit a holding penalty, which negated a 7 yard run and lead to a punt. Those two plays won us the game.
Baylor Cupp wins a 50/50 jump ball in the end zone. That play won us the game.
Nehemiah Martinez took matters into his own hands on the last drive. Powering through an Iowa State DB for what felt like 40 yards but was only a gain of 9. Then he catches a 50/50 ball on the sideline before turning that into an actual huge gain. We, for the most part, couldn't do shit on offense. Those plays were huge. They won us the game.
Rod and Tahj ran like men possessed. Their demonic running of the football won us the game.
Special teams was nails. We executed, what seemed like, 107 punts and kicks in freezing cold weather without a hitch. McNamara boomed a clutch 50+ yard punt in the shadow of his own end zone. Those plays won us the game.
Krishon Merriweather is a bad m'fer. I love that dude. We aren't winning that game without his 9 tackles.
Joey put on a master class of "slow subbing" after Iowa State botched a substitution of their own on the final drive. They subbed with about 15 seconds on the play clock, and Vidal Scott wandered on to the field like he had just ate a sack of hydroponic mushrooms. It forced Iowa State to take a timeout, which lead to Tech being able to ice the game with only one first down at the end. Using the rules to our advantage won us that game. Coaching staffs around the country will be watching that clip in meetings this week to see what that "old HS coach down in Texas" is doing to help his team win football games.
Iowa State's offense crossed the 50-yard line eight different times. They scored 10 points. The two stops inside the goal line was the stuff of legends. Our defensive front wanted to win that football game more than anyone else on the field. Iowa State backs gained just 2.7 yards per traditional handoff. Our Tyree Wilson-less D-line won us the game.
Xavier Hutchinson is good. That Iowa State defense is for real.
This was a historic game. Coldest game in Tech football history according to the radio broadcast. I'm sure that we also set records in terms of lowest offensive output in a win. I wonder the last time Tech won a Big 12 game with less than 150 yards passing? Or less than 250 total yards? I'll have to do some homework this week to dig into that.
Whatever you want to call it, that was one hell of a win.
No one's going to care. It will be the tiniest blip on the national college football radar. But Tech just won in Ames without its best player, while getting nearly doubled up in total yards.
Joey McGuire is one win away from the best regular season in almost a decade and a half.
Tyler Shough did enough. Almost mistake free. He picked up some tough, gutsy yards on the ground. He was efficient in the air. After accounting for sacks, Shough carried the ball 14 times, including the two most important carries of the game (4th and short on the TD drive & 1st & 10 on the last drive). Sometimes I mistake him for Jerome Bettis. He may look like a softie from California, but that guy is a warrior.
The OL held up. Caleb Rogers got beat one time by a future NFL edge rusher. And the other sack was of the coverage variety, and it only occurred after Shough bailed from the pocket into their pass rush. Our inability to move the ball offensively was not a result of the OL's deficiencies, like it has been at other points of the year.
Adrian Frye catches some flack, some of it warranted. But he played a ton of snaps tonight in relief for Malik Dunlap. He had 7 tackles, including a big one for a loss late in the second half. Kudos to him for sticking it out this season after losing his job. He runs down on every kickoff 100 miles per hour, too.
We ran the ball on almost 2/3rds of our snaps. It was extremely tough sledding -- around 3.2 yards per carry after you take out the 16-yard loss on the botched snap. But it sustained our two scoring drives. And we picked up a game-winning first down on the ground to ice the game. The little production that we did have on the ground won us this game.
Muddy Waters is a beast. On 4th and goal from the 2 yard line, Muddy wins a pass rush move on Iowa State's right tackle. It forced Dekker to step up into the waiting arms of Tony Bradford (I think?) for a massive, back-breaking sack. On 3rd and 12, on what was Iowa State's final drive, Muddy wins a pass rush move on Iowa State's right guard, forcing him to commit a holding penalty, which negated a 7 yard run and lead to a punt. Those two plays won us the game.
Baylor Cupp wins a 50/50 jump ball in the end zone. That play won us the game.
Nehemiah Martinez took matters into his own hands on the last drive. Powering through an Iowa State DB for what felt like 40 yards but was only a gain of 9. Then he catches a 50/50 ball on the sideline before turning that into an actual huge gain. We, for the most part, couldn't do shit on offense. Those plays were huge. They won us the game.
Rod and Tahj ran like men possessed. Their demonic running of the football won us the game.
Special teams was nails. We executed, what seemed like, 107 punts and kicks in freezing cold weather without a hitch. McNamara boomed a clutch 50+ yard punt in the shadow of his own end zone. Those plays won us the game.
Krishon Merriweather is a bad m'fer. I love that dude. We aren't winning that game without his 9 tackles.
Joey put on a master class of "slow subbing" after Iowa State botched a substitution of their own on the final drive. They subbed with about 15 seconds on the play clock, and Vidal Scott wandered on to the field like he had just ate a sack of hydroponic mushrooms. It forced Iowa State to take a timeout, which lead to Tech being able to ice the game with only one first down at the end. Using the rules to our advantage won us that game. Coaching staffs around the country will be watching that clip in meetings this week to see what that "old HS coach down in Texas" is doing to help his team win football games.
Iowa State's offense crossed the 50-yard line eight different times. They scored 10 points. The two stops inside the goal line was the stuff of legends. Our defensive front wanted to win that football game more than anyone else on the field. Iowa State backs gained just 2.7 yards per traditional handoff. Our Tyree Wilson-less D-line won us the game.
Xavier Hutchinson is good. That Iowa State defense is for real.
This was a historic game. Coldest game in Tech football history according to the radio broadcast. I'm sure that we also set records in terms of lowest offensive output in a win. I wonder the last time Tech won a Big 12 game with less than 150 yards passing? Or less than 250 total yards? I'll have to do some homework this week to dig into that.
