I truly don’t even know where to begin about this game we witnessed yesterday. The discourse since the game ended has been a mix of joy because this team managed to scrape out a tough win, on the other side there has been concern that Texas Tech did completely sleep the opposition despite numerous chances to do so.
I pose this question to you before you dive in: Which side are you on?
Hats off to Tim DeRuyter and defense, who faced the challenge of becoming a more consistent side, took it head on and have turned in back-to-back performances where I can walk away satisfied.
We’re settling into seeing a consistent mix of several guys at the edge rusher positions, and it helped that Harvey Dyson was back after missing the last two games. The opening interception was fueled by a double stunt that got Isaac Smith a straight shot at Sam Leavitt, I just have to mention that play because it was one of my favorites of the game.
I’ll credit the defensive line for a lot of the struggles that Leavitt had throughout the game, and the defense as a whole did not let a mid-tier QB look like a Heisman contender. That is a massive win in my eyes. The run game, from both Leavitt and Cam Skattebo, was so heavily praised going into Saturday and both players were essentially a non-factor in that regard.
The secondary will likely catch most of the ire when looking at this performance. The penalties early were really, really rough to watch but they rebounded, and again, a mediocre receiving core did not gash you play after play.
I thought Macho Stevenson held his own filling in for Lux, not great by any means, but not a detriment or true liability on most plays. Would have liked to have seen him hold up better from a tackling standpoint and do better about holding outside leverage. That's an area of Lux's game that you sorely miss when he's not present, I've always thought of him as a great run support cornerback.
My overall biggest frustration with the game yesterday is it never felt like either side was clicking at the same time and it was frustrating because we clearly saw that both sides of the ball were capable of taking over this game.
It was a tough game for the offensive line, really I felt in both regards but specifically in pass blocking. I thought ASU schemed it up pretty well to send numbers when they needed to. What I thought ultimately bit Tech on the plays where this was noticeable was with missed assignments or plays where there was no RB in the backfield for support.
It's fair to criticize the inconsistencies from Behren Morton but this mostly felt like it stemmed from the offensive line not helping him out much. I think he looks a little paranoid in the pocket sometimes, as have many of you noted, but the trenches didn’t do him many favors. It is wild to me that there are some legitimate moments of brilliance where he’s making all the right reads and fitting crossing patterns into good windows, and then times where he’s misplacing passes and not giving the receivers the best chance at putting clean hands on the ball.
Will you take the ugly win? Absolutely, I mentioned this yesterday but nobody is going to be disappointed that you won, at the end of the day.
If you take away anything from what I've yapped about in this piece, take away these last few lines.
There’s times where teams have to win ugly, but there’s also times where if you can see you’re fully capable of putting your foot on the opposition’s neck, you have to follow suit. That’s where my concern stems from. Does this team have the killer instinct and, really, the discipline to turn ugly wins into dominating victories? Because last night certainly felt like your chance to make a real statement and dismantle ASU once you went up 14-0. Alas, I rest. Enjoy the win. We’ll see this team looks like Saturday against Cincy.
texastech.rivals.com
