Five Questions – Texas Tech

By Steve Habel

If you’re an enthusiast of offensive football, with yards aplenty and teams running up the score, Texas Tech’s 48-45 victory over Texas on Thanksgiving night was right up your alley. If you’d rather see stout defense and a grind-it-out-yard-by-yard style, we certainly hope you enjoyed your turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, as well as the day off from work

By now, with his team mired in a season that could still end as its worst in 60 years, head coach Charlie Strong just wants to find [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)] some style — any style, in fact — that could lead to winning games again.

“It was disappointing,” Strong said after the loss. “Our guys played hard and they competed.”

Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes — who was knocked out of last year’s game with a concussion — got his revenge against the Longhorns this season. He passed for 372 yards and a touchdown while leading an offensive attack that racked up 665 yards. With this guidance, the Red Raiders ended their regular season with a victory and a guaranteed spot in the postseason.

Texas Tech (7-5, 4-5 in Big 12 play) got 173 yards and two touchdowns from running back DeAndre Washington as part of a rushing attack that rolled to 293 yards and five touchdowns.

The Red Raiders came into the game as the No. 2 offensive team in the nation and their 7.4 yards per play and 16.9 yards per catch showed just how explosive they can be.

“You can match score with score by running the football,” Strong explained. “It’s a matter of limiting their possessions and being physical at the point of attack. We gave up too many big plays.”

Running back Chris Warren III’s 276 yards and four rushing touchdowns paced the Texas offense. The Longhorns (4-7, 3-5 in Big 12 play) rushed for 403 yards but didn’t have the firepower to keep up with Texas Tech, especially at the end of the wild game.

The loss eliminated Texas from bowl consideration and guaranteed the Longhorns their highest number of losses since 1997.

Texas got on the board first on a 32-yard field goal by Nick Rose on the first snap of the second quarter.

Texas Tech took just a flash, and a lot of luck, to answer via a 65-yard touchdown pass from Mahomes to Jakeem Grant. Mahomes’ pass was targeted for wide receiver Devin Lauderdale but was underthrown and landed in the hands of Texas cornerback Holton Hill. Lauderdale knocked the ball out, up in the air and right to Grant, who caught it in stride and sprinted down the sideline for the score.

The Red Raiders added a 51-yard field goal by Clayton Hatfield six minutes later to push its lead to 10-3.

Texas responded with its own big play as Warren — who was in the game only because of injuries to Johnathan Gray and D’Onta Foreman — took a handoff, shrugged off a tackle at the line, another 15 yards down the field and another 40 yards from the line of scrimmage to complete a 91-yard touchdown run. The run by Warren is the longest for a freshman running back in school history.

But any momentum the Longhorns may have gained from Warren’s record-setting run disappeared later in the second quarter when Mahomes rammed into the end zone from a yard out. The score came at the end of a 34-yard drive that began when Texas tight end Caleb Bluiett fumbled after a catch.

Texas Tech had a 17-10 lead at halftime thanks to 329 yards of total offense and by holding the injury-depleted Longhorns to only 170 yards — just 32 of which came through the air.

The second half began as first half ended — with the Texas offense sputtering against the supposedly porous Texas Tech defense. After the Longhorns squandered their first possession of the third quarter, Texas Tech rolled 91 yards on 12 plays in its first drive and scored on a 2-yard touchdown run by Washington. The touchdown expanded the Red Raiders’ lead to 24-10.

Texas answered again on Warren’s second touchdown run of the game, this one from 21 yards out, which came two plays after a Texas Tech fumble at its own 28-yard line.

A Hatfield 38-yard field goal that was set up by a 59-yard pass from Mahomes to Lauderdale was a small victory for the Texas defense even though it moved the Tech lead to 27-17.

The positive vibe was even stronger after Daje Johnson’s 54-yard kickoff return allowed the Longhorns to begin their next drive at the Tech 40-yard line. Texas then had some real momentum when Warren rolled around right end and pushed his way into the end zone for a 23-yard touchdown that pared the Red Raiders’ lead to 27-24 with more than a quarter left to play.

Alas, the Texas Tech offense again rose to the challenge, moving 75 yards in seven plays to a 16-yard touchdown run by Washington.

Then the pendulum swung back to the Longhorns as Warren ripped off 51 yards on three carries before backup quarterback Tyrone Swoopes went to the 18 Wheeler formation on four straight snaps. The final play led to a 1-yard touchdown plunge that brought Texas to 34-31 with 11:10 to play.

Swoopes (98 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries) sprinted through a gaping hole in the Texas Tech line on the Longhorns’ ensuing possession and rambled untouched for a 46-yard touchdown that gave Texas a 38-34 lead with 7:54 remaining.

If fans thought that Texas Tech would go away after losing the lead, they simply don’t know the Red Raiders. Mahomes engineered a six-play, 75-yard drive that was highlighted by a picturesque over-the-shoulder catch by Grant. The drive was punctuated by a 1-yard touchdown run by Justin Stockton, giving Tech a 41-38 lead with 6:18 to play.

After stopping Texas on its next possession, Grant sprinted, untouched, for 40 yards on a trick play straight into the end zone that built the lead to 48-38. The score should’ve been the final piece of the Red Raiders’ winning puzzle. But the Longhorns got another huge kickoff return from Johnson that led to Warren’s fourth touchdown run of the game, this time an 8-yarder.

Texas Tech then recovered the Longhorns’ bouncing onside kick and ran out the clock on the game, while simultaneously taking away Texas’ chances at making a bowl game.

The Longhorns will wrap up their season — their first without a bowl game since 2010 (when they finished 5-7) — Dec. 5 at Baylor. A loss to the Bears would drop the Longhorns to 4-8 and account for the team’s most defeats since the 1956 team finished at 1-9.

“We have one more game to play,” Strong said. “We have to play for pride and ourselves. We have to go compete.”

 

1. What was the key to this game?

Texas made its share of big plays; but because of the torrid Texas Tech attack —helped by the general ineptitude of the Longhorns’ defense — any possession that didn’t result in points was damaging and, ultimately, fatal.

The Red Raiders ended up with 198 more yards than Texas (665-467) on 29 more snaps. After the Longhorns retook the lead at 38-34 with 7:54 to play, Texas ran just nine more plays.

“The effort was there — the team wanted it and we fought throughout the entire game,” said center Taylor Doyle, one of 22 seniors who played in Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium for the final time Thursday. “Our mistakes and penalties killed us. It hurts but you have to do what it takes to keep moving forward.”

 

2. Did circumspect play calling hurt the Longhorns at the end of the game?

On its next to last possession, Texas was driving to what could’ve been a game-tying field goal until two penalties pushed it into a do-or-die fourth down and 7 situation at its own 40-yard line.

With a myriad of options at his disposal, Longhorns offensive coordinator Jay Norvell dialed up a deep sideline pass to Daje Johnson that wasn’t close to being completed. Texas turned the ball over on downs and on the next play Grant fooled the Longhorns for the touchdown run that provided Texas Tech their game-winning points.

“We throw that route almost every day in practice and I just missed it that time,” Swoopes said.

After the game Norvell told the media that the circumstances created by the Texas Tech defense made that call the right one at that time.   

“Those two penalties killed that drive,” Norvell opined. “Then on fourth and 7, I thought we had the right play. We had one-on-one coverage with Daje [Johnson] — we just didn’t make the play. In a game like this you have to make plays. You have to make catches. You have to make throws.”

 

3. How did the Longhorns’ injuries impact the way Texas played?

In addition to the three guys (running backs Foreman and Gray and guard Patrick Vahe) who weren’t expected to play against the Red Raiders because of injuries, eight more Texas players were sick or hurt during the game.

The Longhorns lost quarterback Jerrod Heard to a concussion, defensive tackle Desmond Jackson to the stomach flu, linebacker Malik Jefferson and defensive tackle Hassan Ridgeway to ankle injuries and linebacker Peter Jinkens, defensive back Dylan Haines, running back Kirk Johnson and Bluiett to knees injuries.

“Those guys were our veterans, so we ended up with a lot of freshmen on the field,” Strong said. “They went out and competed, so I wasn’t too concerned about guys not being out there. I didn’t even think about it.”

Even with the amount of playing time the Longhorns’ younger players have seen this year, that was a bitter pill for Texas to swallow.

“It’s a tough game, so [injuries are] expected,” Texas linebacker Tim Cole, himself a backup to Jefferson, said. “At the end of the day, it’s about the next man up. We all have to have each other’s backs, so when one man is down the next man steps up and has to do the job. We can’t have a fall out if someone gets injured.”

 

4. Who is this Warren kid and where has he been hiding all year?

There’s never been any doubt about Warren’s talent — it was just a matter of him getting the chance to show what he could do. He’s been stuck behind two good running backs (Gray and Foreman) but has always impressed Strong with his production in what game time he has received and by his work in practice.

“I was doing what I’ve been coached to do,” Warren said. “I was doing my assignments as told. I’m pretty consistent throughout the game. I wore them down a little bit, but it wasn’t all me — the line definitely did a great job.”

It’s easy to see how Strong can say the Longhorns’ running game is in good hands in the coming years.

“We knew what we had with Chris,” Strong said. “He’s a big, strong, physical runner and he can break tackles. He can run through people. He continues to work hard and doesn’t say much at all. Chris knew his opportunity was going to come and he took full advantage of it tonight.”

 

5. How will not playing in a bowl game affect Texas?

Chew on this for a minute: there are 82 teams that are going to play in a bowl game in either December or January and Texas will not be one of them.

The Longhorns want to finish strong, and beating Baylor, even as injury-depleted as the Bears are, would give Texas a jump start to the 2016 season.

“I don’t expect anything different,” Swoopes said. “We still have a game to play. With games to play, nobody should give up.”

And without the extra practices that bowl games provide, the Longhorns will need all the help and momentum a season-ending victory can provide.

“The future is bright,” Strong said. “I know what’s ahead and what’s good is that these players now understand just how hard they have to go play, and that they have to play like that for 60 minutes.”

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