INSIDER: E-Newsletter Game 11 – Texas Tech

By Steve Habel

If Thanksgiving is all about tradition, the institution and celebration belong to Texas football — especially this season. [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]  Facing Texas Tech on Turkey Day produced the Longhorns’ most impressive performance of the season, a 41-16 victory before a 100,668 fans at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
The win on Senior Day allowed Texas (8-3 overall and 7-1 in Big 12 Conference play) to stay alive for a league championship and a berth in a BCS bowl game. In order to gain a chance to play in the Fiesta Bowl (which automatically takes the Big 12 champion), the Longhorns must beat ninth-ranked Baylor on Dec. 7 in Waco and have No. 19 Oklahoma defeat sixth-ranked Oklahoma State that morning in Stillwater.
By the time Texas — which moved to No. 23 in the Associated Press poll after the win against Texas Tech — and Baylor kick off in the final game ever at Floyd Casey Stadium, both teams will know what’s at stake.
“We did what we needed to do today and that’s all we had control of,” coach Mack Brown said. “Coming into the game, the focus was on beating Tech and winning this game for the seniors — [there wasn’t any] talk about [Baylor] or a conference championship. Just talk about getting these seniors to leave in the right way and understanding they’re not through. This was important.”
Texas won by dominating the trenches on both sides of the football. On offense, the Longhorns rushed for 281 yards and controlled the clock, possessing the ball for seven minutes more than the Red Raiders. But the Texas defense was the bigger story, swamping Texas Tech quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Michael Brewer with nine sacks and allowing Tech just 396 total yards and one offensive touchdown — its lowest output of the season.
The Longhorns, less than two weeks after losing to Oklahoma State, were a different team against Texas Tech.
“Coming into this game, we had the mindset to dominate,” senior cornerback Carrington Byndom said. “We made sure that we stayed to the principles of our defense. We put an emphasis on staying within ourselves and not trying to do too much.”
Texas has played on the Thanksgiving holiday 86 times and has posted a 59-24-3 mark, including 41-21-1 at home. The Longhorns have won 13 of the last 15 matchups against Texas Tech, and hold a 48-15 (.762) lead in the all-time series that began in 1928. Playing the Red Raiders at home every other year on Turkey Day should continue to be a boon for the Longhorns.
Texas Tech (7-5 overall and 4-5 in Big 12 play) scored first midway through the opening quarter on a nifty 51-yard touchdown run by Ryan Erxleben (son of Russell, the Texas All-American punter from the mid-1970s) on a fake punt that stunned the crowd. That play — which accounted for more than half of Tech’s rushing total for the whole game — ended up being the Red Raiders’ only highlight of the game.
Texas responded by scoring 20 unanswered points. First Anthony Fera (a finalist for the Lou Groza award as the nation’s top placekicker) nailed a 37-yard field goal at the 6:00 mark of the first quarter. Then quarterback Case McCoy, rebounding after one of his worst games, found wide receiver Mike Davis for a 47-yard touchdown pass to put the Longhorns 10-7.
Fera added a 49-yard field goal at the 8:18 mark of the second quarter and running back Joe Bergeron, wearing Johnathan Gray’s No. 32 jersey in tribute to the injured teammate, pounded his way to a 12-yard scoring run to push the Texas lead to 20-7.
The Longhorns added a 1-yard touchdown run on a sneak by McCoy on their second possession of the third quarter. McCoy passed to Davis for another touchdown — this time from 7 yards out — on the first play of the fourth quarter. Texas Tech’s Brewer (son of former Texas quarterback Robert Brewer) answered, hitting all-world tight end Jace Amaro for an 11-yard touchdown pass, bringing the Red Raiders to within 34-16.
Backup quarterback Tyrone Swoopes tacked on the Longhorns’ final touchdown with a 1-yard run late in the game.
Brown credited the team for fighting through the adversity of injuries associated with a long college football season.
“We had a chance to get well over the last two weeks,” he said. “We came right out and took over the second half. Against Oklahoma State, we didn’t do that. This team has responded to adversity all year. Now we’ve got to get the guys that are well enough to go to Waco to practice and get ready to go.”
Twenty players were on the field at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium for the final time in the game against Tech. The victory marked the first time since 2009 that the Longhorn seniors went out with a home win.
“A lot of times, as a player, you shut things out,” senior offensive lineman Trey Hopkins said. “You don’t pay attention to the stands and take the stampede for granted. But today I focused on experiencing every little detail about playing in DKR from start to finish. To get that win makes it that much sweeter.”
The Longhorns could produce more succulent memories if they win on Dec. 7.

1. What was so different with the Texas defense?
The Longhorns played to their strengths by executing a “spinner” defense, which moved defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat off the line of scrimmage and to middle linebacker with his hand off the ground. The spinner defense is the Texas version of the “dime” defense, which puts six defensive backs on the field to combat the spread offense.
Jeffcoat, free to move to either side without having to engage an offensive lineman on his first step off the line, had seven tackles (three for a loss) and a career-high three sacks.
“Sometimes you’re just feeling it, and like my dad [former Dallas Cowboys star Jim Jeffcoat] always says, and like Coach [Brown] always says, sacks come in bunches,” Jeffcoat said. “You keep going, keep hunting for sacks. We were in the right place at the right time doing exactly what Coach [Greg] Robinson coached us to do during practice.”
Robinson said he used the defense against Tech when he was defensive coordinator at Texas in 2004. That year, the Longhorns held the Red Raiders to just 386 total yards in a 51-20 victory in Lubbock.
“[The spinner defense] gives us different options,” Robinson said. “It creates a different style of defense for the offense to react to and affects how they block. I’ve coached a while, but I don’t know that I’ve ever been around a nine-sack game.”
Tech was averaging 523.9 yards of offense and 37.5 points per game. The Longhorns never let them get close to those totals.
“The secondary took it upon themselves to make the quarterback hold the ball long enough so our d-line could get there,” safety Adrian Phillips said. “They had some plays here and there, but overall, we executed and they didn’t.”

2. How did McCoy bounce back?
The little fella is nothing if not resilient. McCoy threw for 139 yards and two touchdowns while shrugging off the loss to Oklahoma State. Bouncing back and having a short memory are key parts to being a quarterback.
“That’s the position,” McCoy said. “I understand I didn’t give my team a chance to win [against Oklahoma State] and that’s hard to take, especially as a senior. My job is to take care of the ball and manage the game, and I did tonight.”
McCoy’s final home game proved, once again, that he can lead this team and has a motor that never quits. He even made some plays with his feet, including a stumbling 16-yard scramble in the third quarter that set the table for his 1-yard touchdown run three plays later.
Producing a win on Senior Day was important to the legacy McCoy leaves behind.
“It’s been a roller coaster ride for this senior class,” he said. “But now that it’s our year, it’s our senior class, this is where we want to be. We want to play for a Big 12 Championship.”
“I’ve had a lot of memories out there in that stadium, and tonight’s game will definitely be another one that I’ll remember forever,” he added. “That’s what we’re supposed to do at Texas — win ball games in this stadium.”

3. Can Texas continue to excel as a power-running football team?
In beating Tech and ruling the game between the tackles, the Longhorns have become the type of team Brown and offensive coordinator Major Applewhite hoped for at the beginning of the season.
Bergeron (17 rushes for 107 yards) and Malcolm Brown (a season-high 128 yards on 27 totes) combined to give the Longhorns two 100-yard rushers in the same game for the second time this season. Texas ran the ball a season-high 61 times (one more than it did in the win against Oklahoma) and most of the rushes were of the power variety rather than speed sweeps and reverses.
Applewhite said the Longhorns approached the game like it was a 15-round prizefight.
“It’s going to be body blow, body blow, body blow,” he explained. “You have to be patient. You can’t go crazy on the headsets when you’re not scoring right off the bat.”
“There was confidence because we ran the ball well against Tech the last two years,” he added. “Our offensive line, tight ends and backs had great confidence going into the game. They could repeat those performances. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”

4. Was there a breakout player for Texas?
Players continue to improve week by week and gain from the experiences learned from each game. No one Longhorn better exemplifies that notion than sophomore cornerback Duke Thomas, who had an interception, a sack and played his best game of the season.
Thomas — the greenhorn playing the opposite corner from the experienced Byndom this season — had his troubles matching up with some of the top-flight receivers in the Big 12, but never lost his confidence.
“There’s no doubt that I’ve been tested this year, but the learning curve has shortened and I can make all the plays that I need to,” Thomas said. “One-on-ones are a part of our life and our game. If you want to be an excellent cornerback then you need to take care of that. Having Adrian Phillips and Carrington Byndom out there makes me play 10 times harder.”
How Thomas reacts to the challenges of Baylor’s high-powered offensive attack will go a long way to determining the outcome in Waco.
“We have to contain their guys and be able to make plays on our end,” Thomas said.

5. What do the Longhorns have to do to beat Baylor?
The scene in Waco will be a wild one, with the tarps pulled off the Floyd Casey Stadium stands and a record crowd expected.
If Texas can find a way to dial up the effort it showed against Tech, the team can pull an upset. To do that, the Longhorns have to limit Baylor’s big plays and control the ball — and the clock — with its running game. Texas cannot afford to get into a shootout with the Bears.
“We know the importance of this game, but Baylor is just another team,” defensive end Cedric Reed said. “We have to have a great practice this week and put this win [over Tech] behind us. We played great defensively, but we have to play better against Baylor.”
Brown said the focus will be on preparation rather than the rewards of winning.
“There’s no reason to talk about the rewards at the end unless you win, so let’s talk about what we need to do to win the game,” Brown said. “We need to play well because Baylor is a good football team. At least we’ve given ourselves an opportunity to go to Waco and play for a championship.”
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