Texas Tech 34, Kansas 21: Quick Hit, With Help from Graham Harrell

Former Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell joined Twitter this morning just in time to watch Texas Tech vs Kansas and give his thoughts on the Red Raider win.

With Washington State off today, Mike Leach’s newest assistant is all Red and Black this weekend.

He even had some words of wisdom for current quarterback Davis Webb.

Webb took Harrell’s advice early but got little help from the running game.

With the offense struggling early, the defense stood tall and forced a punt, turnover on downs and a missed field goal.

Freshman running back Justin Stockton tallied four touches early (two runs, two catches).

Pete Robertson played a heck of a game and finished with two sacks. Sam Eguavoen was great as well.

After struggling early with some throws, Webb started to put it together in the second quarter.

At one point in the first half, Kansas was 1-6 on third down thanks to a thin defensive line playing lights out.

On their last possession of the first half, just before Webb’s 12th interception of the season, Jakeem Grant went down with a nasty ankle injury.

That’s when Kansas started to come back. They converted a pair of third downs and eventually scored to end the first half and make it 17-7 at the break.

Almost identically to last week’s loss to West Virginia and double-overtime win over Kansas in 2012, Tech played tremendously in the first half and threatened to put their opponent away early before an interception late in the second quarter made it a ballgame.

Yet the defense stood tall to start the second half and got the ball back for their offense.

Grant came back into the game for Tech’s first series of the second half, but Webb couldn’t find him and they settled for another field goal.

After J.J. Gaines intercepted Kansas quarterback Michael Cummings on the following possession, Webb’s sack-fumble set Kansas up in Red Raider territory, which they turned into seven points.

That would give Kansas 14 points off of Webb’s turnovers, keeping the Jayhawks in the game when they could so easily be down 34-0. But on their next possession, Webb and freshman Ian Sadler drove the offense down the field before connecting on Sadler’s first career touchdown.

But that Sadler kid would drop a third down pass on the next possession that hit him right in the hands (freshman) and Kansas cashed in on the next drive to make it a one-score game again.

But Justin Stockton would add another long touchdown just a few plays later to push the lead back to 13. Another Kansas turnover and another Tech punt later, the Jayhawks had the ball again looking to cut the lead back to six.

But the defense stood tall once again, forcing a Kansas punt and giving the ball back to the offense with under five minutes to go.

Washington, Williams and Stockton would do just that. Run after run they pounded the Kansas defense and bled the clock dry and close out a 34-21 win over the Jayhawks, snapping a four-game losing streak this season and an eight-game Big 12 losing streak dating back to last year.

It wasn’t a pretty win at all and there were several plays both the offense and defense wish they had back, but overall a nice effort from a Red Raider squad gaining lots of momentum and confidence heading into Fort Worth next week.

Special thanks to Texas Tech legend Graham Harrell for tweeting good tweets!