Texas Tech Football: Week 4 Report Card vs TCU

Texas Tech Football put up plenty of points on offense against an injury-depleted, but still solid, TCU defense. The problem however, was that the Tech defense just could not stop the Horned Frogs when they had the ball, and were unable to force any turnovers as they have in the first three games.

Quarterback: A-
Pat performed well throughout most of the day, especially considering he sustained a fairly significant knee injury early on, that he played through. He went 25/45 for nearly 400 yards and 2 touchdowns, without turning the ball over for the first time this season. There were a couple throws he would like to have back, most notably the second to last drive where he skipped a third down pass to Reginald Davis. There was also a dropped interception by the TCU defense, but other than that, Pat managed the game very well, and added value on the ground as well, even after the injury. If Pat is 100 percent this week, Baylor may be in trouble.

Running Backs: A
DeAndre Washington was a man possessed on Saturday. During the second half, there was not much the Horned Frogs could do to bring him down. The Senior back ran for 188 yards on just 22 carries, and added another 31 yards on 3 receptions. Justin Stockton also showed his breakaway speed yet again with his seemingly requisite, “beat ’em to the endzone” touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Kliff Kingsbury may need to rely on Washington more throughout the season, as teams drop more defenders into coverage. Last week showed that DeAndre is up to the task, and can put the team on his back if needed.

Wide Receivers: B
The wide receiver group had a fairly good game against the Horned Frogs. The group was solid, but not quite as explosive as they were against Arkansas (that would have been extremely difficult to surpass). They also blocked well downfield again, and got extra yards for fellow receivers and the running backs (especially on Justin Stockton’s TD catch). There were not too many drops on the day, but they generally showed up at inopportune times.

Offensive Line: B+
The offensive line generally had a good day against the Horned Frogs. They kept Pat clean except for a couple knockdowns, and made some good running lanes for the running backs. When your leading rushing averages over 8 yards per carry, the offensive line was a big part of it, no matter who was toting the rock.

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The biggest blemish on the night for the offensive line was a second down run by Justin Stockton on the Red Raiders’ second to last possession. Justin Murphy pulled around to the left side and looked to have Denzel Johnson, number 30, as a blocking assignment. Instead, Murphy hesitated and tried to chip the defensive tackle and never blocked Johnson. The result was a 3rd and 4 instead of a possible first down. On the next play, TCU got pressure from Tech’s right side (where they have needed help all season) and forced an errant throw by Mahomes. The rest is history.

Defensive Line: C-
It’s not often you can give up 50+ points and still have any position group get above an “F”. However, Pete Robertson and Rika Levi actually had a pretty good game, playing in the TCU backfield most of the day. The two combined for 6 solo tackles, 2 tackles-for-loss, and a number of quarterback pressures. The problem was, nobody else did much of anything, and the pressure wasn’t consistent throughout the whole game. There were also several tackles missed that could have changed the outcome of the game.

Linebackers: D-
Coming into the 2015 season, linebacker was arguably the biggest question mark on the Texas Tech depth chart. And as of Saturday’s game against the Horned Frogs, the question marks continue. Micah Awe has mysteriously forgotten how to tackle, and none of the young bucks seem to be able to take on blockers, or execute their assignments. The highlight of the night was probably Malik Jenkins defending an Aaron Green would-be reception near the end zone. Other than that, there wasn’t much good that came out of the linebackers’ performance on Saturday.

Defensive Backs: F
At this point, there are two questions left on most Red Raiders’ minds: when is Nigel Bethel coming back, and when are we going to stop playing a zone defense? Without a true lock-down corner, this secondary is a total liability, and lacks speed and cover skills to challenge the conference’s elite receivers. The David Gibbs’ defense is also getting worn out. It may work against unpolished, unskilled quarterbacks, but the fact of the matter is that the Tech secondary has left receivers wide open on nearly every passing play this season, and has been lucky and come away with interceptions with a few of them off of opponents’ mistakes.