Texas Tech football: Three turning points from Ole Miss game

Wrapping up our analysis of the Texas Tech football team’s 47-27 loss Ole Miss, we look back at three plays that turned the tide of the game against the Red Raiders.

Every football game usually comes down to a handful of plays.  That can even be the case in a 20-point blowout such as the one the Texas Tech football team suffered Saturday against Ole Miss.

Though the final score looks like the game was never in doubt for the Rebels, there were several opportunities for Texas Tech to get back into the game.  But unfortunately, the Red Raiders just could not make the critical plays and the result was a disappointing loss.  Let’s take a look at the turning points from week one.

Jaylon Jones 94-yard kickoff return touchdown

Few plays can turn a football game more quickly and dramatically than a special teams score and it was a kickoff return touchdown in the first quarter that put Ole Miss ahead for good.  After both teams scored on their first offensive possession, the Rebels’ Jaylon Jones returned Clayton Hatfield’s kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown to break the tie.  It would prove to be a play from which Tech never recovered.

Let’s break down the play a bit further.  (Watch it here.)  

Notice that as Tech kicks off, the entire kickoff coverage team is lined up between the far sideline and the near hash leaving a third of the field empty of Red Raider defenders.  The plan was to obviously kick the ball into the left corner of the field and cloud that area with the coverage team.

Hatfield likely did not put the ball as far into the corner of the field as he was supposed to though as Jones fielded the kick close to the numbers.  What that did was split the Red Raider coverage team in half essentially forcing Jones to have to beat only six coverage men.

Had the ball been placed deeper into the corner, Jones would have had to maneuver through or around all ten kick coverage men.  But Hatfield made the safe kick and one can’t help but wonder if that is a residue of last year’s kickoff struggles when Tech kicked the ball out-of-bounds on five different kickoffs.

When the kickoff coverage team reached Jones at around the 20-yard-line, all but one Red Raider was bunched between the far sideline and the left hash mark.  As Jones cut to the right of the Texas Tech cover team (his left), there were only four players to cover the right two-thirds of the field.

After Jones broke one tackle, there was no hope for a Red Raider to run him down because none of the coverage team had an angle on him due to the unusual alignment.  The result was a game-changing touchdown.

The play sparked a 17-0 run for the Rebels and left the Red Raiders stunned.  The overall demeanor of this game changed on this kickoff when the Red Raiders got burned by using an odd strategy that backfired on them.