Texas Tech football: Three turning points from Ole Miss game
Scottie Phillips’ 65-yard 3rd-quarter TD run
As the second half began, Texas Tech appeared to be regaining some momentum. The Red Raiders forced Ole Miss to punt on their first offensive drive of the half and followed that up with a field goal to pull to within ten points at 30-20.
True freshman quarterback Alan Bowman had led his team to points on two of his three previous drives and looked to be gaining his footing after being thrown into the fire in the first quarter. Tech had an opportunity to put some pressure on Ole Miss for the first time in the game had David Gibbs’ defense been able to make a stop.
But on the Rebels’ third play of the drive, Ole Miss offensive coordinator Phil Longo went back to a scheme he used all afternoon. Longo put four receivers on the field with three deployed to the near side and only one to the wide side.
The result was that Tech had only Dakota Allen in the second level of the defense as Tony Jones and Kolin Hill played on the line of scrimmage expecting to rush the passer. Additionally, similar to the Jones’ kickoff return, Tech did not have enough players to cover the wide side of the field as only Allen, safety Thomas Leggett and a corner were left to defend the wide side of the field behind the line of scrimmage.
When the Allen noticed the Ole Miss right guard and tackle both pull to the left, he over-ran the play and was erased by a blocker allowing Phillips to cut up field. Leggett was left one-on-one in the hole with Phillips who easily juked him and was off to the races.
For much of the week, Leggett has received the majority of the blame for not making the tackle on this play but the reality is that very few, if any safeties could have made that tackle. Leggett was standing basically flat-footed as he met Phillips, who was already up to full speed giving the safety virtually no chance.
The error on the play came from Allen who was overly aggressive when reading the counter play. Had he been in position and not overrun the ball, he could have forced Phillips to slow down and try to juke him thus allowing Leggett to come up in support and make the play. It was ironic that Allen was burned on the play as the broadcast crew had just finished discussing Allen’s inspirational journey from JUCO back to the Texas Tech program.