Texas Tech football: What we learned about defense, depth and Duffey from TCU game
Texas Tech has the kind of defense that can wins games on its own
Perhaps things have changed for the Red Raider defense after all. After hearing defensive coordinator David Gibbs proclaim throughout the offseason that “things have changed” for his defense, some shaky moments over the first half of the season left many Texas Tech football fans to question whether the typically honest to a fault Gibbs was just blowing smoke.
Tech allowed 47 points to Ole Miss and 49 points to Houston in the first two games against FBS teams this year. And even after a promising showing against Oklahoma State in which Tech shut the Cowboys out in the final two-and-a-half quarters, the 806 D gave up 35 points to West Virginia in the first half.
But when Texas Tech needed its defense more than at any point in recent years, Gibbs’ crew came up huge. Finally able to shake its first half doldrums, Tech’s defense keep the team in the game during the first two quarters as Jett Duffey and the offense struggled to find a rhythm.
And fittingly, it was the defense that sealed the win keeping TCU off the board on its final two drives of the game following Duffey’s 38-yard TD run to give Tech the lead. Adrian Frye’s game-clinching interception of Shawn Robinson was a perfect microcosm of the Red Raider defense’s night.
All game, Tech had Robinson flustered and on the run as he never got comfortable in the pocket. And as he attempted to pull off one final mad scramble, Tech swarmed to the ball and forced the third turnover of the game to slam the door.
Do not let detractors say that this was not an impressive showing by the defense. Before the critics try to point out that the TCU offense is a bad unit, remember that the same offense put up 28 points and 511 yards of total offense against No. 4 Ohio State in week three of the season.
Granted, this Horned Frog offense will not remind anyone of the Kansas City Chiefs, but it is a capable group featuring a former 4-star recruit at QB and some tremendous speed at the receiver and running back positions.
The fact Texas Tech won this game on a night when the offense was merely a shell of what it normally is shows that Kingsbury finally has a defense capable of carrying its own weight. This was the first time in Kingsbury’s tenure that Tech won a game in which it scored fewer than 20 points and it showed that when necessary, the Red Raider defense can win a game on its own.