Texas Tech football: Matt Wells has exactly the type of debut he needed
The defense was dominant
The paradox with the Texas Tech football program is that we want to see the same as we have become accustomed to on offense but something entirely different on defense. It’s hard to blame us given the run of utterly incompetent defense that has been played on top of the Caprock in the last two decades.
Saturday’s defensive showing was exactly what the Red Raiders needed to put forth in the opening game of the Wells era. Allowing just 10 points and 289 total yards gave Red Raider fans a reason to have faith in new defensive coordinator, Keith Patterson (if only for a week).
Of course, Montana State is a far cry from the Kansas City City Chiefs, especially given that they seemed to only want to throw the ball when no other options existed. But it wasn’t just that Tech stifled a poor little FCS team, it was how the defense accomplished its goal.
Deploying a new and more aggressive 3-3-5 scheme, Patterson’s squad imposed its will on the Bobcats, which was what Wells has been saying all offseason that he wants his defense to do each week. That’s certainly a welcome departure from the typical Red Raider defensive strategy of trying to play a reactionary style and sacrifice assertiveness for the sake of limiting big plays.
During the last four years of the David Gibbs defensive era, it felt like the team considered it better to surrender an 8-play touchdown drive rather than one that took only two plays as if the potential reward of aggression was not worth the embarrassment of being burned deep.
Saturday, Patterson’s defense was not afraid to attack and only gave up two big passing plays. The defensive backs played close to the line, the linebackers were part of the pass rush, and the defensive line knifed into the backfield all afternoon rather than simply being content to dance with the offensive linemen.
Maybe the reason we like aggressive defense is that when coaches blitz and players take chances, it looks more like they are trying harder than it looks like they are when they play it safe and sit back. And with the current state of the football program, perception is important, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
The Red Raiders came up with seven stops behind the line and had numerous bone-jarring hits on MSU QB Casey Bauman (despite only sacking him once), something that fans were happy to see. We all want to live to witness the day when the Red Raider defense is no longer a punchline and playing the way it had under Gibbs was not going to bring that to fruition. So the fact that there was a noticeable difference in the way the defense went about its business Saturday was something we all needed to see.