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Texas Tech football: Red Raiders will beat Arizona if…

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 07: Quarterback Alan Bowman #10 and wide receiver RJ Turner #2 signal during "The Matador Song" after the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the UTEP Miners at Jones AT&T Stadium on September 07, 2019 in Lubbock, Texas. (Poto by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 07: Quarterback Alan Bowman #10 and wide receiver RJ Turner #2 signal during "The Matador Song" after the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the UTEP Miners at Jones AT&T Stadium on September 07, 2019 in Lubbock, Texas. (Poto by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
(Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

Figure out how to finally win the turnover battle

Tonight would be an optimal time for the Red Raider defense to finally figure out how to generate a takeaway.  That’s something that’s yet to occur in 2019.

It’s been one of the few frustrations to come from the season’s first two weeks.  That’s because all offseason we were told that new DC Keith Patterson would produce a defense that thrived on turnovers.

But after two games, Tech is one of just 25 teams in the nation yet to take the ball away from an opponent.  Regardless, the coaching staff has remained steadfast in their belief that the turnovers will come.

"“Still looking for that first takeaway,” Wells said following Tech’s 38-3 win over UTEP.  “We’re going to continue to coach it, continue to demand it. The takeaways will come. We’ll get them. When they come, they will come in bunches.”"

Coming up with turnovers in bunches is something that the Wildcats have already proven rather adept at.  They took the ball away from Hawaii six times in week one which was one of the reasons they were able to stay in a game that looked at times like it was heading towards a blowout.

Tonight’s game could, in fact, hinge on this critical aspect of the game.  The last time Tech beat a Power 5 team that did not have a Jayhawk on its helmet without winning the turnover battle was 2016’s 27-24 double OT win at TCU.

Tech’s goal has been to force three turnovers per game.  Thus far, Patterson’s defense has come woefully short of that aim but he’s attributed much of that to the conservative game plans of Tech’s opponents and the limited number of plays the Red Raider defense has permitted its opponents to run.

Tonight’s foe will neither play it safe nor try to shorten the game by taking its time, thus keeping the offensive snaps at a minimum.  So this needs to be a night when the Red Raider defense finally shows us that all the talk over the last nine months about taking the ball away was more than just offseason bluster.

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