Texas Tech football: Turning points that cost Tech in loss to Zona
Tate runs for 1st down on 3rd and 14
There was a point in the second half where it looked like Tech was ready to take this game over. Alan Bowman had returned from a hard hit that sent him to the locker room (the hit that resulted in the injury that will now keep him out 6-9 weeks) and thrown a beautiful TD pass to McLane Mannix to put Tech up 14-13 near the end of the third.
On the ensuing Arizona drive, Tech had the Wildcats backed up to their own 9-yard-line and facing a 3rd-and 14. Make a stop and you get excellent field position to begin the next drive and you put Arizona’s defense back on the field just four plays after surrendering a TD.
But Tate was able to outrun Jordyn Brooks on a scramble and pick up 16 yards. Though we will all remember the 84-yard TD he had, this was the biggest play he made with his legs.
On the play, Tech was in man-to-man coverage, something that made life much easier for Tate because it cleared all the defenders out of the area he ran to. It was frustrating to watch DC Keith Patterson continually make life easier on Tate by playing man coverage in 3rd-and-long situations such as this.
Also on this play, Brooks was in an odd position at the snap. He was playing 11 yards off the ball in the middle of the filed where a safety might normally be. Perhaps he was in the “spur” position for this play.
That left Riko Jeffers as the only linebacker in the middle of the formation. For some reason, Jeffers chased a slot receiver across the middle of the field despite the fact that the receiver was covered by Damarcus Fields.
Jeffers should have stayed home and been a spy on Tate and if he had, he would have been in the perfect position to make the play. But since he was 35 yards away as Tate rolled right, Brooks had to come up from deep in the secondary, something he is not accustomed to doing, and try to tackle one of the game’s most elusive QB’s.
He was unable to do so as Tate got by him with a shimmy and picked up the needed yardage. Had Tech not played man coverage on a third-and-long, had Jeffers been in the right position, or had Brooks found a way to stop Tate, Tech would have had the ball back near midfield with an opportunity to seize this game by the throat.