Texas Tech football: How Red Raiders can survive until Alan Bowman returns

Limit offensive penalties that put the team in a bad down-and-distance

When a team has an offense that may be limited in its ability to move the ball, avoiding penalties is crucial.  That’s an area where Tech was very good in the first two games this year but reverted back to its old ways against Arizona.

Tech was penalized seven times for 60 yards in Tucson and will have to be better than that moving forward.  And a number of those penalties were costly to the offense.

Take for example Douglas Coleman’s personal foul after picking off Khalil Tate near halftime.  The 15 yards he was assessed kept Tech from potentially putting points on the board prior to halftime and those are the type of fouls that will kill an offense that has inexperienced or shaky quarterbacks.

Overall, Tech ranks No. 24 in penalties per game at just 5 and No. 37 in penalty yards per game at 46.3.  That is a significant improvement from 2018 when the Raiders averaged 74.2 yards per game in penalties.

Most important will be to eliminate the pre-snap penalties such as delay of game and false start.  Those are the type of infractions that are completely avoidable and which will likely stall a drive.

This is an offense that has not yet proven to be capable of putting explosive huge plays with regularity and that likely will not change with a backup QB in place.  What’s more, if the rushing attack is going to play more of a role for Yost’s offense, making certain that they do not fall behind the chains because of penalties will be a must.