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Texas Tech football: Turning points in Red Raiders’ win over Oklahoma State

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 05: The Masked Rider, mascot of the Texas Tech Red Raiders, leads the team onto the field before the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Oklahoma State Cowboys on October 05, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - OCTOBER 05: The Masked Rider, mascot of the Texas Tech Red Raiders, leads the team onto the field before the college football game between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Oklahoma State Cowboys on October 05, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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Cowboy punter Tom Hutton’s shanked punt in the first quarter sets up a Tech TD drive

Though we will look back at this game and remember the fantastic effort of Jett Duffey and the Red Raider offense, in the first quarter, all systems were not online.  After recovering a fumble at the OSU 27 on the game’s opening drive, Tech had to settle for a field goal failing to pick up a first down at all.

Then, after forcing a Cowboy punt on the ensuing drive, Tech was unable to pick up a first down again on its second possession.  The Cowboys then drove to the Tech 40 on their third possession.

But on 3rd-and-13, a Tylan Wallace personal foul for an illegal block downfield erased a 13-yard Spencer Sanders scramble that would have kept the drive alive.  Forced to punt on the drive, OSU still had an opportunity to flip the field position and put a struggling Tech offense in a tough spot.

That did not happen.  Rather than pinning Tech inside its own 10-yard-line, OSU got just a 23 yard punt from 29-year-old Australian Tom Hutton.

Not only did that give the home team the ball at its 17 (plenty far enough from the goal line to cause no worry), it seemed to awaken the Red Raider crowd and the offense.  On the ensuing drive, Duffey and the offense picked up first-downs on six-consecutive plays before Duffey eventually capped off the drive with a 16-yard TD scramble on second-and-goal for a 10-0 lead.

While on the surface, Hutton’s shank didn’t seem to be all that disastrous, it did still force Tech to start its drive inside the 20, it was a missed opportunity for the Pokes.  If the drive would have started inside the 5 or even 10-yard-line, it seems like a safe bet to think that OC David Yost would have taken a much different approach to that drive.

Keep in mind that entering this game the coaching staff did not fully trust Duffey to take care of the ball.  As we saw in Norman, the game plan seemed to be to be overly cautious when Duffey was put in a high-stress situation.

But the 17 was plenty of breathing room.  Therefore, Yost had Duffey start the drive with a pass, which he completed to Donta Thompson for 12 yards.  In fact, three of the first four plays on that drive and six of the seven were called to be passes (that included Duffey’s TD run, which came on a passing play when the pocket collapsed).

Hutton had an awful day.  He averaged just 34.5 yards per punt on seven kicks and his next punt would travel just 18 yards to set Tech up at the OSU 40.  But that drive ended in just three points for the Red Raiders.  The key drive was the previous one when Duffey engineered the game’s first TD.

That was the drive when the offense found its rhythm.  From that point on, Duffey was confident and in control.  It’s worth wondering if that would have been the case if this drive would have begun near the Red Raider goal line where the plan would probably have been to simply avoid disaster rather than to attack.

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