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Texas Tech football: Why Red Raiders were able to down the Cowboys

By Matthew Conner

STILLWATER, OK - SEPTEMBER 25: The Texas Tech Red Raiders flag flies outside the stadium before the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys September 25, 2014 at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The Cowboys defeated the Red Raiders 45-35. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
STILLWATER, OK - SEPTEMBER 25: The Texas Tech Red Raiders flag flies outside the stadium before the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys September 25, 2014 at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The Cowboys defeated the Red Raiders 45-35. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /
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Texas Tech had the more explosive offense

In a matchup pitting one of the nation’s most explosive teams against one of the least, it was Tech that made more big plays despite ranking just 100th overall in plays of 20 or more yards.  That certainly made life easier for Duffey because he was not asked to sustain long drives.

Saturday, Tech had 9 passes of 20 or more yards.  That was just two fewer than the number the team had entering the game.

On the ground, Tech churned out six carries of at least 10 yards.  And impressively, only one of those was via a Jett Duffey scramble, the 16-yard TD that put up the home team up 10-0 in the first quarter.

Prior to this game, it had been fair to be concerned about Tech’s inability to make big plays.  Against Oklahoma and Arizona, the offense looked incapable of threatening defenses down the field or gashing them on the ground.  But that was not a problem against the Cowboys.

Playing a more aggressive game, David Yost’s offense looked more like what we had expected it to look like all along.  It looked like it was playing like the 2018 Utah State offense that he coordinated, an offense that had 29 scoring drives of less than a minute in length.

Will Tech be able to replicate that type of performance on the road in Waco this week?  That’s going to be the next test Duffey and his teammates will have to pass. Still, it was reassuring to see the offense break out of its slumber to pick up yards in huge chunks against a team that was known for doing just that.

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