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Texas Tech football: Questionable coaching decisions costly in loss to Bears

By Matthew Conner

WACO, TEXAS - OCTOBER 12: Head coaches Matt Rhule of the Baylor Bears and Matt Wells of the Texas Tech Red Raiders shake hands before the game on October 12, 2019 in Waco, Texas. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images)
WACO, TEXAS - OCTOBER 12: Head coaches Matt Rhule of the Baylor Bears and Matt Wells of the Texas Tech Red Raiders shake hands before the game on October 12, 2019 in Waco, Texas. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images) /

Keith Patterson goes to a prevent defense on the final drive of regulation

I’m never a fan of teams changing up how they play when the game is on the line.  For instance, I don’t want a basketball team that makes a living by driving to the rim to start settling for three-pointers when the game is tied in the final seconds…as we saw first hand back in April.

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That’s why I didn’t like defensive coordinator Keith Patterson’s decision to play a prevent defense as Baylor was trying to drive to tie the game in the final two minutes.  He’s coached his players all year to play aggressively and attack but at the most critical juncture of the game, he told them to sit back and play soft.

On that drive, Tech’s safeties were lining up 15-20 yards deep or more.  That left the middle of the field wide open for Baylor QB Charlie Brewer, who took advantage.

After the Red Raiders began the drive with an Eli Howard sack that put the ball at the half-yard-line, Brewer answered with a huge 20-yard pass right in front of the Red Raider safeties to get the Bears going.

Still, Tech stayed soft.  Later on the drive, Brewer had completions of 9, 19, and 27 yards as the Bears got to the Red Raider 5 with a chance to win the game.  All because the Red Raider secondary stopped playing the way it had for the vast majority of the afternoon.

What makes no sense is that Patterson feared Baylor doing something it didn’t do all game, beat the Red Raiders over the top of the defense.   The Bears’ offense is not a big-play unit like Oklahoma or Oklahoma State.  Charlie Brewer does not have the arm to push the ball 50 yards downfield and the Baylor receivers are not nearly as adept at burning defenses deep.  Their big plays come by racking up yards after the catch.

So why give Brewer the throws that are in his comfort zone?  That’s like daring Davide Moretti to beat you with a 3-pointer.   Brewer’s had success in college in spite of a sub-par arm because he can work the intermediate passing game well.  Thus, it would have made more sense to make him do something that he isn’t equipped to do.

The longest play Baylor had in the air was 41 yards.  So Patterson should have played his normal coverage in the secondary and dropped linebackers into coverage if he wanted to have some extra protection against the pass.  That would have clogged the part of the field that Brewer lives in.

In all, 78 of Brewer’s 352 passing yards came on that final drive.  That’s 22% of his total for the game.  What’s more, he completed just 64% of his passes in the game but on the final drive, he was 5-7 passing (71.4%).  On all other drives, he was just 19-33.

Tech played right into Brewer’s hands by just giving him the only part of the field he is comfortable using.  That’s why the decision to play such soft coverage with the game on the line was a critical mistake by Keith Patterson.

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