Texas Tech football: Why the Red Raiders lost to the Jayhawks
Tech’s receivers were severely outplayed
It’s hard to wrap our minds around the fact that the program that has produced such fantastic wide receivers as Michael Crabtree, Joel Filani, Jarrett Hicks, Eric Ward, and Antoine Wesley, as well as inside receivers, like Wes Welker, Danny Amendola, Jace Amaro, Jakeem Grant, and Keke Coutee now has a receiving corp that can’t hold a candle to even Kansas.
While it was somewhat expected that the Jayhawk receivers would have their moments against a beat up and suspect Red Raider defense, the fact that the Tech receivers did next to nothing was shocking. When you look at the disparity between the production of the two receiving corps, it is easy to see why Kansas came out on top.
The greatest difference can be found at outside receiver. Tech received just 7 combined receptions for a total of 70 yards from its outside receivers.
T.J. Vasher, who leads the team in receiving yards this year, managed just two catches for 33 yards. The only positive about his showing is that one of those receptions was a second-half touchdown.
Opposite him, R.J. Turner gave us just one catch for six yards. That came a week after he led the team with 11 grabs against Iowa State. It was a disappointing outing for Turner after the grad transfer had shown signs of breaking out in the last two games, including a 138-yard day against Baylor.
On the other sideline, KU’s outside receiver combination of Andrew Parchment and Daylon Charlot combined for 125 yards and a TD on nine receptions. That’s an advantage of 92 yards over their Red Raider counterparts.
At inside receiver, Tech had a better showing with 177 yards and two touchdowns on 12 total grabs from the slot receivers and tight ends. Dalton Rigdon did quite a bit of the damage with 76 yards on seven catches, including a 48-yard TD.
Though Tech’s production in the slot was better than the showing of the outside receivers, it still did not compare to what Kansas received. Their duo of Stephon Robinson and Kwamie Lassiter caught a combined 14 balls for 261 yards and two touchdowns (both coming from Robinson). They had 84 more yards than the Tech slot receivers and made far greater of an impact on the game.
Kansas proved to be a team with more speed at the receiver positions than Texas Tech. That’s a troubling sign for Red Raider fans and makes upgrading the talent at the receiver position a virtual guarantee to be one of Matt Wells’ top priorities this offseason.