Texas Tech football: Why the Red Raiders lost to the Jayhawks
KU had more chunk plays than Tech
For the second-straight week, Tech was on the short end when it came to chunk plays, illustrating just how unexplosive this offense is. After seeing ISU score touchdowns of 24, 30, and 75 yards a week prior, the Red Raiders were again unable to match their opponent this week in the big-play department.
In all, the Jayhawks had six plays of 20 or more yards. On the other hand, Tech had just five. Though the difference is just one play, remember that this is Kansas we are talking about. Most Red Raider fans would agree that KU should never have more chunk plays than Tech but that’s what transpired Saturday.
What’s more, there’s an even more important difference in these chunk plays. KU made far greater use of theirs than Tech did.
On the Jayhawks’ six big plays, they racked up 310 yards, over half of their total offense for the game. That’s an average of 51.6 yards per play. And even more importantly, three of those plays finished in the end zone.
However, Tech’s five big plays totaled just 154 yards, an average of 30.8 yards per play. Only one of those plays went for a TD, Dalton Rigdon’s 48-yard catch and run in the early 4th quarter.
Going even further, the difference between the two teams is that the big plays KU had were provided by their most explosive players. Conversely, Tech’s big plays came via players not likely to take the ball to the house.
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All of the Kansas chunk plays came from either their fleet of speedy wide receivers or their two explosive running backs. In the passing game, the KU receivers had the speed needed to get behind the defense, which is something most of the Texas Tech receivers were unable to do.
Outside of Rigdon, who beat the Jayhawk secondary deep on a post route from the slot for his TD, Tech’s big plays went to players that lack the speed to outrun the defense. Two of them were courtesy of tight end Donta Thompson, who had receptions of 28 and 23 yards. A third came from Travis Koontz, the other tight end on the roster, who had a 32-yard catch.
Though it is great to see Thompson and Koontz get loose for big plays and contribute in substantial ways, we would rather have players with more speed find themselves with the ball in the open field. This could be a flaw in the design of the offense and it is a drawback of having a tight end on the field at all times because it takes a speedy slot receiver out of the equation.
The other big play for Tech was a 23-yard run by SaRodorick Thompson. Though the redshirt freshman is proving to be elusive and productive, making numerous players miss at the line of scrimmage, he is never going to be a burner in the open field. That’s what Tech expected Ta’Zhawn Henry to provide this year but thus far, he’s been a relative non-factor in his second season.
Consider this telling fact, on average it took Kansas seven plays to score on their five TD drives while it took Tech an average of five plays on their TD drives. That tells us that for most of the game, the Red Raider defense played well.
Typically, on first and second down, the Red Raiders held firm. However, at critical times there were breakdowns that cost both teams. The difference was that KU turned those opportunities into touchdowns three times while Tech did so just once.
This game came down to big plays. Tech’s offense was actually much more consistent and reliable. But as is so often the case in the wild wild world of the Big 12, it was the team that could strike the quickest that survived.