Texas Tech football: Why the Red Raiders lost to the Jayhawks

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Texas Tech had no pass rush

When a QB passes for 415 yards on just 26 completions, there’s almost certain to have been virtually no pass rush from the opposition. The fact that the Red Raiders were unable to put any pressure on Stanley made life more than easy for the Jayhawks’ senior QB on Saturday night.

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The lone Red Raider sack came via Eli Howard in the 4th quarter. At the time, it looked like that could be a monumental play because it put KU in a 2nd-and-20 hole on a drive that began with Tech leading 34-27. But on the next two plays, Stanley found Parchment for 10 yards and Charlot for 11 to keep the drive going. It would culminate in a 32-yard TD run by Velton Gardner Jr.

On a night when Stanley dropped back to pass 38 times, he was hit only once. In addition, Tech was officially credited with no QB hurries.

Part of the problem is that the Tech defensive line did not have its full complement of players. They entered the game without senior DE Lonzell Gilmore, sophomore DE Nelson Mbanasor, and freshman DL Tony Bradford Jr, all of whom play significant roles on the defensive front.

Those losses, while not devastating on an individual basis, all combined to substantially weaken what was already a painfully thin unit for Texas Tech. What’s more, this is a team that needs every pass rusher it can muster.

Despite playing in DC Keith Patterson’s much more aggressive scheme, the Red Raiders are not getting to the QB.

At first glance, it doesn’t look all that bad for the Red Raider pass rush. Tech ranks 5th in the Big 12 with 17 sacks which works out to 2.1 per game. What’s more, in Big 12 play, the Red Raiders have 11 sacks, third-most in the league behind Baylor and OU.

But there should be a huge asterisk next to that ranking. That’s because the vast majority of those sacks came in just one game.

Against Oklahoma State, the Red Raiders managed seven sacks in their 45-35 win. Take that number away and what this team has done in the remainder of its Big 12 games is putrid.

In the other four conference games, Tech has averaged merely one sack. Patterson’s squad had just one against Oklahoma, two against Baylor, and the lone Howard sack against KU. Tech did not sack Iowa State’s Brock Purdy once two games ago meaning that for the last two contests, Tech has managed just one sack on 70 pass attempts.

Tons of blame for this defense’s failings in Lawrence is being thrown upon the defensive backs, and rightfully so. They were abysmal.

But the best medicine for a struggling secondary is an effective pass rush. That’s one reason why Tech was able to corral a lethal Oklahoma State offense back on October 5th.

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However, since that day the pass rush has disappeared. It hasn’t mattered how many extra rushers Tech has brought nor how many times the offense has faced obvious passing situations, this pass rush just simply doesn’t get home anymore. And against the Jayhawks, that was an overlooked but critical issue in Tech’s most humbling loss in decades.

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