Texas Tech football: Why the Red Raiders lost to TCU

TCU had its way on the ground, even with QB Max Duggan

Prior to this game, we discussed the importance of the ground game on both sides of the field.  It turned out that TCU’s dominance in that aspect proved to be Saturday’s greatest factor.

As a team, the Frogs outgained Tech by land 226-69.  Running back Darius Anderson led the way with 86 yards on 19 carries.  Meanwhile, his fellow RB Sewo Olonilua bulled his way to 63 yards on 11 carries.

But it was the legs of freshman QB Max Duggan that took Tech by surprise.  Known as a good athlete but primarily a passing QB, the 6-foot-2, 190-pounder ran the ball 18 times for 75 yards and the game’s opening score.

That was a season-high in carries for the Iowa native and it seemed to catch the Red Raiders off guard.  Of course, many of his yards came on scrambles or read options but because Tech didn’t consider him a true dual-threat, there wasn’t a spy on him initially and that was a mistake.

Given that he came into the game with at least 10 rushes in seven of his last nine games, it’s hard to understand why Tech wasn’t more prepared for Duggan’s legs.  It was a strategic decision that was costly.

On the other side of the equation, Tech’s ground game was rendered impotent because both of its healthy scholarship running backs, Ta’Zhawn Henry and SaRodorick Thompson were banged up and hardly more than just warm bodies on the field.  Thus, QB Jett Duffey was the team’s leading rusher with 42 yards on 9 carries.

It was reminiscent of last year when Duffey led the team in rushing despite playing in only eight games and was the team’s third-string QB to begin the year.  Just as was the case last year, it wasn’t advantageous for Duffey to be the team’s primary threat on the ground but because he was, TCU didn’t have any fear of the Tech rushing attack and could focus all its efforts on its pass defense.