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Texas Tech football: Turning points in loss to Horned Frogs

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 16: Texas Tech Red Rainders mascot the Masked Rider leads the team onto the field before the college football game against the TCU Horned Frogs on November 16, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 16: Texas Tech Red Rainders mascot the Masked Rider leads the team onto the field before the college football game against the TCU Horned Frogs on November 16, 2019 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
(Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /

TCU is able to get three points on its final drive of the first half

By the time TCU took over possession for its final drive of the first half, Tech had closed the gap to 24-16 and in the process, turned the game’s momentum.  With 1:55 left to play and just one timeout to work with, TCU was not looking likely to get back on the board before the intermission.

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But 14 plays later, the Frogs would kick a 28-yard field goal on the final play of the half to tack three more points on to their lead.  Again, in a 2-point win, that proved to be rather important.

On this drive, the Frogs converted three times on third down.  Those were three of the most important of TCU’s 15 3rd-down conversions on the day.

This defense has been horrendous when it comes to getting off the field.  That was its greatest flaw in Saturday’s loss.

Keep in mind that this is not a prolific TCU offense.  But for some reason, they are fantastic on 3rd down.  The Frogs now lead the Big 12 in 3rd-down conversion percentage at 51.6% in Big 12 play.

Meanwhile, Tech is 9th in conference games when getting teams off the field.  The Red Raiders have been successful on only 55.3% of the opposition’s attempts to convert.

Tech had an opportunity to make a stop and possibly tie the game by scoring after receiving the second-half kickoff.  However, this important drive by the Frogs meant that they were able to take a two-score lead into the locker room.

That had to be a nice pick-me-up for a team that had seen Tech rattle off 16 of the game’s last 23 points to make it interesting and put pressure on the visitors.  Coaches place a high value on the drives right before and after the intermission and in this instance, TCU worked the clock perfectly and got a boost to end the half.

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