Texas Tech football: Lessons Red Raiders can learn from Super Bowl LIV

5 of 5

Jimmy Garoppolo #10 of the San Francisco 49ers lies on the ground after a play against the Kansas City Chiefs (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

Sometimes, a timely defense is good enough to win a title

In Super Bowl LIV, the defense that most fans thought was among the best of the last 20 years was bested by a defense that was merely considered adequate. That’s because the Kansas City defense was timely rather than dominant.

Statistically, the Kansas City defense was a top-10 unit this year in both points and yards allowed. But to suggest that the Chiefs were dominant on that side of the ball would be laughable.

More from Wreck'Em Red

Throughout this playoff run, the K.C. defense made timely stands but didn’t shut down opponents. After all, the Texans jumped out to a 24-0 lead in the divisional round and the Titans were able to put up 17 points in the first half of the AFC Title Game to build a 10-point lead.

Likewise, a rather pedestrian S.F. offense, led by a bus driver QB, was able to dictate play for most of the night with a power running game. But when the game was on the line and the Chiefs needed stops, their defense came up huge.

The old axiom that defense wins championships has led us to believe that only dominant defenses can win championships. But in the modern era of the game, at all levels, it is often the timely defense that wins titles.

The Kansas City defense made the stops in the 4th quarter while the S.F. defense didn’t. Thus, the defense that was the better of the two all season and for most of Super Bowl LIV didn’t win.

It was similar to what we saw in the College Football National Title Game. Clemson entered the game with the top defense in the nation while LSU had one that had been exposed at times throughout the year by teams like Texas and Ole Miss. But LSU’s defense was opportunistic enough to give Joe Burrow and the nation’s best offense enough extra possessions to win each game, including the Title Game.

That’s the type of defense Texas Tech fans should hope to have. The reality is that this program will never have a dominant defense the likes of Clemson or Alabama. That type of talent doesn’t want to come to a middling Big 12 program.

Next. The all-decade Red Raider quarterbacks. dark

But if Matt Wells and Keith Patterson can cultivate a timely defense that can get stops in crucial moments, rather than falter when the game is on the line the way the 2019 defense did week after week, the Red Raiders could become a winning program again. It’s a formula that worked in Lubbock in the late 2000s and it worked for the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV.

Home/Texas Tech Football