Texas Tech football classics: Red Raiders score emotional win in 2010 Alamo Bowl
Tech shut down Kirk Cousins in the second half
The other QB in this game is one most football fans know, Kirk Cousins. Just a sophomore at the time, he finished the game with 220 yards on 13-27 passing with 1 TD and two picks.
But in the first half, it looked like he might out-gun the Red Raiders. Keeping his team in the game, Cousins engineered three TD drives before halftime including one that ended when he scrambled away from pressure and dropped a dime to a streaking WR just before taking a huge hit. That 48-yard TD tied the game at 14-14 and appeared as if it was going to set the stage for another Texas Tech bowl shootout.
However, in the second half, the Red Raider defense put the clamps on the future NFL star. He would go just 4-12 for 77 yards and a pick in as the Spartan offense had to rely on the ground game to move the ball.
In fact, it got so bad for Cousins that as MSU twice entered the red zone, Dantonio went to his bag of tricks to put points on the board. Late in the third, he asked WR Keshawn Martin to throw the ball on first-and-goal at the 8 and that resulted in the TD that gave MSU a 28-27 edge.
Earlier in that quarter, WR Keith Nichol, who had played some QB at OU before transferring to MSU, lined up at QB and ran a draw for a 7-yard TD. It was quite an indication of how the Spartan coaches viewed the way their offense was performing with Cousins at the helm after halftime.
Tech was able to make Cousins uncomfortable in the pocket for most of the game. Pass rushers like Brandon Sharpe, Rajon Henley, and Daniel Howard didn’t get but one sack between them, however, by always being just a step away from Cousins as he threw or by flushing him from the pocket, they made his life rather difficult.
As you likely know, Cousins has gone on to a successful NFL career as the starter for both the Washington Redskins and the Minnesota Vikings and he’s even been to a pair of Pro Bowls. But against the Red Raider defense that night, he did not look like a future NFL starter as Tech caused him to appear rather ordinary.