Texas Tech football: Consistent pass rush will be imperative in 2020

If the Big 12’s worst pass defense from 2019 is going to be improved in 2020, the Texas Tech football team must find a way to be more consistent when it comes to getting to the passer.

We’ve spent quite a bit of time this offseason discussing the struggles of last year’s Texas Tech pass defense, which ranked last in the Big 12 and third-to-last in the entire country by allowing 288 yards per game through the air.

But thus far, most of our focus has been on the secondary, which was a weakness. However, the pass rushers have to shoulder some of that blame as well being as they were unable to get consistent pressure for most of the season. And if the 2020 defense is going to be any better in this regard, that’s an area where DC Keith Patterson’s unit must be more consistent.

On the surface, Tech was a middle of the road team when it came to sacks. Out of 130 teams in the FBS, they ranked 72nd by averaging 2.0 per game. That was good enough for 7th in the Big 12.

But the season totals were skewed by one outlier of a game, October’s 45-35 upset of No. 21 Oklahoma State. That afternoon in Lubbock, the Red Raiders sacked OSU QB Spencer Sanders seven times while also forcing five turnovers. It was one of those games where the Cowboys couldn’t get out of their own way and it completely changed the way Tech’s season totals read.

In all, the Red Raiders had 24 sacks on the year. Thus, nearly a third came in that win over the Cowboys. When you look at the other 11 games on the 2019 schedule, Tech averaged a mere 1.5 sacks per game. What’s more, in Big 12 games other than the OK State game, that number fell to 1.3.

The only other Big 12 game in which Tech had more than two sacks was the loss to TCU in Lubbock. That day, the Red Raiders brought down Max Duggan three times.

Taking matters a step further, in the nine games Tech played a Power 5 team, not from Stillwater, the defense came up with two or fewer sacks in eight. That included only one sack against OU, Kansas, Kansas State, and Texas and no sacks against Iowa State.

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The pass rush, or lack thereof, had a tremendous impact on Tech’s overall lack of defensive success last fall. In the four wins the Red Raiders managed to bring home, they averaged 3.2 sacks per game, including three against UTEP and two against West Virginia. In all, 13 of last year’s 24 sacks came in those four games.

On the other hand, in the eight losses Matt Wells’ team endured in 2019, Tech averaged almost two fewer sacks per game than they did in the victories. In other words, this year’s pass rush needs to be more consistent.

The problem is that the players responsible for seven of last year’s 24 sacks are no longer on the team. Most notable are Jordyn Brooks and Broderick Washington who had 3.0 and 2.5 sacks respectively.

Taking matters a step further, Tech has only one defensive lineman on the roster who has more than 1.5 career sacks, Eli Howard, who led the team with 5.0 last year and who has 12.0 for his career. He and Riko Jeffers (3.0 sacks last year) are the only members of the defense who had more than 1.5 sacks last year.

But there is hope for an improvement in this area, especially in the newcomers who have joined the program. JUCO DE Devin Drew had 9.5 sacks last season at Iowa Western C.C. on his way to being a first-team NJCAA All-American. Michigan State transfer Brandon Randle has five sacks in his career, including 4.0 in 2018. And don’t forget that former four-star signee Gilbert Ibeneme will be back in the mix this year after the DE missed all of his true freshman season last year with a shoulder injury.

Also, Tech expects some returners to make strides this year, starting with Tony Bradford Jr. The sophomore was promising in his debut season last fall as he racked up 1.5 sacks. Now with a year of experience and physical maturity under his belt, he could be in for a breakout season.

Another name to keep an eye on is Kosi Eldridge. The junior was mainly a special teams contributor last fall, his first year with the Red Raiders after joining the program as a JUCO transfer, but he’s been mentioned quite often by both his head coach and most recently by LBs coach Kevin Cosgrove as a player who could make an impact this fall. Keep in mind that both he and Randle are expected to fill the shoes of Xavier Benson, last season’s fourth-leading tackler who is away from the team due to a leave of absence for mental health purposes, meaning that both will have plenty of opportunities to make plays.

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So this fall, we must hope that the Red Raider pass rush becomes more consistent than it was a year ago. That’s because the key to an improved defense is an improved showing against the pass and that won’t happen unless there is more pressure on the QB in 2020.

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