Texas Tech football: Red Raiders must be better in 4th quarter this season

The rushing attack dried up

To help keep a woefully thin defense fresh, it is nice to have a dominant ground game.  But that is not how you would describe the 2019 fourth quarter Red Raider rushing attack.

In total, Tech ran the ball 419 times for 1,799 yards last year.  That was an average of 8.7 rushes and 37.4 yards per quarter.  But in the fourth quarter of games against Power 5 opponents, Tech ran the ball just 49 times for 255 yards.  That’s an average of just four carries for 21.2 yards (not counting sacks).

That’s no way to keep a defense fresh.

Sometimes, Tech was playing from far behind as was the case against Iowa State, Texas, and OU so throwing the ball made perfect sense.  But in other, more closely contested, games OC David Yost seemed to just stop running it.

Against TCU, Tech ran the ball with a running back only once in the fourth quarter.  That may have been due to the fact that the only scholarship running back able to play that day was SaRodorick Thomspon, who was likely gassed after playing every offensive snap of the game.

But a week later, the same scenario unfolded against Kansas State.  That evening in Lubbock, Tech ran the ball just twice for 17 yards in the fourth quarter.

Look to see if this trend changes in 2020.  Tech is expecting to have more depth in the backfield with four scholarship RBs now on the roster.  What’s more, we can hope that more often than not, the Red Raiders will be protecting leads in the final period rather than trying to come from behind as was so often what Matt Wells team had to do late in games a year ago.  If that’s the case and the Red Raider ground game can take over down the stretch by giving the ball to SaRodorick Thomspon, the offense’s best returning weapon, it could do wonders for Tech’s performance in the fourth quarter.