Texas Tech football: Statistical reasons Tech lost to UT

As we look at the box score, these statistical categories proved to be the Texas Tech football team’s undoing against Texas.

Now that the dust has begun to settle, it is easy to see how insane Saturday’s 63-56 loss to Texas was.  After all, it was the highest-scoring game ever between the two schools, a series that has now had 70 editions.  What’s more, Tech managed to hang more points on UT than it ever has before…and yet somehow couldn’t come out on top.

What made things so intriguing though is that the game didn’t unfold the way we expected.  And a quick look at the box score confirms just how strange this contest was.

First of all, Texas put up 63 points despite a rather pedestrian day from QB Sam Ehlinger.  He was able to complete just 27-41 passes for 262 yards despite playing against one of the nation’s most charitable secondaries.   Many expected him to surpass that yardage total in the first half but his ability to exploit the back end of Tech’s defense proved to be a secondary component of the UT attack until late in the fourth quarter and in OT.

Another shock was the fact that Tech was only penalized four times for a total of 15 yards.  On the other hand, Texas was flagged 10 times for 100 yards.  That’s certainly not how Red Raider fans expect any game against the Longhorns to be officiated.

What’s more, Tech was rather strong defensively on third down.  The Horns were able to convert on only 5 of their 16 third-down attempts as the Red Raiders were far more competitive in that aspect of the game than they were in week one.

Then there was the fact that Tech somehow managed to lose despite blocking a pair of punts and getting a touchdown off of a UT muffled punt.  Meanwhile, the Horns won when facing a 99.8% chance of losing after the SaRodorick Thompson TD run in the fourth quarter.

That’s why so many Red Raiders fans will find this game nearly impossible to swallow.  It was one that proved to be just strange enough for an 18-point underdog to win and yet, it slipped right through Tech’s hands.

Everyone is going to point to moments like the ill-fated “sky kick” and the flubbed onside kick recovery as the reasons why Tech lost this game  But there were also some statistical data points that help us understand how a 15-point lead evaporated in the final 3 minutes. So let’s go inside the stats and see just why the Red Raiders lost.  And we will start with an aspect of the game in which Tech was surprisingly inefficient.