Texas Tech football: How Red Raiders can attack the ISU defense

Run the ball

When you take a defensive lineman out of the mix and replace him with a safety or corner, it makes your defense smaller and more susceptible to the run.  And when the ISU defense has had problems in recent years, it’s been because the opposition has been able to exploit the 3-man front on the ground.

In fact, last year the Cyclones lost six games and in those contests, they gave up an average of 172.3 yards per game on the ground.  What’s more, all six of those teams went for over 100 yards and three ran for over 200.

At times, ISU can be hell to run against because it is tough for offensive linemen to get all the way out to the second level of the defense and put a hat on a linebacker given that the linebackers often drop 8-10 yards from the line of scrimmage only to attack downhill.

But if you have an experienced line that plays well together and can identify which man to block on an individual basis, the Cyclones can be had on the ground.  On the other hand, if your line isn’t in sync, it will usually mean that an ISU defender is left free to make the stop.  Thus, quite a bit will depend on the play of Tech’s interior linemen, Dawson Deaton, Jack Anderson, and Weston Wright.

For what it’s worth, since 2016, Tech has run for more than 150 yards against ISU just once (168 yards last year).  And the last time the Red Raiders played in Ames, they ran for merely 30 yards in a 40-31 loss.

Keep an eye on how dedicated Tech will be to keeping the ball on the ground this weekend and whether or not the rushing attack can be effective.  That’s because pounding the 3-3-5 with the run is the best way to attack it.