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Texas Tech football: 2020 Red Raiders have somehow become worse in these areas

By Matthew Conner

Nov 16, 2019; Lubbock, TX, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Matt Wells looks on in the second half against the Texas Christian Horned Frogs at Jones AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 16, 2019; Lubbock, TX, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Matt Wells looks on in the second half against the Texas Christian Horned Frogs at Jones AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports /
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Oct 10, 2020; Ames, Iowa, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders senior defensive back Zech McPhearson (8) recovers a fumble against the Iowa State Cyclones at Jack Trice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Powers-USA TODAY Sports.
Oct 10, 2020; Ames, Iowa, USA; Texas Tech Red Raiders senior defensive back Zech McPhearson (8) recovers a fumble against the Iowa State Cyclones at Jack Trice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Powers-USA TODAY Sports. /

Turnover margin

When you look at the 2019 Big 12 standings in regard to turnover margin, Texas Tech sat rather pretty at No. 3.  But while that was good enough for No. 38 nationally in that regard, last year’s team was able to collect only four more takeaways than they had giveaways.

This year, that needed to be a greater margin.  That’s because this high-risk aggressive defensive scheme is predicated on getting the football back.

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Unfortunately, the Red Raiders are not even taking the ball away as often this year as they did last season.  In fact, with a -1 turnover margin, Tech is in negative territory through four games.

Thus far, the Red Raiders have come up with just four takeaways in total.  That’s down from the 1.5 that last year’s team averaged.

Hopefully, a meeting with the Mountaineers next weekend will open the flood gates again.  Last year, in Tech’s 38-17 win in Morgantown, Keith Patterson’s defense managed to come away with four turnovers.

But the problem is that three of those (two picks and a fumble) came from WVU QB Austin Kendal, who was eventually pulled that afternoon in favor of Jarrett Doege.  Now, the brother of former Texas Tech QB Seth Doege is entrenched as the starter for WVU and he’s taken far better care of the football.

In seven games with his current program, he has been intercepted five times.  However, only two of those have come this season.

Tech simply has to do a better job of taking the ball away and then making those takeaways count.  So far, Wells’ team has scored on only two opportunities following takeaways with both coming against Texas and with one of those being the recovery of a muffed punt in the endzone.  Thus, the offense has only put together one scoring drive this year after receiving a takeaway.

The all-time "rest of Texas" Red Raider football team. light. Related Story

Wells is fond of preaching that when the turnovers come, they will come in bunches.  However, the flip side of that is that they aren’t as spread out as one would like.  In fact, last year, 9 of the team’s 19 came in two games.  So moving forward, keep an eye on how often Tech is able to take the ball away and whether or not the QB change will help keep the ball safe (as all five Tech giveaways have been interceptions).  If the turnovers can start to swing Tech’s way, then maybe, the wins will follow.

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