Texas Tech football: What the Red Raiders must do to beat Oregon

Texas Tech must be solid defensively in the red zone

One way to hang in a game against a high-powered offense like Oregon is for your defense to stiffen in the red zone.  Tech didn’t do that against Wyoming and that was a surprise after being excellent defensively inside the 20 last fall.

In Laramie, Wyoming had five red-zone possessions.  They would up with one FG and four TDs.  That included TDs on both OT possessions.  That dog won’t hunt.

This weekend, Tech must be better and force the Ducks to settle for three points instead of seven.  That’s one way to slow down a team that wants to spread the offense out and create mismatches in space.

Last fall, Oregon was only average in the red zone on offense.  Scoring on 81.9% of their red-zone opportunities, the Ducks ranked 78th nationally.

However, their red-zone touchdown percentage of 70.0 did rank 19th in the country.  That should be concerning for Red Raider fans.

Oregon is not a particularly physical team.  They rely on speed and space to pick up yards, even when they run the ball.

Inside the 20, the field shrinks though and linebackers and defensive backs can creep closer to the line without as much fear of being burned deep.  That should make it easier for Tech to play defense in those situations.

Of course, that wasn’t the case against Wyoming.  Tech was dreadful defensively in the red zone a week ago and that has to change against Oregon if the good guys are going to win.