Texas Tech football: Red Raiders hold off TCU thanks to late INT

Texas Tech got more out of its star running back than TCU did

In a game featuring two of the top Power-5 running backs in the nation, it was Texas Tech’s Tahj Brooks who stood out.  Meanwhile, outside of one play, TCU’s Emani Bailey was essentially a non-factor.

Surpassing the 1,000-yard mark on the season and cracking the top-ten list of all-time Texas Tech rushers, Brooks was again a workhorse.  Carrying the ball 31 times he racked up 146 yards and a TD.  Averaging 4.7 yards per carry despite constantly facing eight and even nine-man boxes, he was the driving force for the Red Raiders once again.

Meanwhile, Bailey was stuck in neutral for most of the night.  On 19 rushes, he managed only 57 yards.  He did find the endzone twice, once on a nice 16-yard run and once on a two-yard plunge, but other than that, he was held in check by the Red Raider defensive front.

This was the second-lowest rushing output of the season for Bailey who had only 55 yards against West Virginia earlier this season.  In five other games this year, he had managed to put up for at least 100 yards but against Tech, he was unable to find a rhythm and make a difference.

That put a ton of pressure on Hoover, a redshirt freshman who was making just his third college start.  Also making Hoover have to try to play the role of hero for TCU was the fact that for much of the game, Tech held a two-score advantage.

The plan for TCU couldn’t have been to ask Hoover to throw 52 passes, especially given his propensity for throwing picks.  Coming into the night, he had thrown one in every game he had played this year and his two on Thursday raised his season total to seven on just 123 pass attempts (an average of one pick for every 17.5 passes thrown).

Tech knew where TCU wanted to go with the ball and TCU knew where Tech wanted to go with the ball.  However, Brooks was the only running back in this game who proved capable of breaking tackles and carrying the load when everyone in the stadium knew he was getting the rock.  Bailey, on the other hand, looked like just a guy, and that put the TCU offense in a bind that ultimately cost them the game as Hoover couldn’t deliver them a win.