After taking some nice time off to rest and recuperate after winning their first four games, Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech Red Raiders will soon be getting ready to cross the Lone Star State and meet up with the Houston Cougars for the next Big 12 game on TTU’s schedule.
While Texas Tech got to rest this week, Houston travelled all the way across the country to meet up with an opponent that the Red Raiders have already faced this season: the Oregon State Beavers. Now, it is absolutely fascinating because Oregon State gave Houston plenty of problems and troubles.
That definitely wasn’t the case when Texas Tech got to take on Oregon State. And so, I find it interesting examining the success that Texas Tech had against the Beavers and the struggles that Houston got to go through vs that same Oregon State team just a few weeks later.
So let’s look at that.
Let’s compare stats from how Texas Tech’s offense thrived against Oregon State while the Houston offense stumbled
Specifically, let’s focus on the difference between the offensive success that Texas Tech had to the offensive struggles that Houston had from their respective games when both the Red Raiders and the Cougars met up with the Oregon State Beavers.
Here’s what Texas Tech did when Oregon State visited the Red Raiders in Lubbock:
- Scored 45 points
- Gained 599 total yards of offense
- Threw for 478 yards
- Ran for 121 yards
- Had two turnovers
- Had 30 first downs
- Converted on 9-of-15 third downs
- Converted on 0-of-1 fourth downs
- Averaged 11.7 yards per pass attempt
Now, here’s what Houston was able to put together on offense when the Beavers went to Corvallis:
- Scored 27 points
- Gained 354 total yards of offense
- Threw for 270 yards
- Ran for 84 yards
- Had one turnover
- Had 17 first downs
- Converted on 6-of-15 third downs
- Converted on 1-of-1 fourth downs
- Averaged 7.5 yards per pass attempt
It’s safe to say that things were radically different for Houston offense when the Coogs met up with the Beavers than when the Red Raiders took on Oregon State. Just a drastic difference there. And yeah, I get that Houston’s game was weird because of the kickoff time and it being on a Friday and the game taking place all the way across the country. I get that.
But I think these numbers are fascinating and I’m very curious to see what it looks like for these two offenses when Texas Tech and Houston face off.