Saturday’s road trip to Tempe, Arizona didn’t go all that well for Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech football team. The Red Raiders were completely and totally lost on offense, eventually ran out of steam on defense, and just couldn’t overcome an Arizona State Sun Devils team that seemed completely and totally intent on beating Texas Tech.
And the defending Big 12 champs won. They beat the Red Raiders 26-22. McGuire and Texas Tech missed an opportunity to make it clear that this particular team is different from the ones that Red Raider fans are used to seeing.
Texas Tech also missed out on the chance to elevate itself in the race to earn a spot in the Big 12 championship game this season. Following the four-point loss to Arizona State, Texas Tech is now 6-1 on the season and 3-1 in Big 12 play. That puts the Red Raiders in a three-way tie for third place in the Big 12 standings.
This loss is going to sting a bit. And it sounds like the head coach of the Red Raiders knows that.
Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire notes that the Red Raiders must learn from their missed opportunities against Arizona State
During his postgame press conference, McGuire pointed out how the Red Raiders missed on some crucial chances to put pressure on the Sun Devils.
“We just missed on too many opportunities,” McGuire said. “Early on, we were holding them to field goals and then we just didn’t counter with any kind of scores.”
Texas Tech fans certainly didn’t enjoy seeing that happen and it also sounds like McGuire isn’t exactly a huge fan of the fact that that happened. He certainly made that clear during the press conference.
“I hate it, I hate being in a locker room and feeling like I let the guys down,” Texas Tech’s head coach explained. “But the one thing I said to them is, just like coming off a win, you’ve got to come back Sunday and look at the film and learn from it. We’ve got to do the same thing.”
I agree with that. And I suspect that there’s going to be plenty to learn from when the Red Raiders sit down and start going through everything that happened against Arizona State. Those film study sessions aren’t going to be enjoyable.
“It’s a lot harder to do whenever you lose,” McGuire explained.