Saturday in Lubbock, the Texas Tech football team once again failed to capitalize on a great home atmosphere when eyes around the nation were focused on what is happening in Lubbock. Despite jumping out to a 13-0 lead after the first quarter, the Red Raiders couldn't come up with a win that would have put them in line for a potential spot in the Big 12 title game as Colorado stormed back for a decisive 41-27 win.
This was certainly a wild affair and there is plenty to discuss. So let's jump in with some rapid reactions.
Texas Tech just isn't good enough at the line of scrimmage
There are a lot of places we could start to analyze this game but the reality is that Tech lost to Colorado because the Buffs controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Until the Red Raiders get serious about fixing their issues along the offensive and defensive lines, games like this against quality opponents will continue to go down as losses more often than not.
The Red Raider offensive line was pushed around all night. Tech's tackles, Caleb Rogers and Dalton Merryman were repeatedly whipped right off the snap and the result was 7 sacks and 11 tackles for loss against the Tech offense. What's more, despite playing against just an average run defense (at least statistically), the Red Raider ground game averaged a meager 4.2 yards per carry when all the lost yardage from the sacks was taken out of the equation.
On defense, the Red Raiders got very little pressure on Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders without having to blitz a linebacker. Tech had only three sacks and just one came from an edge rusher (Harvey Dyson III). While three sacks are more than Tech averages per game, the reality is that the only hope the Red Raider defense had was to have a huge day in regard to sacking the passer and that didn't happen.
Until this program truly dedicates itself to fixing the problems on the line of scrimmage, no real progress is going to be made. This offseason, Tech has to sink every bit of its available resources into upgrading its talent along the line on both sides of the ball because what's currently in-house on either side isn't cutting it.
Poor officiating truly tilted this game against Texas Tech
I always try to avoid blaming any loss on the officiating. So to be fair, I think that Colorado has the better and more talented team. However, the calls and decisions that went against the Red Raiders truly slanted this game in Colorado's favor.
First of all, the third-quarter roughing the passer penalty against Tech safety Chapman Lewis was abysmal. Lewis hit Sanders at the waist and yet was called for a low hit on a play that gave Colorado new life after Tech appeared to have come up with a third-down stop. Four plays later, Sanders would score on a 7-yard TD run to give his team a 17-13 lead, its first lead of the game.
Then, later in the game, the officials waived off a targeting penalty on a Texas Tech 4th-down attempt. As if that hit on Behren Morton wasn't egregious enough, on that play, Colorado also got away with a blatant face mask on Morton.
At the time, Tech was down 31-20 but it should have had the ball in the Colorado red zone with a fresh set of downs and almost all of the fourth quarter to work with. Instead, Colorado took over at its own 45 and a promising and important Red Raider drive was snuffed out by the officials.
Make no mistake, Tech didn't lose this game because of the officials. In fact, Colorado was flagged five more times than the Red Raiders were. However, the officials were absolutely awful all night and the two above moments in the game were the two most crucial officiating decisions. Unfortunately, each helped turn the tide in the Buffaloes' favor.
Texas Tech was too obsessed with running Tahj Brooks
It just seems like offensive coordinator Zach Kittley can't find the right balance with Tahj Brooks. Last week at Iowa State, he didn't run him enough in the second and third quarters even though the ground game was finding success against the Cyclones. This week, he stubbornly stayed with the run even when it wasn't working at all.
For the game, Brooks' numbers were fine. He carried the ball 31 times for 137 yards and a TD. That was good for an average of 4.4 yards per carry.
But when you consider that 41 of Brooks' yards came in the final four minutes when the game was essentially put to bed, a different picture develops. Prior to that, he had run for just 99 yards on 28 carries, an average of just 3.5 yards per rush.
Was Tech too obsessed with getting Brooks the school rushing record at home? Or was Kittley too afraid to try to throw the ball because he didn't trust his pass blocking? Either way, the offense leaned too heavily on Brooks on a night when the holes simply weren't there for him to run through and that was a huge reason why the offense stalled out after the first quarter.
Brooks deserved a better moment
Speaking of Brooks, he deserved a better moment than he got when he finally surpassed Byron Hanspard to become Tech's all-time leading rusher. All season, the team and the fan base had looked forward to that moment. But when it arrived, there was no time or reason to celebrate.
Brooks didn't break the mark until deep into the fourth quarter. When he did, not only was Tech down by so many points that it didn't make sense to celebrate the honor but the game couldn't be stopped for an announcement or a moment of applause because Tech was in hurry-up mode trying desperately to catch up.
Brooks has had a tremendous career and this was supposed to be his crowning moment. However, because of the game situation, his opportunity for recognition was taken away and that's a shame.