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Texas Tech Monday Morning Notes -

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I'm still working on getting back to normal. I've still got to watch the last half of the 3rd and all of the 4th quarter again.

As some of you know I was in attendance for this game, but we had a few snafus. First, there were no problems driving into Lubbock. Good times.

We go to park our car and, again, no problems. We have the tickets, a couple of brews, life is good. We're cutting time pretty short, we were running a tad late, so we see a couple of friends, hang out for about 10 minutes and we decide to head into the game when my brother-in-law realizes he can't find the tickets.

Crap.

He goes back to the car to see if he left them there and another friend and I start to find 4 tickets out side of the gate. Brother-in-law comes back empty handed. We end up buying tickets for $20 and we've missed the entire first quarter.

And just in case anyone is wondering, we had a designated driver who didn't drink a lick.

Texas Tech Football:

LAJ's Don Williams says that it wasn't pretty, but it was a win. Here's Captain leach on Saturday's game:

"I thought we played against a really good team who did some really good things," Tech coach Mike Leach said. "I thought we had a really good week of preparation. Now, did we miss some opportunities and should some things have been different? Absolutely.

"But the thing about it is, we’ve just got to pinpoint some little things. There isn’t anybody not trying. We’ve got everybody motivated. We’ve got everybody focused. We’ve got everybody trying hard. We’ve got to get rid of the temptation to try to do a little too much."

I think Leach is telling the truth here.

I think that the offense and the defense executed EXACTLY according to their game plan.

When he says that we've got everybody focused, I believe it.  The players did exactly what the coaching staff wanted. Play off the ball, don't let the defense beat you deep and play it safe.

Although I'll probably get into this more this week, it's no coincidence that the current and the past defensive coordinator have had a "bend, but don't break" philosophy. I know that some are calling for McNeill to be more aggressive, but these are the same complaints we had with Setencich and the one constant is the Captain.

As further evidence, let's look at what Captain Leach said to DT's Alex Ybarra with his Nebraska vs. Texas Tech recap:

He credited Nebraska for executing a popular gameplan against Tech: playing keep away from one of the most prolific offenses in the country.

"A lot of people say they're gonna do that, or plan to do that or want to do that," he said, "but can't get it done because pretty soon you deal yourselves out of drives and opportunities."

He believes that most offenses will sputter out, so why allow the opposing offenses a quick strike to get ahead? I'll be honest, it's a philosophy that I'm surprised that Captain Leach has embraced, but unless things change, I don't think Leach is going to change his mind. 

With that being said, I don't think it does any good to call for a coordinator or position coach's position because this philosophy comes straight from the top.

I also wanted to note that there was mention that Nebraska had some offensive looks that Texas Tech wasn't familiar with and LB Brian Duncan says that just wasn't the case:

"It was nothing that we didn't see in practice," Tech middle linebacker Brian Duncan said of the defensive struggles. "It was just guys on the defense trying to make too many plays, trying to be a hero."

Big 12 Happenings:

  • BON's Big 12 Football Report, volume 1.7:
    In one of the most bizarre statistical games in recent memory, Texas Tech utterly blitzkrieged the Nebraska defense when they had the ball, but the Red Raiders defense simply could not get the Cornhuskers off the field. Nebraska ran 80 plays to Tech's 48, possessing the football for an astounding 40:12 to TTU's 19:48. And so it was that a regulation period featuring 3 punts and 0 turnovers wound up a box score oddity, with Nebraska scoring on each of its final three drives to get the game to overtime, which Tech sealed on an interception.
  • DMN's Chuck Carlton ranks the Big 12 teams and Texas Tech checks in at #3:
    The Aggies host No. 7 Texas Tech, which has given them fits since that Zach Thomas interception for a TD in 1995. A&M has allowed 100 points in two Big 12 games. "You just get back to work, see if we can't come up with a way to slow down a Texas Tech football team [that's] maybe as good as anybody playing on Sunday throwing the football right now," defensive coordinator Joe Kines said.

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Upgrade/Downgrade // Defensive End

Jul 2009 by Seth C - 15 comments

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I noticed

poor containment by the DE’s. Our DE’s were blowing the Nebraska OT’s 5 yards off the ball. But it was like they totally forgot about the QB and tailback. That left huge holes for running and Ganz was easily able to move around in the pocket.

LaRon Moore struggled and nearly got an unsportsman like conduct penalty. The official had his hand on the flag and I think would have thrown it had the game not been close at the time.

Blitzes by the OLBs didn’t work and only contributed to the containment problem above.

CB’s played tighter to the line most of the game, but there was a lot of confusion in the defensive secondary in the zone. The transition coverage was bad, allowing the Nebraska receivers to just sit in-bewteen the zones and wait.

The defense was not playing downhill, especially the LBs. They were waiting for things to come to them. McBath was the defensive MVP. Its not a good day when your safety is making most of the tackles against the run.

I know LA Reed went out with an ankle injury. I assume it was the same one. I also saw Bird limping off (early Q3, I think). Not sure whether he was hurt or not or whether he returned.

Offensively, Harrell threw to the 2 yard crossing route several times on 3rd and 5+ with a LB sitting on top of his receiver. Didn’t understand that. He seemed to have all day to throw and was stepping into it nicely. The OL looked much better than last week.

Woods was totally ineffective. He tried to go east and west too much and not north and south.

by NM99 on Oct 13, 2008 6:48 AM CDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

I agree

We got pressure on Gantz, but we couldn’t capitalize on it. Our secondary was really bad sat. way too many blown coverages. I noticed nebraska was using alot of crossing routes to slow up our DBs and give the qb a window to throw to. Overall I think our run D was decent Lucky is a good back, but our pass defense was horrible. I don’t know why our secondary can’t cover anyone this year, but they had better step it up.

by ST04 on Oct 13, 2008 11:31 AM CDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

re: bird

i saw bird early in 4th quarter walking around the bench i don’t remember him going back in but he was not limping

If you not having fun....then your not playing the game right.

by texastfan on Oct 13, 2008 11:33 AM CDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Troubled skies advanced on the unsuspecting South Plains......

and the Ticket Phantom descended, then struck. Or maybe it was the furtive Brew Bandit. It’s been my experience that particular sneak arrives when beer is in proximity . The SOB has stolen my truck keys several times.

by ForestFlyer on Oct 13, 2008 9:48 AM CDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Brew Bandit.

Without a doubt, agreed about he being a sorry S.O.B.

Go Raiders . . .

by Seth C on Oct 13, 2008 9:49 PM CDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

LOL!!!

i found 4 tickets in the double t store north of the stadium about 20 min before kick off and turned them into the counter i hope those were not your tickets!!!!

If you not having fun....then your not playing the game right.

by texastfan on Oct 13, 2008 11:30 AM CDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

we weren't even close to

there, but that would have been crazy if it had

Go Raiders . . .

by Seth C on Oct 13, 2008 9:50 PM CDT to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

is a&M game

going to be on tv? i can’t find anything on tech website about it

If you not having fun....then your not playing the game right.

by texastfan on Oct 13, 2008 2:55 PM CDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

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