Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. New Mexico Lobos | Play Charting

Keep in mind the general concept. The "P" or "S" stands for Pistol or Shotgun and the number is for running backs and tight ends. Thus, P21 means Pistol formation with 2 running backs and 1 tight end. The formation is how the receivers are lined up, which means if you have "1X1", this means that there is 1 receiver on each side or "3L" means that there are trips on the left side of the field.

One other note. I tracked the first 10 drives and missed some plays during the "technical difficulties" so the 9th drive lacks some of the plays. Also, after QB Jacob Karam threw his touchdown to TE Jace Amaro, I stopped tracking plays. I have no other reason other than I was tired of tracking plays. The 10th drive ended in RB Ronnie Daniels first career touchdown.  Strangely, after I stopped, RB DeAndre Washington fumbled the ball, which was the only turnover for the game.  Lesson learned.

And I'm sure there are mistakes.  This takes quite a bit of time and I didn't go back and re-watch the game to verify everything including yardage gained on each and every play.  If I have something wrong, let me know and I'll get it fixed.

Here's my break down by personnel and formation:

Here are my quick-hit thoughts on what I saw:

• Texas Tech ran 14 plays out of the Pistol formation, 8 runs and 6 passes. Naturally, you would think that this would be more of a running set and thus far, OC Neal Brown is sticking to that.
• Texas Tech passed the ball on the first 9 plays resulting in 2 touchdowns.  I'm sure that will make some of you incredibly happy.
• One other note, which is that of those 14 plays in the Pistol, the offense gained 115 yards, which was good for 8.2 yards per play. The pistol is not a short-yardage offense, at least not against New Mexico, but it can be an offense that is explosive.
• The most explosive alignment was Shotgun with 1 running back and trips left. An astounding 12.58 yards per play.
• The most common formation was Shotgun with 1 running back and 2 receivers on each side of the ball and it was also the formation where Texas Tech did the most passing, throwing 73.9% of the time.
• The touchdowns were scored in S10/3L (Doege to Moore for 56 yards); S10/3L (Doege to Moore for 7 yards); S20 (Doege to Eric Ward for 2 yards); P20 (Zouzalik to Moore for 25 yards); P12/1x1 (Stephens for 6 yards); S10/3R (Doege to Ward for 18 yards); and P12/1X1 (Doege to Amaro for 5 yards).
• Out of the Shotgun, Brown likes to run the ball when he has receivers trips left or right. On Saturday night, OC Brown was more likely to run, about 40%, in trips left or right compared to 26% when he has 2X2.
• If you look through the plays, you'll see the "~", which denotes when a player was in motion on that play. Texas Tech had a player in motion 6 different times on Saturday. During Leach's tenure, he didn't like to run players in motion, but in Potts' and Sheffield junior years, he did have them run more in motion as the idea is that it helps the quarterback know if the defense is in zone or man. I get the feeling that OC Brown likes to have players go in motion, not to help the quarterback, but to give the defense a few more things to consider. This isn't to say that Leach only put players in motion in order to help the quarterback, he would often run that one play with the receiver going in motion, maybe it was Britton, and the receiver would pass the quarterback just as the ball was snapped and the quarterback would hand the ball off to the in-motion receiver.  Either way, I do like having players in motion to mix things up a bit and I think it creates some questions on the defense, but I don't think you'll ever see a lot of motion and pre-snap movement from OC Brown. 
  

The first 10 drives are after the jump.  You opinions and analysis wanted in the comments.