Texas Tech’s Defense Shows Promise, While Offense Flails Against NC State
Texas Tech's season started with a bang when they dominated Murray State and the offense looked electric as they scored on nearly ten straight possessions to open the game. Texas Tech then looked fairly bad on offense for an entire game against Houston with three great drives getting you to overtime and two good overtimes to beat the Cougars.
Then the Red Raiders headed to North Carolina State where they looked like a Big 12 contender defensively and a basement Big 12 team on offense. What does that mean for the rest of the season? I'm not certain, but I think this coaching staff can look back at the game against NC State and know that losing the turnover and field position battles as bad as they did it's not good.
NC State's 27-14 win over Texas Tech started with NC State grabbing momentum on the first play of the game. A wide-open shot up the seam from Donovan Smith to Trey Cleveland ended with the ball hitting the ground. Texas Tech would punt, then force a punt from NC State that Drew Hocutt would muff inside the 15-yard line.
Texas Tech would hold them to the field goal, but the damage was done.
Another short field would lead to another NC State field goal.
A pick-six with about 4 minutes left in the first half would make it 20-0. With as poor as the offense was playing, that lead seemed insurmountable. After the interception, Smith didn't back down leading a touchdown drive to close the first half at 20-7.
Nobody scored in the 3rd quarter. Early in the fourth, a back-breaking turnover on downs would turn into an NC State one-play touchdown drive to make it 27-7. Donovan Smith would respond with one more touchdown drive with about 10 minutes left in the game, but that would finish the scoring at 27-14.
After the game, Joey McGuire and Tyree Wilson both echoed that the team beat themselves tonight with self-inflicted wounds and mistakes. If they can learn and correct those mistakes the team will be fine.