1. Game Links:
Game Recap
Stats
Quotes
Highlights
2. Trip. I’ll cover this very quickly because you’re not here to read about my trip to Lubbock. Fits had a cross-country meet in Canton and his race didn’t start until 9:30, so at 10:30 am we left Canton, made 2 stops (one for lunch and another in Post because I wanted them to go to the bathroom and to feed them one more more time before we roll into Lubbock), and was essentially at the game an hour or so before kickoff. We initially intended on staying with a friend at his deer lease in Matador, but the pump for fresh water died on Friday night so we opted to drive to Snyder to grab a motel for the night. That’s where I’m at. There’s also “free” wifi, but you have to sign up for Hilton rewards or something and I don’t need any more things to sign up for and am doing this by my cell phone mobile spot. I haven’t been on Twitter other than to post a photo of me and the boys walking towards the game. It’s also awesome and love that Yoyo loves the football and Fits loves the Goin’ Band.
— Seth Jungman (@SethJungman) September 9, 2023
3. Dud. One of my biggest flaws is that when a game ends, if I haven’t taken notes, I forget a lot. So there’s going to be a lot that I forget here. Regardless, I’ll do my best.
When Texas Tech scored with 5 minutes left, I was all but sure the game was over. Oregon only needed a field goal to win, their field goal kicker seemed really good. I am sure I wasn’t the only one thinking this. Not only did I think that Oregon simply had to kick a field goal, but I also sort of knew that Shough’s ability to run a 2-minute offense was less than stellar and didn’t think that he’d be able to throw open any receivers. He hadn’t really thrown any open the entire game. All proved to be accurate, which doesn’t make me some sort of genius, it just makes me pretty rational based upon the game that had been played.
4. Shough. I absolutely do not personally about a player so to be clear, there’s no hate or anger here and has nothing to do with him as a person. This is just based on where I sat in the end zone and watched the game. Shough has a really tough time throwing open receivers. His reads are to guys who are open (when they are open), but he’s not giving guys a chance to get open. If this is a quick read offense, he’s not doing the first part really at all and maybe that’s on the receivers not getting open. There’s only so much I can watch during a game. I don’t now the percentage that Oregon went 2-high safeties, but it wasn’t 100% of the game or maybe he’s just not letting it rip, but there’s nothing quick about a pass play it seems. Also want to acknowledge that the pocket sometimes isn’t the best either, but he’s just not seeing it and when he holds the ball as long as he does, bad things happen. I don’t know why we’re doing this dance again and I abhor quarterback controversy talk, but it is time to think about Morton because Shough is limiting how much the offense can actually do. McGuire said after the game that Shough threw the ball great and I did not see that all because there were literally 4 turnovers on pass plays, 3 picks and a sack where he should have dumped the ball into the stands.
I’d also add that although Shough displayed toughness by running the ball as much as he did and I do think he took what the defense gave him, however, I also tend to think that you have to let others do what they do. Running backs got a total of 9 carries all night while Shough called his name 23 times, some of those maybe are sacks, but still.
5. Zero Feel For Defensive Standouts. One of the things that I don’t have a feel for is who was truly a standout in terms of play. We couldn’t see the screen and I didn’t pay attention to the PA for who was doing what.
Statistically, Taylor-Demerson and Ben Roberts did the most, with Roberts totaling 12 tackles, a sack and 2 tackles for a loss. That was the only sack on Nix. DTD had 12 tackles on the night as well from the safety spot.
From a feel standpoint, it felt like the defense made third downs too easy for Oregon and that was correct, they were 10 of 18 and converted 6 of 9 from 3rd and short and Oregon also averaged 6.2 yards needed per third down (compared to 8.2 yards for Texas Tech, which we’ll get to in a second).
It also felt like there were way too many missed tackles and/or plays where the Oregon players just ran around or ran though a Texas Tech defender.
6. Offensive Numbers. 28% of Texas Tech’s plays were passing downs, which means it was at least 8 yards until the 1st down and it was 3rd or 4th down. That’s nearly a third of all your plays where you needed at least 8 yards or more. That’s not efficient offense. The numbers say that Texas Tech gained 341 yards on 14 big plays, but it didn’t feel that way. Maybe it’s because for me, the offense doesn’t have any flow.
Offensive success rate, which is the percentage of successful plays needed adjusted for down was 32%. Below 40% is below average and this is the second straight game where it’s been in the 30% range.
You don’t ever want to average 6.2 yards to-go on 3rd downs, so the offense was needing to make big plays in order to stay on the field and it almost is a miracle that they pulled off 58% of them. You want your average 3rd downs under 4 so that gaining them is easier.
And I haven’t even talked about the elephant in the room, which is that Shough was responsible for 4 turnovers. That alone is infuriating enough, but holding onto the ball as long as he does just adds to the frustration.
7. Questionable Calls. The 4th down attempt with Shough rushing the ball seemed ridiculous. Shough was completely upright, there was no way he was going to power through for a 1st down.
From my end, Texas Tech had that interception in the end zone and that should have been Texas Tech’s ball. Pretty sure the refs got that one wrong.
Shough’s interception on 1st down after the defense played their ass off to get the ball back was deflating, but them I remembered that he had 2 interceptions on 1st down, the 2nd was the last play of the game.
I haven’t and won’t do the math, but I didn’t understand McGuire chasing that point to catch up with Oregon in the 1st quarter. There was so much time left, I would have kicked the field goal.
It seemed like the late hit on Williams wasn’t really a late hit.
8. Idle Thoughts. We were in section 112B, which is in the endzone right next to the students. My kids got a full-on education what it is like to be a students, felt like I definitely did my job as a dad.
A student had taken my seat (I was in line to get water for the boys, and that took 25 minutes) and I was able to get a seat elsewhere. The student was in front of me and as mentioned, the students who were pushed out of the student section over-flowed into 112B. Some of them were belligerent and felt as if they owned the space, telling people who paid for seats and tickets that they had a right to be there. It was ugly at times. Or maybe the drunken entitlement was. In any event, the student in front of me didn’t see a play, he was leaning over completely wasted the entire game, the girl who dragged him to the game there left him at some point in the 1st quarter, and he threw up in front of us in the 2nd quarter and then stumbled out. There was someone from the stadium that cleaned it up and he was great, I was super thankful because I didn’t want to smell it all night.
The cussing and yelling doesn’t bother me at all, but the students acted as if they owned the seats and the area in front of the railing and just sort of took over and stood in the stairs and anywhere else they pleased.
Monroe Mills had at least 3 penalties that I can remember.
The running backs really aren’t being given a chance. Brooks had 6 carries for 66 yards and that was your leading running back.
9. Coach Comments.
Opening statement:
“Really proud of the players, I thought they fought their tails off. We didn’t bounce back with a win, of course, but bounced back from a really tough defeat last week. I was proud of how hard they played. I know they’re extremely frustrated with the loss because it was right there to go win the football game. We’ll look at the film tomorrow and go through our plan to win, but a lot of it is what we talked about. We’ve gone through two games and we’re 0-2 and I asked them ‘Is it us or them?’ and it’s us right now. We’re beating ourselves with untimely penalties and turnovers, so we’ve got to do a better job of that, and then we’re not creating enough pressure on the quarterback and we’re not creating enough turnovers, so those are the things that have got to be addressed in a hurry. Because it really doesn’t matter who we play the next week or the next week, if we keep these self-inflicted wounds then we’re going to have a hard time getting better.”
On the impact of four turnovers:
“You can’t win. I mean, it’s amazing we were in that game. When you start thinking about that, it says a lot about our players and our team, how resilient they are and how hard they play. Because you look at any other game that you have four turnovers, and you don’t have the lead 30-28 that late in the game.”
On quarterback Tyler Shough’s performance:
“I hate it for him on the turnovers because he played his tail off tonight. I was proud of the way he played. Not only that, I thought he threw the ball great.”
On moving forward after an 0-2 start:
“I’ve never gone into a season and said ‘Man, my goal is to go undefeated.’ It’s hard to win. Our goal is to compete and win a conference championship, and as bad as we wanted to beat Oregon tonight, that’s still in front of us. The only way that can happen is for us to improve and be more disciplined — take care of the football and eliminate as much bad football as possible. If you compare last week’s bad football to this week’s bad football, I thought that we eliminated a lot. That was a really good football team that we played tonight, and we should’ve won the game. Again, it goes back to all of us. Whenever I asked the question ‘Us or them?’ I made sure that they understood that the ‘us’ definitely starts with me, and looking at how I can be better and prepare these guys better. And I’m going to challenge our coaches and everyone in this building to do that.”
10. Tortilla Tossin’ Players of the Game.
Offensively, I’d have to maybe go with Jerand Bradley with 5 catches for 83 yards and a touchdown, but he only caught 5 of 10, but only had 1 drop so it’s not completely accurate to say those passes were sure-fire catches, because I don’t think they were. I think the 1 drop was the only pass I remember him missing.
Dadrion Taylor-Demerson would be the second best here with those 12 tackles, 11 of them solo.
I’d probably go with Ben Roberts in his first start of his career with 12 tackles, a sack and 2 TFL.