Here and There
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Texas Tech Red Raiders (1-3, 0-1) |
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Houston Cougars (2-2, 0-1) |
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September 30th @ 2:30 p.m. |
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Jones AT&T Stadium | Lubbock, Texas |
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Texas Tech -10 |
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FS2 | FOX Sports Live |
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85, Mostly Sunny |
Some Hither, Others Yon
While wondering whatever happened to Sam Eguavoen. Eguavoen has made quite the living by living on the fringes of professional football, playing for the Saskatchewan Roughriders from 2016 to 2018, and playing well enough that he signed on with the Miami Dolphins for 66 games. Then on August 6th of this year, Eguavoen signed a one-year deal with the New York Jets for $1,080,000, but then was cut on August 29th, and then signed to the practice squad to then be pushed to the active roster for the Jets and Cowboys game and was active as of September 23rd.
Prologue
I normally write about Houston here, but wanted to take some time to write about McGuire and the loss to West Virginia. I am still totally good with McGuire and Kittley. Probably not a shocking statement, but I’ve realized that being reactionary almost never works, getting rid of a coordinator after a year and maybe needing to take that next step and not being able to do it. I certainly understand the frustration, but I think that Kittley knows what he’s doing. With football, answers are almost always complicated, more difficult than with basketball where you can sometimes pinpoint a particular player not playing defense or a player putting up a bad shot. With football, everything works in concert and right now it’s sounds half-assed at best. I can guarantee that Kittley and Hamby and Johnson are well aware of the things that are happening or not happening.
I’d also add that the lack of execution and inability to score has more to do with the passing inefficiencies than the lack of running the ball. The quarterback rating isn’t great and there’s a handful of things to note, but the thing that caught my attention was the 2nd and 4th quarter quarterback rating. Overall, the rating is 118, which is lower than it has ever been. There’s still time to change that, but that’s historically low. Digging a bit deeper, the problems are in the 2nd and 4th quarter, the quarters that you probably need to have a bit more juice. Here’s the breakdown:
1st quarter: 138.98
2nd quarter: 98.18
3rd quarter: 146.29
4th quarter: 95.48
And the reason why you can’t close out close games is probably right there. The offense becomes one-dimensional and that’s pretty easy to defend. The offensive line, receivers and quarterback all need to get on the same page, that’s Kittley’s job and one part of the cog that’s not working correctly can throw the whole thing into chaos.
The Bakay Index
Nick Bakay is an actor, writer and TV personality who made regular appearances on ESPN and wrote on ESPN’s Page 2. Bakay did a segment on ESPN called “Tale of the Tape” where he would give an advantage to one side or the other, or if it was close, then it was a “push”. Bakay was also the voice of the cat Salem on Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Jimbo Fisher vs. Eugene Asante. Jimbo Fisher was literally on the field (and no penalty was called) when Aburn’s Asante scooped up a fumble on his way to a 67-yard return for a touchdown. The only thing in his way was Fisher who watched Asante head towards the end zone. Advantage? Asante.
Drops vs. Not Running the Ball. I mentioned after the game that there were a handful of players that had a catch rate of 30% and the quarterback completion percentage plays that out, meaning that as of right now, Texas Tech is completing 54% of passes, Shough was 59% and Morton is 42%. Although running the ball is incredibly important, is it more important to just catch the ball OR throw balls that are catchable and have an offensive line that pass protects for 3 seconds (this way I’m blaming the OL, QBs, and WRs). The question is what’s more important for this offense to succeed? Advantage? Drops.
Goal Scorers vs. Defenders. This year, Texas Tech is averaging 2.818 goals per game while giving up just .45 on the season. Last year, it was 1.211 goals per game while giving up .63. The difference is that Texas Tech has some legitimate goal scorers, players that do things with the ball, like Ashleigh Williams and Alex Kerr or Macy Blackburn spittin’ out some assists. Not only that, but Williams has 5 game-winning goals by herself. This is the biggest difference in the team from last year to this year (and last couple of years), which is developing players like Williams, Kerr, and Blackburn, but they’ve also made big plays and put the ball in the net. Defense is important and Madison White has allowed 5 goals in 990 minutes thus far this year (that’s amazing), but you’ve got to go do something with the ball on offense. And Texas Tech soccer, after a long drought of not having a legitimate goal scorer looks to be incredibly dangerous. /stares directly at the offensive line, quarterbacks, and receivers/ Advantage? Goal scorers.
Quickie Previews & Recaps
All games are on Saturday, September 30th except for the Cincinnati-BYU game, which is Friday, September 29th.
This Week: Cincinnati @ BYU (9:15 pm on ESPN)
Last Week: Oklahoma 20, Cincinnati 6 :: Kansas 38, BYU 27
Not a surprising result from Cincy, but that is a relatively surprising result for Kansas beating up BYU. OU seems extra motivated and Cincy was going to have some offensive struggles heading into the season. BYU is a 2.5 favorite heading into this game and I’ll take BYU in what I think is going to be a tough game for Cincy to score.
This Week: Kansas @ Texas (2:30 pm on ABC)
Last Week: Kansas 38, BYU 27 :: Texas 38, Baylor 6
I did not expect Kansas to win by 11 against BYU who had some good wins heading into conference play. Texas manhandled Balor on the road, so maybe that’s why Vegas thinks that Texas needs to be a 17 point favorite. I’d probably go with Texas here because teams struggle on the road.
This Week: Houston @ Texas Tech (2:30 pm on FS1 or FS2)
Last Week: Houston 38, Sam Houston State 7 :: West Virginia 20, Texas Tech 13
Would not have expected Texas Tech would perform so poorly on offense. The stats site that I utilize said that there was 1 drop, but the presser McGuire said there were 9. That’s quite the difference. Houston beat up on Sam Houston State and right now, I think the current line of 10 points is way too much.
This Week: Baylor @ UCF (2:30 pm on FS1 or FS2)
Last Week: Texas 38, Baylor 6 :: Kansas State 44, UCF 31
I thought Baylor would sort of show up a bit more, but I think the quarterback issues are significant. UCF had a pretty tough opening Big 12 in Manhattan. Baylor finally hits the road after being at home for all four games and they head to what will likely be a very excited UCF team.
This Week: Iowa State @ Oklahoma (6:00 pm on FS1)
Last Week: Iowa State 34, Oklahoma State 27 :: Oklahoma 20, Cincinnati 6
OU winning on the road in a blowout is not a surprise and now facing an Iowa State team that played nicely will still probably not mean that this will be an interesting game because Vegas thinks this is a blowout. OU is favored by 20.
This Week: West Virginia @ TCU (7:00 pm on ESPN2)
Last Week: West Virginia 20, Texas Tech 13:: TCU 34, SMU 17
I cannot imagine that West Virginia is going to keep pace with TCU (especially on the road) and I don’t know that TCU is a world-beater, but they’ll be more than good enough to beat this West Virginia team that’s basically afraid to throw the ball. TCU is favored by 11.5 and that seems like too much considering how WVU likes to keep the game close and hold onto the ball.