1. Game Links:
Game Recap
Stats
Post-Game Notes
Highlights
2. Grades.
| C+ | PASS OFFENSE |
| Other than the 3 interceptions is not the way I want to write this, but those 3 picks were pretty terrible all the way around. The first pick was the worst because Hammond didn’t have to force it and I thought, “Just throw it away” right before he tried to throw it between 2 defenders. The other two weren’t much better and this is a learning process, but Hammond can’t make those kind of mistakes and Texas Tech win. Hammond rebounded in the 2nd half and did a great job of taking what the defense gave him. | |
| A | RUN OFFENSE |
| A terrific effort and this is one of the best positives from the game. Rushing for 219 yards and 3 touchdowns behind 91 from Dickey. | |
| B | PASS DEFENSE |
| Also a bit difficult to judge from the standpoint that the defense gave up 2 passing touchdowns and Esquerra looked a bit exposed. But on the positive side of things, Guyton looks like the real deal in terms of a pass rush and that’s incredibly exciting and 2 back-to-back pick-6’s from Romaine was something I don’t know that I’ll ever seen again. | |
| A | RUN DEFENSE |
| Gave up just 74 rushing yards on 27 attempts and 2.7 yards per attempt, including 20 rushing yards in the 1st half and 74 in the 2nd. | |
| B | COACHING |
| The halftime reporter said that McGuire lamented that this was the 4th straight week he had to lay into his team at halftime and I think even he’s scratching his head about what it will take for this team to not make mistakes. Lots of special team errors, punt returns is what I’m thinking, and things that just don’t make a ton of sense. McGuire only gets so many bites at the apple to lay into the team otherwise it begins to fall on deaf ears. Regardless, Texas Tech beat the spread. | |
3. Good Hammond or Bad Hammond. The crazy thing was that when you look at the box score, the Stats Broadcast page, Hammond throws 3 interceptions right in a row, his next passing attempt. This is something that Behren Morton had to work through and I don’t know why, but I somewhat expected that Hammond would not have these sorts of issues. I don’t know why I’m not giving him that sort of grace that I would typically give other quarterbacks, but it is clear he has to work through those issues as well. The problem is that if this team wants to be where it thinks it can be then Hammond really can’t afford to throw 3 picks in a game.
4. 2nd Half Defense. The defense gave up 186 total yards, 166 passing, in the first half. The second half was a different story. Only 83 total yards, 54 rushing and 29 passing. In fact, Sam Houston was 10 of 15 for 29 yards and I don’t know how you only pass for 29 yards in that situation. Any time you can give up 83 yards in a half, no matter who you are playing, is a good sign. And the other interesting thing is that Sam Houston held onto the ball for 17 minutes and only had 83 yards.
5. Second Half Adjustments on Offense. Aside from the 3 turnovers in the first half, the second half offense really shined. A total of 269 yards, 148 rushing and 7.8 yards per attempt, along with Hammond going 9 of 15 for 121 and 2 touchdowns. It’s just amazing to watch the difference in the offense when Hammond doesn’t force things and then lean on the running game.
6. Guyton is For Real. LaDamion Guyton is finally starting to get his footing and you just wonder what his ceiling will be. I don’t know about you all, but I tend to notice a defender only after the fact and that sort of includes Guyton who is splashing on a couple of plays and when you see his physique and know that he’s only 17, you just wonder what he’ll look like when he’s 19. That’s just not normal and to be that lean and built is just ridiculous.
7. Advanced Stats.
- Texas Tech was in a passing down (2nd down with 8+ yards or 3rd/4th down with 5+ yards) just 20% of plays.
- Hammond was just 1 of 6 on deep passing plays.
- Down and distance for 3rd down was 6.1 yards, while Sam Houston was 7.8.
- The sack adjusted yards rushing for Sam Houston was 3.6 yards a rush, which is still great, while Teas Tech was 6.3 and since they didn’t give up a sack, that’s just the rushing rate, which is pretty great.
- Both teams had 2 1st down turnovers and 2 1st down touchdowns. Don’t see that every day.
- Strangely, Sam Houston averaged 6.2 yards on 1st down, largely from the 1st half, while Texas Tech was 6.8 yards per play on 1st down.
8. Idle Thoughts.
- The celebration that Cameron Dickey where he puts his arm in front of his body and then lays it out is something that an NFL player did last week and the NFL player said it was a wrestling move. Having a 14-year old watch the games with you to confirm that it is not a wrestling move is helpful. It’s basically a sign of you showing your ding-dong is. I wonder if McGuire and the coaches know this and if we’ll continue to see this moving forward.
- I love the TNT broadcast except for one thing . . . the scorebug. There were a handful of times where I couldn’t find the down and distance and think that should be more prominent. Mike Golic, Jr. is really good as a color analyst and I don’t know who was doing the play-by-play, but he was good as well.
- Just to keep track of things like this, but CB Amier Boyd, TE Terrance Carter Jr., OL Elias Gillen, CB Ashton Hampton, S Mikal Harrison-Pilot, LB Adam Hill, and S Oliver Miles III were all out for this game. That’s a lot of secondary that’s not playing.
- Will Karrol was terrific again, averaging 47.7 yards a punt.
- It seems like handling punts has been rough and I’d expect Kenny Perry to mention that after the game.
- I didn’t see the two unsportsman like conduct, but they were on Bryson Jones and Imari Jehiel and have no idea what they did.
- The leading receiver was either Kenny Johnson who had 3 catches for 60 yards, or Coy Eakin who had 4 for 50 and a touchdown.
- Ben Roberts had just 4 tackles and 2 tackles for a loss.
- Probably won’t talk enough about the running back room, but the entire offense had 35 carries for 219 yards and 3 touchdowns. Cameron Dickey had 91 yards, but J’Koby Williams started and I thought the offense started off better as a result.
9. Coach Comments.
10. Tortilla Tossin’ Players of the Game.
What does it say about me when I want to give all 3 tortillas to defenders? I want this 1st one to go to Julian Laventure, who was terrific on the defensive line and he had 4 tackles, including 2.5 tackles for a loss. He was a force on the line and I feel like we’ve been waiting for someone to just flex on that line. Laventure did yesterday.
LaDamion Guyton gets 2 tortillas for each sack, his break-out game as a true freshman, 3 tackles, 2 sacks and a pressure as a 17-year old.
Texas Tech doesn’t beat the spread without Austin Romaine, who had the aforementioned pick-6’s in connsecutive plays, but in addition to that he had 8 tackles, which led the team.