It wasn’t that No. 13 Texas Tech ever had to worry last week during a season-opening 33-10 rout of FCS opponent Abilene Christian. The Red Raiders led 17-0 before halftime and the only touchdown they allowed came on a kickoff return in garbage time.
But as Texas Tech readies for a long road trip and a late Saturday afternoon kickoff against Oregon State in Corvallis, it would love to score more touchdowns and kick fewer field goals when it gets inside the opponents’ 20-yard line.
While the Red Raiders scored in all five red zone trips, three of those were short field goals by Stone Harrington. He’s a reliable leg but settling for field goals against better opponents is often the equivalent of a bad consolation prize.
Or as NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young put it, every field goal you kick puts you one step closer to losing a big game.
“We’ve got to execute better and we’ve got to have a better plan on first and second down,” Texas Tech offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich said when asked about the red zone woes. “The drives that we weren’t successful down there, you look at it; it was 3rd-and-12, 3rd-and-12, 3rd-and-13 and 3rd-and-14.”
Leftwich blamed himself in a couple of instances, saying he was guilty of getting too aggressive in terms of hunting a big play. The point of emphasis for the team’s second game will be achieving more consistency in the passing game inside the 10-yard line.
Quarterback Will Hammond, who was 26 of 33 for 298 yards and a late touchdown, gave Abilene Christian credit for making the Red Raiders earn what they got.
“I think they keyed in certain plays that we were running,” Hammond said.
At the same time, Hammond said the team did a good job of not revealing their full hand offensively. A little more of that could come into play against the Beavers, who are coming off a more-than-respectable 33-20 loss in their season opener last week at then-No. 23 Houston.
Oregon State was a 20 ½-point underdog but trailed just 26-20 after AJ Newberry ran for a 4-yard touchdown with 9:02 left in the game. But it couldn’t get the stop it needed to pull off what would have been a major upset.
Mercer transfer Braden Atkinson certainly looked capable of succeeding at a higher level in his first game for the Beavers, completing 29 of 48 passes for 376 yards and a touchdown. But he didn’t have enough of a running game or consistent line play – he was sacked four times – to do more than scare the Cougars.
“We’re better than that,” said first-year Oregon State coach JaMarcus Shephard. “I was very emphatic about that and I’m continuing to let them know we’re a better football team than what we showed on Saturday.”
For the Beavers to prove Shephard right, they’ll have to control both lines of scrimmage better. They were outrushed 228-26, always the surest sign of a team that’s struggling to win the battle up front.
Texas Tech has won both matchups in series history, including a 45-14 drubbing last year in Lubbock.