As I said before, the biggest problem with not watching the game was not really having a feel for the defense's performance. The way the Tech announcers made the game sound Nitschmann and Blake both had big days.
- L.A. Reed had 4 solo tackles and one assisted on punt returns and kickoff returns. That's pretty amazing for a wide reciever. I'm not advocating a change of position for him, but I wonder if the coaches are considering this.
- Brock Stratton led the way with 6 tackles and Chris Parker and Dek Bake each had 5.
- Garcia would have had added to his interception total had Bake not been offsides. At that point the game was tied and Tech was really making a comeback. That drive ended up stalling out for OSU, but it still would have been a tremendous boost to the team. Once again, it's the timely penalties that really cost Tech.
- There was big pass play that cost the Red Raiders, the 34 yard pass from Reid to Bowman. other than that there didnt' appear to be any huge passing gains. Thus, I'm lead to believe that one of two things happened with the pass defense. Either Setencich coached his players this week to not let any of the receivers behind them or Reid couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. For not, I'm going to believe the former because in prior weeks, wide receivers were completely wide open and that didn't seem to be the case today.
- One of the biggest plays was when the snap to Reid went past him and pushed OSU out of field goal range. They could have made this game much more interesting had this not happened. I also question if going for it was the right call for OSU. Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that Leach would have gone for it (I'm kidding, sorta), but I probably would have kicked the field goal. Tech's offense was stagnant at the time and I would have probably tried to live to fight the next drive. You would have had the ability to kick the field goal to tie the game rather than go for a touchdown for the win.
- McBath had a critical interception with 2:06 left in the game, but the personal foul penalty and the over-celebration penalty were ridiculous. Those two penalties took us from OSU's 37 yard line to Tech's 33 yard line. With a first down, we would have been in field goal range and OSU would have needed a touchdown and another score rather than just a touchdown. Timely penalties.
- OSU had 221 yards rushing. We have to find a way to stop the run better. This is a crazy idea, but there's been some talk about the Cowboys Roy Williams being moved to linebacker. He's big enough to foot the bill, but he's awfully slow in coverage (I apologize to Red Blooded for the two Cowboy references in two posts - it won't happen for a while). Leach should really consider moving some of the larger safeties, like Anthony Hines, to linebacker and try to move from a read and react defense to a faster and quicker defense that can really attack. The key of course is having a sizable front line that will allow those smaller linebackers to get to the ball, but it's certainly a thought.
I know that I haven't covered every play or every position. The biggest surprise for the defense was the fact that Tillman didn't play yesterday and was replaced with Paul Williams. I've been on Tillman all year, it seems like he's made poor decisions all year and I could think of at least 3 personal foul penalties that he had.
John Miller of the FWST has an excellenet recap of last night's game here.
Tim MacMahon of the DMN has a short recap here.
The LAJ has a number of articles up this morning. Chris Parker saves the day. A game-day notebook with some bowl predictions (I'd much rather go to Arizona, but San Antonio would be a better choice for recruiting reasons.) An article on the seniors last home game.
Finally, I talked about this in the prior post, but Leach continues to defend not running the ball in the last drive: