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Quarterback: Let's take a look at some of the same numbers that we looked at last week. Harrell's completion percentage is still off the charts as he completed 68.7 percent of his passes yesterday. He managed 9.6 yards per attempt, which is 2 yards down from last week, but is still 2 yards above last season's average which was around the 7 yard mark. The biggest difference between this week and last week was the attempts per touchdown which doubled. Last week, Harrell had 6.16 attempts per touchdowns while this week it was up to 13.4. Keep in mind that the national average is close to 20 and as far as history is concerned, the Texas Tech quarterback average over the last 7 years is 19.
The point being that Harrell had another banner day, even by Texas Tech quarterback standards. Leach is supposed to make his players better and he let the offense have it somewhat after the the OSU game, but I think he's barking up the wrong tree here.
To think that Harrell isn't playing up to his potential is just wrong. He's setting statistics nothing short of amazing and watching Harrell, he's got as much fire and passion to win as anyone I've watched.
Is Harrell perfect? No, he's not, there were some questionable throws yesterday, some of which could have been picked off, but they weren't. Harrell isn't flawless, but he's exceeding even my expectations.
As far as the, "Well, Harrell is a system quarterback so the stats don't mean as much," arguments, I think we all know that this is an announcers and writers way of talking about something when they haven't really sat down to formulate an opinion. Until someone comes up with a better definition of what is a system quarterback or explaining how Tim Tebow, Pat White, Brian Brohm, Colt Brennan, Andre Woodson, John David Booty, or Dennis Dixon aren't system quarterbacks, then I'm done discussing this. The difference between those quarterbacks and Harrell is that those teams have defenses who show up, Harrell doesn't.
Grade: A
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Running Back: Only 72 yards rushing for the game and Woods' 4.8 yards per rush isn't bad. However, it was the fumble in the first drive of the 3rd quarter that was an absolute killer. Woods doesn't have a propensity to put the ball on the turf, but it was a turnover nonetheless. That drive seemed to set the tone for the rest of the 2nd half.
There was nothing spectacular from Woods and I hated the unsportsmanlike penalty. Completely unnecessary. He did run hard when he did have the ball, but all of that other stuff needs to stop.
The biggest question I had was the give to Lewis, who weighs 160 pounds on 4th down on the subsequent drive. I know, the offensive line is huge, but I'd still rather have the bigger back carrying the ball in that situation. More so, I still don't think that I would have run the ball, OSU looked like they were waiting for the run as Lewis lost a yard. I'm not blaming Lewis here, but I question the personnel and the call itself. Grinding out 2 yards isn't necessarily Lewis' specialty, hell, it isn't Texas Tech's specialty.
This was a tough series to give up.
Grade: C
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Receivers:
Son of a gun that was a horrible time for Michael Crabtree to be human. He's been so much more than than human for almost 4 entire games and its one play that he'll remember for the rest of his life. Crabtree is the kind of kid who will emerge from this even better, I'm not worried about his psyche at all. He's a warrior and he'll bounce back. As far as the rest of the game, Crabtree, was again, spectacular. He was literally unstoppable. I love this kid.
Danny Amendola was better than I've ever seen him before, but as DT! pointed out, Danny had the opportunity to make some plays at the end of the game. He wasn't perfect, but he was good, real good. He stretched the field as much as Crabtree did, and he was tough over the middle, all damn day.
Ed Britton proved to be a reliable 3rd option. He was sure-handed and he was tough. I thought at the beginning of the season that Britton would prove to be a third option that Harrell could continually go to each game.
The others, including Grant walker, Eric Morris, L.A. Reed and Lyle Leong were okay. Nothing spectacular, although Morris' touchdown catch was particularly nice.
As a unit, Amendola and Crabtree were spectacular for almost the entire game. I just can't bring myself to pick on these guys too much. The mistakes mentioned above may have cost Texas Tech the game, but they were so good.
Grade: B+
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Offensive Line: The starters, Reed, Vasquez, Byrnes, Carter and Johnson as well as Winn played on Saturday. No false starts and no holding calls. These guys were solid and they withstood the constant barrage of OSU defenders stunting and blitzing.
My biggest issue here is the one 4th down mentioned above. Kobey Lewis was given the ball on 4th down early in the 3rd quarter. When I read Leach's comments this morning and he talked about how the defense got hit in the mouth and pouted and thought about this 4th down play. Much has been made of the size and strength of the offensive line, but I thought that this 4th down play made me wish that this line could have just hit the OSU defenders in the mouth and show them that they are the biggest and baddest men on the field on Saturday. Lewis lost a yard on the play and I remember putting my head in my hands thinking that we should have had that first down.
I'm not also trying to say that that one play will be indicative of what will come for this line, but I hope that they remember, that at that particular moment in time, the men across the line from them were better than them when Texas Tech needed it most. I want them to remember that when we play the Aggies, the Horns and the Sooners. Don't let that happen again.
Grade: B
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