This weekly feature considers five reasons why Texas Tech will win and five reasons Texas Tech will lose to each opponent. Check back tomorrow for "Five Reasons Texas Tech Will Win :: Kansas Jayhawks Edition".
Reason #1 :: The Big 12 Has Some Good Offenses: I feel like a bit of a broken record here as we continue to talk about the offenses, generally speaking, and Kansas has one of the top 5 offenses in the nation. Averaging 475.00 yards a game and scoring in the top 10 in the nation at 35.14 points a game, I shudder to think what Todd Reesing can do after watching Jerrod Johnson last week. Reesing will be anxiously awaiting cornerbacks playing 10 yards off the ball and Dezmon Briscoe and Kerry Meier will be more than happy to exploit a secondary that's not the least bit aggressive. In fact, prior to last week, the Jayhawks scored over 30 points a game for every game prior to the Sooners, where they scored only 13. The offense is more than capable of putting up points especially when the two Texas Tech safeties who have played on most nickel and dime packages, S Will Ford and S Brett Dewhurst, may not even play on Saturday.
Reason #2 :: Not a Bad Defense: I think there's this general perception that Kansas has a bad defense, and the Jayhawks haven't necessarily played offensive stalwarts, but the Jayhawks are 51st in the nation in total defense and have been tremendous against the run, 16th in the nation. In fact last week against Oklahoma, the Sooners only managed 85 yards for the entire game on 31 carries. That's scary for a Texas Tech offense that's struggled to consistently run all year, whether it be a seasonal perspective or in an entire game. The rushing offense was essentially non-existent in the second half last week, and if the running game isn't established early and often then I'm afraid it could cause serious problems for the offense as a whole. I don't want to discredit the fact that the Texas Tech offensive line will see it's second week starting, but generally speaking, that's going to be a tough thing.
Reason #3 :: Skill Players Out the Wazzuu: QB Todd Reesing probably doesn't get the credit he deserves and considering that he sits a-top the conference (behind Taylor Potts BTW) in passing yards a game at 314.9, connects on 64.9% of his passes and has thrown 15 touchdowns this year. The one issue that Reesing has had, which is something that Texas Tech fans can understand, is that he's already thrown 7 interceptions. Aside from Reesing is WR Dezmon Briscoe who leads the conference in receiving yards at 121.8 yards a game, but only has 4 touchdowns. Fellow WR, Kerry Meier is 4th in the conference at 90.6 yards a game and has 6 touchdowns as well. I don't think I need to remind anyone that last week, all it took was a true freshman receiver to carve up the offense and a quarterback that couldn't complete 50% of his passes against Kanas State the week before.
Reason #4 :: Hassling the QB: The Jayhawks are good for 24th in the nation in sacking opposing quarterbacks, led by Jake Laptad (5.5) and Max Onyegule (3), Dudley Drew (3) and Jeff Wheeler (2.5). Much like Texas Tech, it's a well-rounded group rather than just one player standing out of the crowd. I think Texas Tech fans are aware of the situation, but the Red Raiders aren't exactly in a situation where they can afford to lose a or any quarterback. Not to mention the fact that there's a very good chance the Red Raiders will be starting a redshirt freshman quarterback in his first game of the year. I have no doubt that the Kansas coaches will attempt to make sure that QB Seth Doege will be sufficiently pestered as much as possible.
Reason #5 :: Pounding the Ball: The Jayhawks are having trouble rushing the ball, but what they are not having trouble doing is getting the running backs into the endzone. Freshman RB Toben Opurum (9 TD's) and Jake Sharp (6 TD's) have done most of the heavy lifting in terms of scoring for the Jayhawks. The fact that the Jayhakws essentially become a dual threat team in the redzone is worrisome, especially after the performance last week. Opurum was shut out last week against Oklahoma, but has scored at least 1 touchdown against every other opponent. Again, this isn't to say that typically the Jayhawks are much of a threat to run the ball, but for whatever reason, KU is able to put the ball in the endzone. One of KU's flaws is that they've been almost unstoppable at home, putting the ball into the endzone 90.48% of their redzone opportunities, but falls to a paltry 46.15% touchdown rate on the road. The Red Raiders have to hope that trend continues.