No need to sugar coat this one.
A tough day for the offense and the defense.
More after the jump.
WEEK 7 REPORT CARD
OVERALL
Sagarin ranks us as the 52nd best team in the country. We drop just one spot from last week, mainly because we lost to a ranked team.
Compared to last season, so far, Texas Tech's overall offensive scoring is down by about 5 points per game, and its defense is allowing 9.5 more points per game.
In other words, we are witnessing a minus 14.5 point swing in aggregate scoring compared to last season.
OFFENSE
We put up 401 yards of offense against OSU's 92nd ranked defense.
We are ranked 29th in Total Offense.
We are 6th in total passing, and 41st in passing efficiency - which basically means that we pass the ball a lot, but are not terribly efficient at doing so. So far, we are passing 71 yards less per game than last year.
We are passing it 3 fewer times per game, and running it 8 times more than last year - enabling our offense to run 5 more plays than last year. We are generating 31 more rushing yards more per game.
The net outcome of the marginal increase in rushing plays is that overall we are averaging 40 fewer yards per game.
NASCAR is generating more plays, but fewer points, fewer yards, fewer yards per play, and a lower TOP than last year.
Against OK State, We ran 45 passing plays (including 2 sacks) and 36 rushes (56:44 pass to run ratio).
The offensive line is playing well (at least statistically - I can't say more than that because I only watched the second half, but understand that the OL had a tough first quarter - anyone care to elaborate?). Against OSU, the OL enabled the RBs to generate 175 yards on the ground, and surrendered 2 sacks.
We are ranked 95th in Rushing Offense.
DEFENSE
Texas Tech is ranked 102 in Total Defense.
We are surrendering significant yardage to teams regardless of whether those teams are good offenses or bad offenses.
1. Tech surrendered 581 yards against Oklahoma State which is ranked 2nd in Total Offense
2. Tech surrendered 507 yards against Baylor which is ranked 8th in Total Offense
3. Tech surrendered 441 yards against Iowa State which is ranked 104th in Total Offense
4. Tech surrendered 443 yards against New Mexico which is ranked 117th in Total Offense
We are giving up an average of 435 yards per game.
Texas Tech is ranked 99th in Scoring Defense.
Texas Tech's Passing Defense is ranked 117.
Texas Tech's rushing defense is ranked 53rd after surrendering 225 yards on the ground against Oklahoma State.
Special Teams
Without including special teams' miscues over the past few weeks, we have improved marginally in four categories, and regressed marginally in four categories - I'll focus on the positives.
Areas of (Marginal) Improvement
- We are averaging 0.5 yards more per kickoff return than last year (24.9 yards per kickoff in 2010 versus 24.4 yards per kickoff in 2009)
- Last season Texas Tech missed one extra point. This season Tech has not missed any extra points.
- We are averaging 1.1 yards more per punt than last year (41.8 yards per punt in 2010 versus 40.7 yards per punt in 2009)
- We are allowing just 4.7 yards per punt return. In 2009, Texas Tech allowed an average of 6.9 yards per punt return.
Silver Lining
My remaining hope is that we are able to use this one season to exhaust every excuse which compares current disappointments to instances of the previous coach's underperformance (which were accumulated over a ten-year period - a slight technicality I realize), and then maybe at some point in, oh, I don't know, 2016?, we can ask for permission to start evaluating the current coaching staff based on its own performance.
- Texas. Yep, we did that before. But we'll never lose again. You'll see. Have you seen our 2014 recruiting class?
- Iowa State. Yep, we did that. These weren't your Daddy's Cyclones, these were the Cyclones which lost 52-0 at Oklahoma and boast the 92nd best offense in the country.
- Baylor. Seven point victory. Yep, we did that. Twice. Plus, the Cotton Bowl curse is over!
- Oklahoma State. Yep, we did that. Not at home since 1944, but T Boone was just making and losing his first millions back then.
- Colorado. Yep, we did that. Twice. After this season, I guarantee that we never lose to them again.
- Texas A&M. But they're so much more talented than we are.
- Oklahoma. What did you expect? They're number one in the BCS polls right now. Who's Taurean Henderson anyway? He never played in the pros.
- Weber State. Who do think is responsible for putting Weber State on the schedule anyway? Oh, wait. Scratch that. Just consider yourself lucky for never having to play Tennessee-Martin.
- Houston (which just lost to Rice). Hah! See? We're so heading in the right direction.