Red Raider Gridiron: Recapping Loss to the Longhorns and Heading into the Bye Week

Bye Week. As you all know, Texas Tech has a bye this week, but luckily, Texas Tech will have some exhibition basketball games and soccer is beginning their Big 12 Championship run to help fill the void.

Cannot Take Advantage. LAJ's Don Williams writes that Texas Tech could not take advantage of a down Texas team:

One irritating thing about that losing streak: Tech keeps falling flat against Texas at what it's supposed to do best - move the football and score. In the last five Tech-Texas games, the Red Raiders have scored seven offensive touchdowns. Plays such as Jarvis Phillips' interception return in 2010, Ryan Erxleben's run to the end zone in 2013 and Branden Jackson's fumble-recovery touchdown Saturday have made final scores look better.

Rely on Run Game. LAJ's Nicholas Talbot writes that if Texas Tech doesn't rely on the running game, Texas Tech won't win many more games:

Washington came into the game leading the Big 12 in rushing yards. He added another 97 yards on 16 carries Saturday.

Now, relying on Washington is a must.

Texas Tech should not throw 47 passes with freshman quarterbacks.

It can't do that and survive.

Tech has to change.

If it doesn't, the Red Raiders are going to wobble to the finish line. And there won't be anyone there to stop it from falling flat on their face.

I would simply opine that playing a freshman walk-on because the two scholarship quarterbacks are hurt most likely means that Texas Tech won't win many games.  There's only so much you can rely on the running game and the offense isn't going to change mid-season.

Miscellaneous. SAEN has their state of Texas rankings and it's what you would expect at this point . . . Fox Sports' David Ubben has his Big 12 power rankings and writes that you won't see many wins without QB Davis Webb . . .