Line holds Cougar defense down

It was looking like the Red Raider offensive line was going to have a long day keeping Ed Oliver and the Cougar defensive line at bay. At the end of the first quarter, the score was 21-14 in favor of the Houston and the Texas Tech offense had more holding penalties than they had touchdowns. Paul Stawarz had two of those holding penalties, Travis Bruffy had one, and Donta Thompson had the other. At one point Bruffy and Stawarz had holding penalties on back to back plays.

Things were not looking good for a young offense who was being consistently put in difficult situations. To have any chance of winning this game the line would have to clean things up and figure out how to legally block one of college football’s best players.

This is exactly what happened over the course of the next three quarters, the Red Raiders were never called for a holding penalty again. Which is only a good thing if the quarterback is being protected and the runners have lanes to run. The line only gave up one sack the entire game and lead freshman running back Ta’Zhawn Henry to a career best 113 yards rushing. They allowed their young freshman Quarterback time to find his playmakers in a nice clean pocket for the majority of the afternoon.

This game was won in the trenches and Alan Bowman, Antoine Wesley and Henry can thank their offensive line for enabling them to have such incredible days. With conference play about to begin, this offensive line will need to continue to lead the way for this offense, starting next Saturday night in Stillwater, Oklahoma.