Oklahoma State

#18 Oklahoma State vs. #15 Texas Tech - 10/02/13

LUBBOCK, TEXAS-

4-1

The 2013 Texas Tech football program is far from sound, but their situation could be worse. 

I liken the Red Raiders to a 700 horsepower Lamborghini Aventador piloted by a 15-year-old who just received their learners permit; you know the experience is going to be rough, scary, and awesome all at once. At this point in the season Texas Tech is 7-2 with a final home game against Kansas State and looming away games versus Texas and Oregon Baylor. There is an air of disappointment after losing to both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State and falling in the national rankings, but when you consider where the team was picked to finish in the conference by various media outlets they really have done a tremendous job and have exceeded expectations. The drawback is that often times when you overachieve the initial expectations change. Was Texas Tech the tenth best team in the nation before heading into Norman? Maybe, maybe not. Was Texas Tech picked to finish anywhere from seventh to tenth place in the Big XII? Yes. What has Texas Tech done with a first time head coach, fifth defensive coordinator in as many years, fourth defensive scheme in five, a litter of freshmen in their two-deep and a pair of freshman quarterbacks? Exceed expectations. 

The season isn't over, their is still plenty to play for and the upside for this team is tremendous. Will Texas Tech win any of their remaining games? I would think so. Could they lose all of their remaining games? I would hope not, but if anything has been consistent in the Big XII this year its that anyone can be anyone of any given day. 

My "10 takeaways" from last night:

1. Discombobulated- The Red Raiders never looked in sync and although their were flashes of fight a porous run-defense and untimely mistakes cost Texas Tech.
2. Armchair Quarterbacks- I try not to let my emotions ebb and flow with the way my school is playing. That being said I completely understand the frustration a lot of people had this past Saturday. However, one thing I will never appreciate is the "Armchair Quarterback". Usually a backwards polo hat wearing douche from Katy, Plano, The Woodlands, etc. that thinks they are somehow more qualified to run a team than Kliff Kingsbury. This is also the person that yells "F*** Webb" "Tackle someone dumbass" "We suck" "I'm leaving at the half" so on and so forth. If you are one of these people do us all a favor, take your Patagonia jacket wearing ass and go play in traffic. There are no mountains to climb in Lubbock dumbass, and no one appreciates your pretentious drivel and your butchering of our fight song. 
3. Tech Defense- Gaines, Bush, Bullitt, Porter, Ross, Richards. Jacobson, Ward, Mays, Nelson. The former is the names of your defensive starters that either went down with injury on Saturday or are out for the season altogether. The latter is the names of freshmen/backups that have seen significant playing time. Poor tackling, not wrapping up, and only going for the strip are inexcusable but a lack of quality depth and having to play freshman before they are ready is more of a reason the defense seems so unlike it did in the first half of the season.
4. Webb- Did not play well. There were a few deep throws to Ward, Grant, and Marquez that seemed to be a bit overthrown. When you factor in a pair of INTs this was probably not his best performance. However, the supporting staff didn't do him any favors with their play either.
5. Underrated- Bench Penalties. Mike Gundy gave a pre-game interview speaking about how calm of a coach he was and essentially pandering to the media only to receive a 15-yard penalty during the actual game because of how calm he wasn't. Must be too much gel and spray tan trips.
6. Overrated- Oklahoma. The state itself and any sports/schools associated/located within its borders. 
7. Costumes- How did the guy who went as Kingsbury not get picked in the final group? Such travesty.
8. Third Tier- If you divide the Big XII into 'tiers', I believe it would look something like this: Tier 1: Baylor Tier 2: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State Tier 3: Texas, Texas Tech, Kansas State, West Virginia Tier 4: Kansas, Iowa State, TCU.
9. Wildcats- Next week is Kansas State. While I still believe Tech ultimately wins this game they will need to address the defensive woes that began versus Oklahoma and continued against OSU. If they sell out on the run/read option and force the KSU QB Waters to attempt to win via passing I think Tech will be successful. Their QB is more of a runner, scrambler type. Also, their defense lost a lot of starters to graduation and their Heisman-level QB Klein is also gone. However, they are on a two game win streak while Tech is on a two game losing streak.  Heres to both streaks ending on Saturday.
10. Game ball- Pete Robertson. As bad as the defense was on Saturday the effort was still there by a lot of the players. Robertson was in on many tackles and also accounted for a pick-six that instilled new life into the Red Raider faithful and drew Tech within one possession at halftime.