Texas Tech kept its Big 12 title hopes alive with a 34-26 win over Arizona (6-2, 3-2 Big 12). Lubbock proved to be a horror house for the Wildcats’ conference title and College Football Playoff hopes.
Here are the grades for the offense, defense, special teams, and coaching from the loss to the Red Raiders:
The offense got into an early third down situation and Giovanni Richardson came back and made an impact right away. A 55 catch and run took Arizona inside the red zone. However, the Wildcats settled for an opening drive field goal.
The second drive got very shaky for the Wildcats. A false start on Matthew Lado and Tristan Bounds set up a third and long where Noah Fifita got sacked for the second time.
Even with the help of the defense setting them up at midfield, the offense could not produce much. A failed fourth down conversion gave the ball right back to Texas Tech.
The offensive struggles continued on the following drive with nothing being produced and the offensive line continuing to struggle. On the next drive, it took pure Fifita magic for Arizona to move the ball.
A third and 12 turned into a 94 yard touchdown between Fifita and Isaiah Mizell to regain the lead.
The Fifita and Mizell connection continued on the following drive. Gains of nine and 17 allowed Arizona to keep the drive moving into Red Raiders territory. With the help of a pass interference penalty on fourth down, the 14 play, 89 yard drive ended with a five yard touchdown run by Kedrick Reescano.
Arizona continued on with the high level of execution to start the second half. A ten play, 75 yard drive featured a 35 yard Fifita-Mizell connection, a near pick-six by Texas Tech, and a 14 yard catch and run by Richardson. The drive ended with Reescano’s second touchdown of the game.
A holding penalty on Rhino Tapa’atoutai proved to kill the following drive and it was a quick three and out for Arizona. On a very long drive, Arizona could not cut into the lead. On fourth down, the Wildcats had the perfect play call but an overthrow by Fifita to Tyler Powell gave the ball back to Texas Tech.
After a gift from the defense, the offense only went backwards and could not capitalize on the opportunity. Another holding call, this time on Reescano, killed the drive and a sudden case of the yips affected Fifita’s accuracy.
With yet another chance, the offense only continued to go backwards and could not seize the opportunities that the defense continued to give them. In a last second attempt to try and win the game, Arizona was able to get into Texas Tech territory and put a field goal on the board.
It was not enough for Arizona to come out on top. Fifita finished the game going 33-45 for 417 yards and a touchdown. Mizell finished with 182 yards on seven catches and a touchdown.
Reescano led the way for a very poor rushing performance with 18 yards on nine carries for two touchdowns. The Wildcats had 429 total yards with 417 through the air and just 12 on the ground.
Arizona struggled on third down, going 8-19 and was 1-3 on fourth down. The offensive line allowed five sacks on Fifita and overall the offense had five penalties for 40 yards.
While there was some good that came from the offense, the bad came at very critical and bad times.
It was not a good start to the day for the defense as Texas Tech went on a 13 play opening drive that ended with a 24 yard touchdown. Chase Kennedy did have a sack on the drive but the Red Raiders got the yardage back and then some on the following play.
Cam Chapa came up big on the next drive for Arizona forcing a fourth down stop to set up the offense around midfield. Taye Brown nearly had the first turnover of the game but still forced a three and out after the offense failed on fourth down.
With the help of some penalties, the defense was able to keep Texas Tech from adding onto its lead. After regaining the lead, the defense kept the confidence on the side of the Wildcats with a quick three and out which was forced by a pass deflection by Malcolm Hartzog Jr..
Texas Tech was able to find the scoreboard right before the half in a bend don’t break moment for the Wildcats’ defense. Out of the half, Texas Tech was able to punch it into the end zone to tie the game.
The Arizona defense continued to struggle and allowed another score by the Red Raiders, which gave them the lead. The scoring did not stop for Texas Tech, but Arizona did hold it to a field goal to not allow the lead to balloon.
In a must stop situation, Chapa forced the first turnover of the game and Dwight Bootle II pounced on the ball for Arizona. The Wildcats got another stop to give their offense another shot to reclaim the lead.
The dam was bound to break at some point for the defense and it finally did when Texas Tech popped a 64 yard touchdown run. Hartzog Jr. finished as the leading tackler with ten and Kennedy had the lone sack of the day.
Arizona gave up 472 total yards with 328 on the ground and 144 through the air. The Wildcats did hold the Red Raiders to 6-16 on third down but allowed two of three fourth down conversions to be successful.
It was clear that the Wildcats could not stop the run and did not adjust well. Once there was a focus on the run, Texas Tech was able to capitalize on the one-on-one coverage on the outside.
Michael Salgado-Medina got the scoring started with a 35 yard field goal on the opening drive. In the second half, he would have an extra-point blocked that proved to be a big difference maker.
His second attempt from 22 yards was good but it was all in vain. His onside kick was also unsuccessful as it went right to the Red Raiders recovery team.
Chase Ridley did not cost Arizona but also did not necessarily help out. He only had one of his five punts land inside the 20 yard line. With opportunities to flip the field, he was unable to.
A common theme between the BYU and Texas Tech games is that Arizona played three and a half quarters of good football. However, that half quarter of bad football was that costly for the Wildcats.
Brent Brennan’s squad had every opportunity to win the game and could not seize the moment. Credit to the Red Raiders, they made adjustments on offense that Arizona did not respond to and the Red Raiders’ defense did not allow the rushing game to be effective in any capacity.
Danny Gonzales will have a lot of film to coach from. The rush defense could not figure out the quarterback run game from Texas Tech and when the box was loaded the secondary struggled to defend one-on-one.
For the offense, it needs to figure out the run game. It felt like it had been coming along slowly over the last couple of weeks, but looked like it did not make the trip to Lubbock. It cannot be so bland moving forward, some outside runs could possibly open it up more.
When Arizona can execute “small cuts” plays and put itself in second/third and short situations, then it can get into a good rhythm quicker. The offense caught the yips at the wrong time and needs to learn from the bad moments.
There is still a lot of season left for Arizona, but the loss to Texas Tech feels like two big steps backwards. Perhaps that is due to the national attention the Wildcats received this week, but they let a big time opportunity slip away.
The good news, this was not a blowout loss. Arizona was competitive for the entire game and that is all you can ask of a team on the road against a top 15 team. If Arizona can keep putting itself in games with significant meaning, and continue to be competitive in those games, it will eventually come out on the right side when the final whistle blows.
Source: www.azdesertswarm.com
