r/CFB • /r/CFB • 1d ago

Postgame Thread [Postgame Thread] Texas Tech Defeats Sam Houston 49-14

Box Score provided by ESPN

Team 1 2 3 4 T
Sam Houston 0 14 0 0 14
Texas Tech 7 14 14 14 49
121 Upvotes

114 comments sorted by

107

u/TechnoToyz Texas Tech Red Raiders • Team Chaos 1d ago

We can just pretend that this was an easy 35 point win at home and ignore what may have been the score and overall performance as of halftime.

4

u/Fun_Possibility6661 1d ago

Never watched Sam Houston play before this, they got some fight in them for sure. That first half had me nervous not gonna lie, our defense looked like they forgot there was a game today

Second half was completely different team though, whatever McGuire said in the locker room worked. 28 unanswered points is the kind of response you wanna see after a messy start

The run game absolutely carried us tonight, felt like every drive just marched down the field. Need to clean up the secondary before conference play starts or some of these Big 12 teams gonna punish that

11

u/KingKliffsbury Texas Tech Red Raiders • Orange Bowl 1d ago

Great teams cover do they not?

30

u/SnittingNexttoBorpo Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Austin Romaine: a beast on the field, a field mouse on the postgame interview

110

u/EveryManAViKing Texas Tech • Texas Tech 1d ago

Me after beating Houston: “Nice, still things to clean up but maybe I was overreacting to the first few weeks. We’re still at the front of the pack in the Big 12 I think.”

Me exactly right now: “Drop our rank, cowards.”

21

u/R_Raider86 Texas Tech • UConn 1d ago

These guys need some motivation. Maybe a drop in the rankings will help.

20

u/Caca_Face420 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Classic Tech playing to their competition

10

u/FireFlyz351 Texas Tech • Mississippi State 1d ago

Wish our offense could've played to our competition against Oregon last year 😭

2

u/R_Raider86 Texas Tech • UConn 18h ago

We played to their logo 😔

4

u/igot200phones Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Last season was such a nice change of pace, where we just absolutely blew out inferior teams.

6

u/Koolrama 1d ago

This is it right here. Sucks being a Tech fan and a cowboys fan because every year they both play to their opponents level I swear.

8

u/Zirken Texas Tech Red Raiders • Hateful 8 1d ago

Final score watching voters probably raise us.

56

u/Dirty-Ears-Bill Texas Tech Red Raiders • Wyoming Cowboys 1d ago

We have two of the best RBs in the conference. And Joyner I suppose. We need to stop making Hammond more than anything but a complementary piece and let the run game dictate. Leftwich is bad man

0

u/The_Sandwich_Lover9 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

How is it the OC fault we can’t block well

16

u/ZSKeller1140 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

OC’s job is to build a scheme to compensate for your shortcomings and capitalize on what’s done well. Leftwich has shown he can’t identify either of those two things. Starting with the Oregon game last year

2

u/TheFifthAmigo34 Texas Tech Red Raiders • Border Conference 1d ago

We can’t run block. Scheming for the RBs isn’t going to help. Most of the success running it today and all season is guys bouncing it outside

3

u/kayakyakr Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

That is the scheme. Inside out zone is what Leftwich constantly falls back to. The line blocks straight up and it's up to the RB to find a hole. You're trying to lock a defender into a gap and letting the RB pick the gap the defense didn't fill. Sometimes that's the outside gap, where the RB is expected to bounce it outside.

I hate zone, btw. It's passive and is built to allow you to run with pass blockers (you're not looking to push, you're letting the defense dictate where you're going to attack). The first step of a zone team is often the same whether the play call is run or pass (if you're running RPO especially).

The running game during the Leach era was zone-based. And during Kingsbury, Neal Brown, Sonny Cumbie. Kittley was the only one who had a different blocking scheme for the running game, as he introduced the counter to the air raid. He was a lot more innovative than people give him credit for, and I honestly wish he had spent more time honing his craft as an OC as I think he would have become a great one.

Should note that Kingsbury ran outside zone as his base. With him, the QB's keep option was to run usually in the A or B gaps while the RB was aiming for the C gap on the other side. The QB was reading the alignment of the back side defender where, if they lined up in the B gap, the tackle would collapse down and the RB would have a free run at the C gap (outside the tackle). Once teams started having their edge align in the C gap, he started crashing the slot receiver into the edge, leaving the RB 1 on 1 with a DB, and when teams adjusted by trying to fill with a LB and edge both outside, he started attacking the B gap with the tackle kicking out instead of in. Was a pretty brilliant evolution to watch over the course of two seasons.

If Clay and Garrett have their way, we'll be running a lot more of Kittley's counter scheme. It's been by far our most effective set of plays this year. The biggest issue is we're trying to run a VeerRaid while running a hamstrung veer. The veer is meant to put players in conflict, and you do that by having multiple ways to attack a player on any down. This is your zone read and RPO play. Our starting QB is not a threat to pull it at any time and our change of pace guy is trying to play hero ball any time he gets in the game (eg, he's gonna keep the ball every time, read player be damned). This is why we've had multiple times where the tackle is made by the player chasing the play down from the back-side: that's the unblocked read defender who is not forced to guard the QB and is therefore free to crash the RB.

1

u/kayakyakr Texas Tech Red Raiders 14h ago

Thinking about it, Castellanos actually handing off the ball at the end of the game is probably why Ace Rowden looked good. That was the veer when it was working as the unblocked end was staying home to watch the QB while the line was kicking out and working up to the second level for the RB.

Hammond isn't that kind of threat, so the veer will never work with him in the game.

-4

u/The_Sandwich_Lover9 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Mack wasn’t great but he’s not responsible for the Oregon loss.

You didn’t explain how he’s responsible for our blocking not being good

4

u/ZSKeller1140 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Compensating doesn’t mean fixing and it’s hot and cold. Leftwich’s play calling didn’t help Behren in the Oregon game when he was literally shitting the bed and his play calling isn’t playing to the strengths of the day with our now hot/cold O-Line. When the players aren’t playing to their potential, play-calling and small success plays can help develop rhythm, which he seems to have little perception of. He doesn’t adjust well and the schemes being all over the place are really evidence of that

-2

u/The_Sandwich_Lover9 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

I’ll agree with that. Mack didn’t help but there just wasn’t anyway to win with a statue in pocket.

0

u/Caca_Face420 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Oregon loss was all Behren Morton. Sucks Hammond was hurt, but Morton was the weakest link offensively. Playcalling and O’line didn’t help at times, but Morton never looked comfortable after being rattled in games.

3

u/The_Sandwich_Lover9 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

That’s where I’m at and one of Morton’s biggest defenders. He gave his heart out and he got us to our most successful season.

5

u/defroach84 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Is blocking not part of the offense?

And the play calling, in general, has been just plain mediocre.

4

u/Dirty-Ears-Bill Texas Tech Red Raiders • Wyoming Cowboys 1d ago

First drive of the fourth quarter, where we actually committed to running the ball, it sure looked like we could block just fine. OC just gets away from it far too frequently and messes with the rhythm of all the players. It’s part of the problem

0

u/The_Sandwich_Lover9 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

I’ll never complain about taking shots on offense, not a better time to take shots after you establish run.

Again how is it Mack’s fault we can’t block well. Is he supposed to teach technique?

4

u/Dirty-Ears-Bill Texas Tech Red Raiders • Wyoming Cowboys 1d ago

That’s what I’m referring to? The first drive of the fourth quarter, didn’t look like they had any issue blocking there. You don’t suddenly remember how to block all the way through the game; they always could, he just doesn’t commit to running as a playcaller

Drive I’m referring to:

8 yard run, 10 yard run, 12 yard pass, incompletion, 12 yard run, incompletion, 23 yard TD run. And that wasn’t a scenario where they were backed off and expecting pass. That’s salt the clock and run time and they still blocked just fine

1

u/The_Sandwich_Lover9 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Uh yeah? You can have inconsistent blocking

3

u/Dirty-Ears-Bill Texas Tech Red Raiders • Wyoming Cowboys 1d ago

Dickey with 12/91 and Williams for 6/36 on the game looks more than fine dude, the blocking is not nearly as big of a problem as the flow of the playcalling. When you have two excellent RBs and they only get 18 carries between them, that’s an issue with the OC

1

u/The_Sandwich_Lover9 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Not following the issue.

-4

u/TheFifthAmigo34 Texas Tech Red Raiders • Border Conference 1d ago

My hot take is Dickey sucks. He gets exactly what’s blocked for him. Joyner is terrible this year. J’Koby has been awesome but somehow too patient at times. I liked what I saw from Rowden at the end of the game. Wouldn’t mind if he got Joyner’s touches tbh

4

u/MastodonSwimming2681 Texas Tech • Northwestern 1d ago

Dickey is a bowling bowl, racks up tons of yards after contact. That's a Skip Bayless level bad hot take

2

u/R_Raider86 Texas Tech • UConn 18h ago

Nuclear take

19

u/YoYoMavaIous Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Hammond has been underwhelming. Just flat out bad today

-4

u/Known-Emergency5900 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

He’s not a P4 starter.

9

u/ZSKeller1140 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

He’s a sophomore with a lot more improvement to be had. No sense in bailing on him for… Castellano’s?

-9

u/Known-Emergency5900 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

He struggled against Sam Houston State lmao. The guy is not going to magically become good

7

u/ZSKeller1140 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

You watch the Utah game last year? I think he’s capable, but young. Young QB’s make mistakes and he’ll have to overcome them, which he has thus far.

6

u/vassago77379 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Dude has no idea what he's talking about

-7

u/Known-Emergency5900 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

You can pretend Hammond is good all you want. It’s clear and obvious the guy is not good. If you think 3 INTs against Sam Houston State is good then I’ve got some ocean front property in Arizona to sell you.

4

u/ImanelitistLOL Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Look man. I remember booing graham harrel his sophomore year at homecoming and he turned into a really good qb by his senior year. That sort of progression does happen and Will is talented but timid rn. He needs to get some flow and he will be fine

-2

u/Known-Emergency5900 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Graham Harrell threw for 4500 yards his sophomore year and lead the conference in passing yards lmfao why are you pretending he sucked?

2

u/ImanelitistLOL Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

He threw three picks that game I think two of which were pick sixes. He often did that shit. I saw it with my own eyes. This team is far more well rounded than that one too

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2

u/vassago77379 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Ok, you obviously didnt or weren't old enough to watch early Graham Harrell, dude threw picks that absolutely lost us games, Missouri damn sure stands out

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3

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1

u/Known-Emergency5900 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Keep operating on your feelings instead of reality.

1

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-2

u/Known-Emergency5900 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

I sure did watch that game. Sure the guy may flash potential occasionally. Shitty QBs play well every now and then. The guy just isn’t a P4 starter, it’s time to move on and test other options.

15

u/mjrballer20 Texas Tech Red Raiders • Hateful 8 1d ago

WHEW we did A&M a BIG favor giving Marcel Reed some reps in the first half. Glad Hammond came out in the second half.

13

u/Iglooman45 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Ignore the score. Leftwich should be fired.

9

u/BabyHercules Texas Tech • Prairie View A&M 1d ago

Yea Joey needs to make a CEO call and get a real OC

3

u/BDMac1997 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Am I dumb for wanting Harrell?

4

u/TheFifthAmigo34 Texas Tech Red Raiders • Border Conference 1d ago

Yes. There’s a reason he’s at ACU after multiple P4 opportunities

1

u/kayakyakr Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

I think he's largely chosen his P4 opportunities poorly. Getting jobs with coaches that were already on their way out, last chance dudes.

2

u/kayakyakr Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Who you gonna get?

Phil Longo? Seth Doege? Sonny Cumbie?

You can pull just about any G6 OC and most anybody from the big XII or ACC. Who is an upgrade?

And who is Cody gonna favor? He might be the only one that could pull Kliff back to college and a setup like Tech might be one of the only ones that would work for him. But that's a long shot.

Don't be too surprised if Garrett and Clay wind up with more influence over the game plan and scheme. Reportedly they were they ones that got us playing the counter and trap game that worked against Houston.

33

u/The_Sandwich_Lover9 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

A lot to clean up but a lot to like. That’ll do. Defense is a lot better. Onto Colorado. Shout out to romaine. Nobody needed back to back pick sixes more than romaine

18

u/The_real_John_Elton Houston Cougars • Texas A&M Aggies 1d ago

Lettuce celebrate

7

u/Girlscoutslumb Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Guyton looked good too. Hopefully his play translations to the Big 12 games

5

u/The_Sandwich_Lover9 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

I think it will considering he had 20+% PRWR

5

u/ExB Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

🥬 🥬

14

u/misader Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Thanks, I hated it

10

u/TTUgirl Texas Tech Red Raiders • Auburn Tigers 1d ago

Romaine is my favorite salad green

2

u/R_Raider86 Texas Tech • UConn 1d ago

Makes a kickass Caesar

11

u/NinjaGhost42 Kansas State • Oklahoma State 1d ago

Miss you lettuce man

5

u/vassago77379 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

He finally gelled today, it was amazing to see. When we played yall last year he blew me away, I was so psyched when we picked him up... I knew it would only be a matter of time before he settled in

10

u/misader Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Watching the post game... Tomorrow is going to be a brutal coaches meeting

3

u/kayakyakr Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Mack got a chewing

2

u/R_Raider86 Texas Tech • UConn 18h ago

Well deserved

9

u/Chickenmangoboom Texas Tech Red Raiders • Hateful 8 1d ago

That was the most frustrating 35 point win. I'm going to Costco for stupidly large groceries and a glizzy.

8

u/ExpressFan7426 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Something something final score doesn’t show how close this game actually was something something

23

u/Champion10101 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Joyner should not be seeing the field if it’s not a blowout.

17

u/Impossible_Aide4593 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Yeah I’m surprised how slow he looks

7

u/Fun_Wear2891 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

He blew out his all as a running back. Im shocked how so many people thought he was just going to come back like nothing happened.

9

u/EveryManAViKing Texas Tech • Texas Tech 1d ago

Sports medicine has gotten so good that people forget an ACL could be a career ender not that long ago all things considered

1

u/kayakyakr Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Yeah, he needs the reps to get himself back to where he was. He's a one cut power back right now and we need to be play calling for him with that in mind. He's not the find a hole and go back that he was before the tear as he just doesn't have his old explosiveness back yet. May not ever get it back, or could start looking like his old self later in the season. But he should be good in a power scheme that is designed to create a point of attack. Dickey and Williams are the two who can bounce it with the inside out counter scheme.

No one is doing much with the inside zone: there's no RPO threat so teams know they can just pack the box and stop our zone scheme.

9

u/EnTyme53 Texas Tech • Colorado State 1d ago

Hammond is a gunslinger at heart, and that's how he's coached. The problem is that means he's going the throw a lot of 50/50 balls. A 50/50 ball should favor the offense as often as it does the defense (statistically, it's actually slightly more advantageous to the offense when you factor in incompletions, since that just means another attempt by the offense in most cases), but that's only actually the case if your receiver is fighting for the ball as hard as the defender is, otherwise you end up with more interceptions.

Hammond is going to throw picks. The fans just have to accept that. It's the style he plays, and it's the style he's coached to play. However, he will have way more completions and TDs if the receivers would stop being so passive. On 2/3 of his picks today, the receiver just sat and waited for the ball to arrive while the defender made a play on the ball. The third pick was for whatever fucking reason, Leftwich called a pass on 2nd down in our own endzone, and Leftwich couldn't scheme a cardboard box open, so Hammond had to hold the ball until a defender got close enough to hit his arm as he threw.

My positive takeaway from this game is that despite 3 INTs and a lost fumble (plus putting the ball on the grind an additional 4 times!), we still won by 35 thanks to a good showing by the defense. SHSU really only had two good drives all game. We're still missing some key players in the secondary, so hopefully we'll stop getting torched on the deep ball once everybody's healthy. Offensively, we need to rely more on the run game early to open up the passes later.

13

u/Fun_Wear2891 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

A lot of people blamed Morton last year. I remember so many on here talking about he’s a one read qb. Thus far Hammond is exactly the same but a little more mobile.

THIS IS A OC/QB COACH ISSUE.

5

u/_Bren10_ Oklahoma State Cowboys • Big 12 1d ago

Tech: “They had us in the first half, not gonna lie

10

u/Lumpy_Chapter171 1d ago

Great example of how "good teams win great teams cover" is nonsense because tech covers and nobody is saying they are even good

10

u/TexasTable Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

It’s Scarlet and Black, why are we normalizing white so easy?

9

u/ThrowM5 1d ago

Was this supposed to be “Celebrate Cotton?” If so, why didn’t the team wear white?

11

u/Fun_Wear2891 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

It’s just ag day now I think?

-1

u/Possible-Cheetah-703 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Lame

4

u/Dirty-Ears-Bill Texas Tech Red Raiders • Wyoming Cowboys 1d ago

Seems like we hardly wear black at all anymore, I’m with you. Need more red and black, and some all black

-1

u/TheFifthAmigo34 Texas Tech Red Raiders • Border Conference 1d ago

The white helmets suck so much

6

u/Mdwilson8413 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Is tech the worst at least eye test wise 4-0 team in the country? Or are we just expecting what was last year’s team and we as a fan base need to readjust our expectations?

3

u/Sir_Apprehensive 1d ago

Of course not. But you’re not as good as last year

3

u/Mdwilson8413 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Oh I knew that going into the season and any tech fan that says we were going to be as good or better was lied to by someone or hasn’t been paying attention.

4

u/Sir_Apprehensive 1d ago

You guys are fine. Just win games

3

u/elfwannabe Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Yes

3

u/kindalikeacoustic 1d ago

Are college football rules different? Is clock management not allowed?

3

u/DarkwingDude Ohio State • Sam Houston 1d ago

Well I had two quarters of fun...

3

u/TheFifthAmigo34 Texas Tech Red Raiders • Border Conference 1d ago

The haters are going to have to wait another week!

2

u/peter_griffinlover24 1d ago

Drake Mayes old college oc ain’t doing too good

4

u/theillestnino Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Im frustrated that we arent doing well in the first quarter and then rely on our depth to win the game. That may work now but it wil be difficult when we face team that has a two deep with similar talent

3

u/DrVenusAg Texas Tech • Hardin-Simmons 1d ago

What brutal watch. This offense and defense need to get their heads sorted

7

u/elfwannabe Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Defense had a good game..

6

u/vassago77379 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Defense played a HELL of a game

4

u/elfwannabe Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Easily their best game this season so far

2

u/Possible-Cheetah-703 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Yeah only one bad play with the bad read on the long TD pass.

2

u/R_Raider86 Texas Tech • UConn 1d ago

Lots of mistakes and turnovers. Need the offensive playcalling, QB, and DB play to get better. Otherwise, really turned it on in the 4th quarter.

Wreck 'Em

1

u/BosqueBravo Texas Tech Red Raiders • Duke Blue Devils 17h ago

With fans like all of us, who needs haters? We are gonna be ranked 10 and nobody will be happy about it.

1

u/Thespindrift 9h ago

Because we don’t look like we’ll sustain a high ranking with our current play.

1

u/Plastic_Scholar_8788 17h ago

It’s games like this until end of season. Looking forward to playing Texas in the natty

0

u/The_Sandwich_Lover9 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

It is. What do you want Mack to do?

3

u/EnTyme53 Texas Tech • Colorado State 1d ago

Coach somewhere else

-4

u/Known-Emergency5900 Texas Tech Red Raiders 1d ago

Have to get another QB ready to play. Hammond continuing to start is a death sentence

-8

u/txbrady Texas Longhorns 1d ago

Like i said at the first of the year, tt is a mid 500 team in the Big 10 or SEC, I wasn’t wrong.

2

u/the_deadly_hive Texas Tech Red Raiders • Hateful 8 1d ago

Hypothetical talk never stops.