Tech Week Launch: The 10 Most Impressive Red Raiders Stats
by Peter Bean on Oct 27, 2008 2:13 AM CDT
in Football
37 comments
In no particular order...
1. Texas Tech Sacks Allowed: 3 -- Remarkable for any offense, of course, and a good indicator of what the Red Raiders like to do--strike fast. Quarterback Graham Harrell has improved in this regard from a year ago, when he went down behind the LOS 18 times. Though the Red Raiders schedule is backloaded, they're all but assured to finish beneath that total this year.
2. Texas Tech Yards Per Rush: 5.4 -- A year ago, the Red Raiders only managed 3.13 yards per carry (19 carries per game). This year, they're up a full 2 yards per carry on 7 more attempts per game (25). That helps enormously their already potent passing game.
3. Texas Tech Opponents 3rd Quarter Points: 20 -- A year ago, the Red Raiders allowed just 44 points in the quarter following halftime. Statistical oddity or some kind of trend? I dunno. But 20 points is 20 points. SolidT.
4. Texas Tech Yards Per Catch: 12.2 -- At 34 completions per game, that adds up real fast.
5. Barron Batch Yards Per Touch: 9.01 -- 72 rushes for 545 yards (7.5 ypc) and 24 receptions for 321 yards (13.4) = Awesome.
6. Texas Tech 3rd Downs Converted: 57% -- Up a full 10% so far from 2007. If sustained down the home stretch, they may well be Kansas City-bound.
7. Texas Tech Punts: 14 -- Mike Leach's squad has punted 14 times, gone for it 14 times on 4th down, turned it over 11 times, missed 5 field goals, and scored 57 times.
8. Texas Tech Players with 10+ Receptions: 8 -- Michael Crabtree (60), Detron Lewis (45), Eric Morris (42), Tramain Swindall (31), Baron Batch (24), Edward Britton (20), Shannon Woods (15), Adam James (11).
9. Texas Tech Rushing Touchdowns: 23 -- That total in 2007? Just 18. Leach learned an important lesson.
10. Graham Harrell Passing Yards/Game: 393 -- And after a mortal start to the year, Harrell's caught and joined the pack of Big 12 superfreaks atop the Passer Rating leaderboard.
Ready for another wild one?
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Fear Factor
Can we go ahead and set it at 10? Jeez.
by pleaseplaykindle on Oct 27, 2008 2:31 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
We're going to put y'all out to pasture with the cows.
Be warriors; be fearless.
What part of Oklahoma are you from?
by whills on Oct 27, 2008 1:29 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Why do I need to be a "warrior"?
I’m just a fan.
by Meekrob on Oct 27, 2008 3:18 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
It's a way to face the future.
And control your fears. You don’t ignore them: you use them instead of them using you..
And you’re a hell of a fan, meekrob.
by whills on Oct 27, 2008 3:23 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
I'm with meekrob.
If this Texas team lived and died by my ability to stay calm in tight games…
by pleaseplaykindle on Oct 27, 2008 4:12 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Very Impressive stats but Kansas is the only team of any stature that they have played.Nebraska took them to OT and should have beat them.
by TCB Orange Dino on Oct 27, 2008 2:48 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
I belived Nebraska had good running game and check this out
POS: 40:12 for NEB and 19:48 for Techies
I believe GD and Colt have done an excellent job with controlling the ball and eating up the clock. Still it is quite scary that Tech scored 31 points in less than 20 min of POS.
OL play is going to be huuuuuge, especially run blocking….we need ALL of our RBs to step up and get our rushing game going….Shipley and Quan have been taking way too many hard hits.
my first born shall be named vy
by hookemkp on Oct 27, 2008 3:21 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Running clock
This comment brought up a thought … another way that Colt’s freakish completion percentage helps the Horns’ game.
Typically, you think of eating up clock with run-heavy drives. Teams that rely on the run can grind through half of a quarter on a single possession. On the other hand, pass-dependent teams usually score quickly, taking little time off the clock.
Because Colt completes so many passes, he actually manages to chew up clock with a pass-heavy game. Short passes mean taking it to third down frequently. Few passes are angled to take the receiver out of bounds, and many more passes this season are over the middle. The clock only stops when the chains are moved – and then only for a few seconds.
Not something I’ve ever thought I would see at the college level …
Watch out, I bite.
by EddieTheAlbinoSquirrel on Oct 27, 2008 10:07 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Eddie, we are in a new football world.
The Big 12 South is plowing new ground and the nature of the game is shifting.
I also think Colt is creating a new mythos at QB, a new level of threat that revitalizes the idea of the compleat quarterback.
by whills on Oct 27, 2008 1:35 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
A Paradigm Shift
I say bulls**t. Everything reverts to the historical mean. Something or should I someone is going to burst the Big 12’s offensive bubble. Be prepared.
by kmpsu on Oct 27, 2008 1:55 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Actually, you're close. These moments don't last long.
Once someone finds an edge, everyone copies and the DCs go crazy trying to stop it. So, it will balance out relatively quickly (and that is what I presume you are saying with “historical mean” if, indeed, anyone gives credence to such a statement).
This particular time in the Big 12, however, is special and may not be replicated again. Actual life span is in months, not years.
WRT Colt and his percentage, that is not a paradigm shift. This is just unprecedented and the longer it lasts the more this is true and the more it will have an impact on younger players.
Last, while the statement Everything reverts to the historical mean may be true on its face, it is incredible cynical. Perhaps you are talking in terms of historical sports statistics, something actually measurable in terms of history. The term is an abstraction at best and is cynical because it serves to suck the meaning from these present moments. And, hey, I’m always distrustful of cynics.
by whills on Oct 27, 2008 2:43 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
You are contradicting yourself
In your initial post you indicated that the “nature of the game is shifting”. Now it is a “special” moment in time and everything will balance out relatively quickly. Which is it? A single player having a special season or a paradigm shift. I would argue it is the former. Thus the cynicism in my response to your post.
by kmpsu on Oct 27, 2008 8:57 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Not. I said two different things.
The present cutting edge is in the Big 12 right now but it is emblematic of the evolution of the game. This is merely the point of the continuum right now.
The second is Colt’s percentage, which only has to do with the key position within offense. It represents a higher order of execution and ability. Colt and the other Big XII QBs will become powerful models for younger players and even fans due to the flow of images and info.
In an ironic counterpoint, it is the development of these homegrown QBs over the last decade that helped create the cutting edge here.
Separate movements in their own time, but related. No contradiction.
by whills on Oct 27, 2008 11:39 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Ooooooh.
Is that supposed to scare us, oh friend from Penn St.?
OSU and OU both have fine defenses. Colt’s high percentage completion may not last if he played the 1-10 ranked defenses in the country straight. But I think it says plenty that his completion percentage has RISEN while playing 3 straight teams ranked in the top 10 overall.
Watch out, I bite.
by EddieTheAlbinoSquirrel on Oct 27, 2008 3:39 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
You mean a President is going to declare us MNC over Penn State again?
proud to swim home
by learned hand on Oct 27, 2008 7:59 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Hookemkp: You're right
on TOP -— but it was mostly short passing and not the ground game. Nebraska ran 80 plays to Tech’s 48. Huskers were 45-35 pass vs. run, and Huskers averaged under 3.5 per rushing play. Tech actually had a 137-114 edge on the ground.
Pre OT, Tech had 7 possessions and Nebraska 8 (not counting Tech running out the clock to end both halves). Usual possessions per game is 10-12. Horns had just 9 against OSU but 11 against OU and 13 against Colorado and Missouri.
Against Kansas last week, Raiders scored TDs on 8 of their first 9 possessions. The exception was a three-play drive to end the first half.
by edsp on Oct 27, 2008 5:01 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
should have?
I dont understand what you mean by should have beat them? Both teams had their fair shot at it and Tech’s defense came up big with and interception to close the deal. They may have struggled but also may have proved they can win with a lackluster offensive performance thanks to an improving defense.
by orangebloodvampire on Oct 27, 2008 3:23 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Go back and read the posts
pre game with Missouri it all the same thing, No sacks, no punts, low time of possession, all the same stuff.
The most important stat is the quality of the teams they have played to get those stats,
total defense
East Washington not in the top 119,
Nevada 94,
SMU 119
Massachusetts not in the top 119
Kansas St. 109
Nebraska 66
Texas A&M 103
Kansas 88
The bottom 25% is starts 89 the bottom 50% starts at 59. the one team that almost climbs to the median in Div 1 is the one that almost beat them.
by Xerxes on Oct 27, 2008 11:15 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
The only way to look at those stats and not panic is to remember one last statistic:
Strength of Schedule: 91.
by the1austin on Oct 27, 2008 11:19 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Nebraska
The Tech Nebraska game wasn’t as close as the score indicated, and offensive play wasn’t an issue. Tech was incredibly efficient offensively, scoring on 6 of their 8 drives in regulation. The Nebraska D was a sieve during that game. The only good defensive play NU made was a stop on 3rd and 1 (on a bad play call by Tech trying to run up the middle with the scat back) in the 4th quarter to force Tech to punt and set up the 1st tying drive.
Nebraska did a remarkable job of playing keep away on offense, but had 3 of 5 drives stall in the first half. Tech, up by 14 going into the 4th quarter, sat back and tried to play prevent defense – which as everyone knows is always an invitation for a team to come from behind. Tech gave up 21 points in the 4th after holding Nebraska to 10 through the first 3 quarters.
by NM99 on Oct 27, 2008 11:24 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
In viewing that last quarter, NU had Big Mo. They should have gone for two at home.
I thought that was a major mistake.
by whills on Oct 27, 2008 1:38 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
My Most Important Stat of the Game: 9/9
Matt Williams, the contest winner, was 9/9 last week on extra points.
Tech’s field goal kicker is a contest winner. The guy kicked a 30 yarder at halftime of Tech’s game against UMass and was on the roster two weeks later. The way I see it, this kicker story can only end in one of two ways this week.
1. He misses a field goal or two which could absolutely be the difference in a game like this. Let’s not forget that last year Tech marched up and down the field on us, but in the red zone we were able to hold them to field goals (while we scored touchdowns). The National Media rips Leach for using a contest winner at kicker and the bad press keeps him stuck in Lubbock even though he has lobbied the last several years for the gigs at UCLA and Miami.
OR.
2. Three seconds on the clock, Texas up by 49 to 47 (because he has already missed an extra point after the first touchdown of the game. Tech, went for two on their last drive but a wide open Edward Britton caught the pass out of bounds.) Tech ball on the 33 yard line. Williams nails the game winner to knock off the #1 team in America in his second college game in the same month where he didn’t have to pay rent because he won a halftime field goal contest three weeks earlier. Immediately after the kick he runs over to his high school sweetheart who stood by his side even when he was a lowly Tech undergrad struggling to avoid failing Agricultural Science 101 and proposes before a national audience. She says “Yes” amid a flurry of Raider fans desperately trying to hurl the North field goal posts at the Texas Band who is trying to play the Eyes of Texas.
That would be a damn Disney movie. That plot is better than Air Bud: The Golden Receiver, if I do say so myself.
by the1austin on Oct 27, 2008 11:49 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Would this make Texas Tech the new home of the 12th man?
by jc25 on Oct 27, 2008 12:21 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
or the actual 12th man...
..if my memory serves right, the guy they say was the 12th man never actually played…right?
by vy til i die on Oct 27, 2008 12:26 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Poor Aggies
I’m pretty sure Tech has owned the 12th man since the 90s.
It takes two to lie - one to lie and one to listen.
by Johngo on Oct 27, 2008 12:53 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Deja vu
“I hate to lose this Saturday. Especially to this team. They’re good, no doubt. I worry about our young secondary. Do we have a ground game to compete?? If we do lose, I hope we can keep it close. We can always come back from a single loss and have a great season.”
[Internal dialogue, week of Oct. 5-10, 2008]
Hook ’em!
by NYCHorn on Oct 27, 2008 2:25 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
In what will probably be a game of inches, everything matters...
Matt Williams field goal % – 0% (walk-on kicker who just played his 1st game)
66 penalties for 552 yards (Texas has been penalized 48 times and only once last week)
Time of possession – Texas 33 min, Tech 29 min
by BMG on Oct 27, 2008 4:33 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Tech Fan
First, I think this will be a great game, Texas plays great team football as well as Tech and I think thats why both team have been great to this point.
Just wanted to find out how UT fans think Texas will do on there first real road game, can’t count Dallas or a pro UT crowd at UTEP. I know CU is a tough place to play but the Buffs just lost to Mizzou 58-0.
by GPD on Oct 27, 2008 9:45 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Essentially none.
By and large is not a green team, and even the freshmen have had ample opportunity to lose their jitters. Also, is not a team facing top level competition for the first time. This has been a team characterized by brutal efficiency and generally sound discipline – there’s no reason to think a game in their home state will change that.
At best, you may get an offsides penalty, but I doubt the atmosphere will even cause a false start. McKinner Dixon, on the other hand, may manage that and I suppose y’all can take credit if you want.
proud to swim home
by learned hand on Oct 27, 2008 10:40 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
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