Five Questions — Texas Tech

By Steve Habel

It seemed like old times at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium as Texas ran over and dismantled overmatched Texas Tech, 52-20, before a crowd of 100,506 fans.

  It was a nonpareil fall morning and afternoon, highlighted by a mighty fine likeness of Longhorn teams past — we’re talking about late ‘70s vintage teams here — with a dash of recent history and a whole lot of future.

  These Horns live and die by the run, and they lived it up against a Texas Tech squad ranked 114th (out of 120) nationally at stopping the run. Texas — led by its “other” true freshman tailback, the bruising Joe Bergeron — pounded the Red Raiders for 439 yards on the ground.

  It was the first time since 1977 that the Horns racked up more than 400 yards rushing in consecutive games. The chief running threat on the 1977 team — which was undefeated until a loss to Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl — was eventual Heisman Trophy winner Earl Campbell.

  With starter Malcolm Brown on the shelf with a turf toe injury, Bergeron — on his 19th birthday — rushed for a season-high 191 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries. It was his second straight 100-yard rushing game.

  All seven Texas players who ran the ball (even walk-on Heath Hoelmann) averaged at least six yards per carry. “We’re all preachers of history, and if you go back and look, Texas ran the ball when we were good,” coach Mack Brown said. “That’s who we were, and that’s what we want to get back to.”

  Texas passed just nine times (completing five) for 156 yards, marking the first time since 2003 (in a 46-15 win over Texas A&M) that the Horns hadn’t thrown at least 10 times. One of the passes Saturday against Texas Tech was by tailback Fozzy Whittaker.

  “When you’re running the ball as well as we were, it’s hard to want to throw it,” Brown said. “Tech was putting guys on the line of scrimmage, and we were still running well. So we felt like we should keep running it.”

  Texas Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said the strategy was simple — Texas wanted to run the ball, and Tech wanted to stop that from happening. “Nothing we did helped,” he said. “At times, we even played goal line defense in the middle of the field just to see if that would work, and it didn’t.”

  With the victory, Texas already has more wins than in all of 2010 and became bowl-eligible, something taken for granted on the 40 Acres for the first 12 years of the Mack Brown era.

  Running the ball was a priority, but the Horns dominated because they were able to reach and exceed their other two goals as well: they didn’t have a turnover, and they limited the Red Raiders’ run attack to just 30 yards. “As long as we can do those three things,” Brown said, “we have a chance to win any ballgame.”

  Texas won despite a spectacular passing display from Tech quarterback Seth Doege, who hit on 40 of 55 passes for 381 yards and two touchdowns. But by the time Doege was able to get the Red Raiders into the end zone — with 3:10 to play in the third quarter — the Horns already led 38-6 and had salted away the game.

  “We felt like we could win this game,” Doege said. “It came down to us not executing. And that could be either the small things we were supposed to do but didn’t or Texas outplaying us.”

  UT scored on its first five possessions of the first half with the streak ending only when they ran out the clock to end the half. Texas started the game with a field goal on the opening drive and then scored touchdowns on four straight possessions.

  The Horns continued their success into the second half, driving down field for touchdowns on each of the first three drives before running out the clock at the end of the game. Overall Texas scored on seven of its nine drives with the other two being when they chose to run out the clock in each half.

  After surrendering “only” a 29-yard field goal to Tech’s Donnie Carona on its opening 16-play drive, the Horns answered with a 48-yard FG by Justin Tucker to tie the game at 3-3. Whittaker put Texas ahead for good with a 12-yard TD run out of the wild formation with 13:17 to play in the second quarter, and Tech responded with another Carona field goal to cut the lead to 10-6.

  For the next 22 minutes, the Horns owned the game, scoring on an 8-yard Whittaker run out of the wild formation, a 12-yard run by D.J. Monroe on a speed sweep that saw him juke a Tech defender nearly to the ground on the way to the end zone and two power TD runs of nine and eight yards by Bergeron.

  Bergeron added a final scoring run on the first play of the fourth quarter, and backup quarterback Case McCoy hit Darius White on a 31-yard touchdown pass to end the UT scoring roll.

  With an offense built on power running and a swarming bend-but-don’t-break defense, Texas looks more and more like a team coming into its own. The Horns were more physical and faster on both sides of the ball than in their losses to OU and Oklahoma State — or at any other time in 2011 — and looked better prepared and coached than even in their big win against Kansas Oct. 29. The final third of the season should be fun to watch.

  1.       What was the most surprising aspect of the win against Tech?

   The way the Horns handled adversity and played with the cards they were dealt in hammering the Red Raiders, an enigmatic team good enough to beat Oklahoma in Norman but bad enough to get upset by Iowa State at home by 28 points and then get shellacked by a rebuilding Texas team.

  Let’s see: Tech’s quarterback threw for almost 400 yards, and the Red Raiders didn’t commit a turnover or allow a long run back. Texas barely passed the ball and was forced to play without its leading rusher (Malcolm Brown) and its leading receiver (true freshman Jaxon Shipley was ruled out just before kickoff with a knee injury). Tech racked up as many first downs as Texas (28), had the ball longer than UT did by more than two minutes, was 12-of-19 on third down conversions and scored all four times it was in the red zone.

  All those would seemingly add up to a big Red Raider win on the road — instead, Texas lambasted Tech by 32 points.

  “I’m shocked we had such a complete performance without some of our key players,” Brown said. “We’re developing some depth, and all these young guys are having to grow up fast. We’re developing an identity now, and the identity on offense is helping who we are on defense.”

  2.       What was the most important series of the game?

   Some would point to one of the Horns’ eight scoring drives, but the nod here goes to the game’s first possession, when the Texas defense held the Red Raiders to a field goal. Tech looked coldly efficient, had six snaps inside the UT 10-yard line and was gifted a pass interference penalty but still couldn’t get the ball into the end zone.

  The stand was huge, senior safety Blake Gideon said. “We talk all the time that if we give them a little, the worse that can happen is they get in the red zone,” he said. “We want to keep them out of the end zone — that’s the main thing. We want to keep them to field goals. We know our offense is going to catch up eventually.”

  “It was disappointing,” Tuberville said. “You could tell we came to play. We ran right down the field and scored, but a touchdown there would have been big for us.

  3.       Has the Texas defense found its footing?

   It could be argued that the Horns’ defense has been good all season, save from the showing versus Oklahoma. Against the Red Raiders, defensive coordinator Manny Diaz’s crew caused havoc in the backfield, chased down and blanketed receivers in the secondary and physically outplayed Tech throughout.

  Yes, the defense was gouged for 411 yards, but it was tough in the red zone and when it really counted. “The guys really brought it when the game was in the balance in the first and second quarters,” Diaz said.

  Texas had four sacks, and most of the pressure came with just the front four. “If we can get to the quarterback without blitzing, we’re doing a great job,” senior linebacker Keenan Robinson said. “We didn’t blitz that much because we knew we’d soften their pass game. We sat back in coverage and let our guys do what they received their scholarship for. They earned it.”

  Diaz said the sacks were due to as much to the work of the Horns’ DBs as to the pressure from his defensive line. “The big key was our coverage,” Diaz said, “because we made Doege hold onto the ball a little longer than he wanted.”

  Diaz was also pleased the Horns were able to hold Tech to 30 yards rushing on 27 carries. “Anytime we force a team to throw to try to beat us, we have them right where we want them,” he explained. “That usually means we’re controlling the line of scrimmage. We’re reveling in our physicality right now.”

  4.       Does Texas have a tailback controversy now that Bergeron has asserted himself?

   Once his toe allows him to go full strength, Malcolm Brown will still be the starter, with Whittaker a situational substitute and Bergeron a ready, waiting and capable reserve.

  After a handful of seasons when the Horns had no real go-to running back, they’re enjoying a wealth of riches. It might be a challenge to find enough plays for each of his running backs once Malcolm Brown returns. “But it will be a good challenge,” coach Brown said.

  “Fozzy’s not a guy who’s going to carry it a lot — he’s a third-down guy and he’s a wild formation guy,” Brown added. “We’ll see Malcolm and Joe get more carries together now. Joe probably doesn’t need 29 like he had today. And Malcolm doesn’t need 28 like he had last week. So we probably could share those a little bit more and keep them healthier.”

   5.       How was QB David Ash’s performance against Tech?

   The running game was so dominant for the Horns that Ash doesn’t even get a mention until the final part of this wrap-up. Ash managed the game well, hitting on 4-of-7 passes for 127 yards with the highlight a 48-yard strike to Mike Davis. He also ran for 59 yards on four carries, including a 47-yard first-quarter scramble.

  “This game was good for David and for his confidence as far as managing the game and knowing that he, in a couple of situations, made the right decision,” offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin said. “And having no turnovers from the quarterback position is huge for us.”

  “I did well, but there were a lot of people out there who made me look like I was doing really well,” Ash said. “Whenever it starts with the run, the rest will come.”

  Senior guard David Snow said Ash has had to grow up in a hurry. “He commands the huddle,” Snow said, “and has been doing a great job getting the plays in and making all the shifts.”

  For the record, sophomore QB Case McCoy, who was listed as an either/or starter for the Tech game, made his first appearance in mop-up duty with 12:25 to play, even later than last week against Kansas.