lots to talk about
Ok, so I've been a little lazy on the posts lately, especially with so much goin on, but last nights Cowboys game inspired me to come talk about the last 3 weeks of sports I've witnessed, live or otherwise.
Texas Tech vs. Eastern Washington
I got to make the trip for this game and couldn't have been more excited for the start of the season. Tech played pretty well but not quite as well as some would have hoped, but only by first glance. We still won handily and Harrel racked up a ton of yards, but there was a point that EWU pulled within 11 and many thought the defense gave up way too many yards for the hype they'd been getting, especially against an FCS team.
However, the rub here is that EWU is not your typical FCS team, and is actually pretty damn good. Not world-beaters, mind you. I mean they'd probably be top 30 or 40 in D1-a, but a decent team none-the-less that will probably be contending for the FCS nat. title this year. Just ask Colorado, a week later they had to get a late fourth quarter pick-six at home against the Eagles to pull off the win.
Texas Tech 49 - Eastern Washington 24
Texas Tech vs. Nevada
For this game, my Red Raiders traveled to Reno to take on a very tough Nevada Wolfpack team. They run the pistol offence which some say is one of the most complex offensive schemes in college football, plus Leach made the comment that their 6' 6" quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, may be the best QB we face all season, which is a pretty bold statement considering we have yet to face Josh Freeman of K-State, Todd Reesing of Kansas, Colt McCoy of Texas, and of course heisman candidate, Sam Bradford of OU.
We were forced to catch the game via web feed, which I suppose is better than nothing at all, but was still a little annoying to finally arrange somewhere where we could watch it. We started out at the game watching party at Blackfinn in Addison, but soon realized there were a LOT of Tech fans with the same idea, and only one small room with too many big tables that featured the web feed. After that we just migrated to my house and I set up my PC with my 61" DLP, which was better anyway once all was said and done.
The game was mediocre at best. There were good and bad things that could be taken from it, but optimistically, in the past, it was probably a game we would have pulled a "typical Tech" and lost. Harrel had the worst game of his career, performance-wise and statistically, but the defense showed glimmers of promise holding Nevada to only field goals until late in the fourth quarter. Crabtree had a decent game with some big plays that kept us out in front, but they were too few and far between. Regardless of the positive aspects of this game, it was evident we really should have beaten them much much worse after this week, when Mizzou absolutely obliterated them at home, 69-17. Yes it was a home game for Missouri, and we probably would have done similarly if we were at the Jones, but we probably should have at least hung 40-50 on them.
Texas Tech 35 - Nevada 19
Texas Tech vs. SMU
Almost made the trip to LBK for this one, but after a long week and the weather issues all over the state, I decided to stay put in Dallas since the game was on FSSW. This was primed to be a blood bath from the start. SMU had givin up an avg. of 46 points per game in their first two games, and that was to Rice and Texas State!
Tech, for the MOST part, did what they were supposed to do, and dominated the Ponies. There were some sputters here and there, particularly on some uncalled for dropped balls which Leach has had much to say about, but overall, an acceptible performance producing 693 yds of total offense. Harrel threw for over 400 yds in just over 3 quarters. Crabtree had another dominating game with 163yds and 3 tds. One of the more refreshing points of the offense was our 180 yards total rushing. Woods was great in the game, but the most impressive running performance came from Baron Batch who ran for 98 yards. Man that guy is fast.
If it's possible, the defense may have even overshadowed the offense. They pulled in five interceptions, FIVE! With three getting snagged by Daniel Charbonnet, who alllmost had a 4th that went right off the tip of his fingers, and the one Jamar wall pulled down was actually in fact heading right to Charbonnet until Wall jumped across. On top of all the glorious turnovers, Tech held SMEW scoreless until 3 min left in the game they squeaked in a touchdown, and THAT was even almost thwarted by a near-interception by Anthony Hines that prooobably would have gone the other way. I mean, ugh, it hit him right in the hands.
Anyway, a great, entertaining game that has somewhat calmed a lot of Tech fans nerves that the offense had lost its "spark" this year for some reason. Even though we probably should have scored even more, we did blow a TD opportunity at the end of the first half due to the refs and a Crabtree drop, and we kinda got screwed out of a Shannon Woods TD at the end of the game. So it almost would have been 57 instead of 43 pts on the board.
Another note, our kicking is downright scarily awful. Another missed XP in this game and a downright ugly missed FG. Corona did make his first FG of the year, but that's a long way from making me not think our kicking will cost us a game sometime this season.
Texas Tech 43 - SMU 7
OK, I was gonna comment on the Cowboy game but I'll have to postpone that to a later date...I need to get some work done. Those Tech recaps took longer than I thought. :)
