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Football:
Patterson took this L hard, but this isn’t on him.
Yes, those were big plays, but the defense is hardly to fault. Tech entered the game with one of the nation’s best offenses, averaging 48.4 points a game and 591 yards. The Red Raiders finished with 17 points and 353 total yards.
Later in his postgame news conference, Patterson included the offensive side as well.
The Frogs’ offense has turned the ball over 13 times in the last four games, including three on Thursday, and scored just two touchdowns against a Red Raiders defense that had allowed an average of 28.2 points a game.
“We had a week-and-a-half to get these guys ready and obviously we did not on offense and we gave up two big plays on defense,” Patterson said. “... You shank a punt when you need a 50-yarder ... you can just go down the list.”
Anderson said he was hungry coming into the game, but the run game stayed starving Thursday night.
Each of TCU’s first three drives began with hand-offs to running back Darius Anderson, who hasn’t carried the workload that many expected him to before the season began. Anderson was utilized more in this game. Seeing him used often and early is an encouraging sign, but TCU’s running game still feels lacking.
Anderson’s final stat line: 39 yards on 12 carries.
While Tech’s running game certainly wasn’t the star of the show, running back Tre King averaged 6 yards per carry and did more with his opportunities.
Texas Tech beats TCU behind Jett Duffey’s winning score | USA Today
Another great game by the D goes completely wasted, but the Red Raiders made the most of their two big plays.
“I was really proud of Jett, that’s such a hard situation, first start ever and at halftime we’re going to try something else,” Kingsbury said. “Then have to put him back in, and find a way, dig deep, be mentally tough enough to handle that, make enough plays to win the game. I can’t say enough about his mental toughness.”
Duffey was the third quarterback to play for Texas Tech this season. McLane Carter suffered a high left ankle sprain in the first quarter after starting the opener and was replaced by true freshman Alan Bowman, who was the nation’s leading passer before a crushing blow in the last game that left him with a partially collapsed lung.