College Football Breakdown

Sooners out of National Championship Hunt

Norman-Oklahoma fans will look back at this one and always remember the 1 hour and 40 minute rain delay as being a possible reason for their beloved Sooners to end their 39 game home winning streak and with all likelihood their national championship bid at the hands of a Texas Tech team that ranks mid-pack in the conference.
The Red Raiders got off to a quick start in this game behind the passing of QB Seth Doege (33-52, 441, 4 tds) and opened up a 24-7 lead. The Red Raider defense that has struggled to stop opponents all year were applying pressure to Sooner Landry Jones forcing the normally accurate QB into making several inaccurate passes. It seems as if the extra time waiting for the game to start must have taken the Sooners mind off what needed to be accomplished early on in this game. They dropped passes, missed assignments, and clearly showed a lack of focus early on. The Red Raiders provided excellent pass protection for Doege in the first half and everything seem to go Texas Tech’s way.
In the second half, the Sooners and the crowd felt the urgency of being down to a team that was moving the ball with ease. The defensive line started to step up. The emotion came back into the building. Jones starting to get his rhythm. The sooners outplayed the Red Raiders in the third and cut the lead to 31-24. At home, with all the momentum, one would think that the Sooners could pull it off. Instead, Texas Tech took control once again scoring 10 unanswered and managed to hold off the Sooners’ late run to win at Norman. Congratulations to HC Tummerville who managed to get his team focused after losing at home to K State by 10 points last week. The stat board shows that neither team did much to really stop each other with a total of more 1100 yards combined. Texas Tech did not have 1 turnover compared to the Sooners 2 which may have been the difference in this one.
Can the Sooners regroup in time to play Kansas State next week after knowing that their title shot is most likely gone? We’ll see. For the Red Raiders, can their defense build on this effort to make themselves a formidable opponent in the Big 12. I doubt it, but maybe their offense can keep scoring.
JJBeatz
www.collegefootballbreakdown.com