SALT LAKE CITY, UT — Ladies and Gentlemen, the Texas Tech defense is for real. The No. 17 Texas Tech Red Raiders traveled to Salt Lake City on Saturday and absolutely put down the No. 16 Utah Utes on the road and in a hostile environment. Texas Tech moved to 1-0 in Big 12 play with a 34-10 beatdown.
There were two main storylines that dominated this football game—Texas Tech's monster defense and backup quarterback Will Hammond. There was much said over the past few weeks about the transfers Texas Tech essentially paid for this season.
Guys like David Bailey and Lee Hunter weren't supposed to gel this well this early. Well, guess what? They did. Texas Tech's defensive line dominated the line of scrimmage and held one of the best running football teams in the country to under 100 rushing yards until the final minutes of garbage time. Utah looked anemic on offense on Saturday, and Texas Tech forced four turnovers.
"We are a defensive team," Head Coach Joey McGuire said after the game. "These guys take a lot of pride in what they do."
With the performance against Utah, Texas Tech has proven they have a defense that can carry this football team.
On offense, Texas Tech struggled through most of the first half. Besides an opening touchdown, the offense only managed three more points before the half. The o-line did a poor job of protecting Behren Morton at the beginning of the game. He took some shots and had to leave the game in the third quarter due to a head injury. Add ten false starts to that, and anyone would know why the Red Raiders couldn't move the ball in the first two quarters.
However, it was a tale of two halves. After Morton went down, Backup quarterback Will Hammond had to take over. Up only 13-10 at the time, Hammond could have let the pressure and the hostile environment get to him; instead, Hammond proved that he is the future at Texas Tech. Hammond led the Red Raiders to 21 unanswered points in the 4th quarter to completely blow out Utah. The Utes managed an impressive touchdown drive early in the quarter, but the defense could not get Hammond and the offense off the field. He made several deep passes that everyone in the stadium's jaw dropped, and finished as Texas Tech's second leading rusher on the day with 61 yards.
While the game felt close for the most part, Texas Tech did what good teams do—win. The Red Raiders impressed their will on the Utes more and more as the game went on, and Utah simply ran out of gas.
With the win, Texas Tech improved to 1-0 in Big 12 play and 4-0 overall. The Red Raiders are off next week but return to action on Saturday, October 4, when they travel to Houston for another Big 12 matchup.
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