What was a top 15 offense got absolutely manhandled Saturday by what is obviously the worst defense ever to take the field in college football. Just ask ESPN expert, Robert Smith.
Zero points for the Red Raider offense. None.
Apparently it was getting so bad on the field that the Texas Tech center started telling OSU's defensive linemen the plays they were about to run. And where that would usually be a funny joke on this site, this time it is absolutely true.
Overall, it was a dominating performance in all three phases of the game. The only hiccup came from Joseph Randle who had two very uncharacteristic fumbles in the game. Other than that, the offense rolled with over 600 yards. Weeden had another huge day with 423 yards passing and 5 touchdowns. You know it's bad when the TV commentators are asking for the backup quarterback to be put into the game.
The horrible defense? It allowed only 270 yards to a team that averaged almost 500 yards before this game. They tackled very well and the secondary was relentless. As the OSU players have commented, it makes it easier when you play against this style of offense every day in practice.
Special teams came up huge. Quinn Sharp was booting the ball out of the endzone regardless of the swirling wind. And when he wasn't, OSU was recovering fumbles in both punt and kickoff returns. Speaking of which, can we talk about that Texas Tech kickoff return for a second? How awful was that? Not only was it severely unlucky for the ball to take a ten yard bounce forward out of the endzone off of the returner's chest, but then for the other player to pick it up, drop it, and then completely lose track of where he dropped it...yikes.
Even Joe Paterno felt bad for Tommy Tuberville (too soon?). I'm pretty curious what was said in the Texas Tech locker room at halftime when the score was 49-0. I mean what can you say?
"Play with pride."
"Please don't tell the other team the plays we are running right before we run them."
"At least our coaches don't take showers with little boys...so we've got that going for us."
Looking forward, the Iowa State game is Friday night. Hopefully we can get some WRNL collaborations going this week. Until then, go Pokes!