Texas Tech defensive coordinator Keith Patterson held his weekly get-together with the media on Tuesday to discuss the Red Raiders’ upcoming game against Kansas and the debacle against TCU last weekend.

Patterson described Saturday’s loss to TCU by comparing it to the same feeling the Red Raiders had after the Texas game.

“You knew something wasn’t right; we had missed assignments and critical errors obviously,” Patterson said. “I thought we had a great week in practice and that stuff doesn’t show up, but when it shows up in a game, it’s very frustrating. You’re playing a quality opponent with a big-time running back. The guy is an NFL running back and we knew that. The quarterback has great size and speed, and you just can’t make mistakes like that. Unexplainable, and just the ups and downs of college football.”

Patterson said the Texas Tech defenders need to just keep moving forward as a unit.

“I tell our guys all the time, to move forward in life or anything you’ve got to let go of something,” Patterson said. “You better not hang on to that; you’ve got to let go just like we did the week before going into Morgantown. We’re right back in the same situation.”

Patterson said that he has challenged the players to become more consistent and that consistency comes through preparation, whether it be film study, practice habits or everything involved. Patterson said mental errors and missed assignments don’t always show up in practice, so it’s important to get players to play with a greater mental intensity and focus.

“You’ve seen the results at times this year – what its looks like when we do play with mental intensity, when we do play with mental focus,” Patterson said. “And then you’ve seen it when we don’t. I think that responsibility falls on my shoulders and we’ve got to figure it out.”

Patterson said the Red Raiders have had success stopping the run at times this year, with impressive performances against West Virginia’s Leddie Brown and FIU’s D’Vonte Price.

“We just have to be sound; we have to execute,” he said. “You can’t play outside the framework of the system. When you can create population to the ballcarrier, you have fewer missed tackles. If you get a lot of one-on-ones with running backs like Bijan Robinson and Zach Evans, those things get exposed. Getting population to the ballcarrier means people have to get off blocks.”

Patterson said that this week won’t be any different as the Jayhawks have quality backs and want to run the football.

As far as injuries go, Patterson said college football is a tough sport and injuries are a part of the game but losing every middle safety on the roster certainly didn’t help in stopping the run last weekend. The only three guys who have taken reps at the middle safety position before last week were Marquis Waters, Reggie Pearson, and Kosi Eldridge.

“You’ve got to figure it out; it’s a part of the game,” Patterson said. “People go down, and other people have to step up. It’s just unfortunate that you lose every middle safety you’ve got for a game, and when you have to move your nickel corner (Adrian Frye) to safety, it leaves you shorthanded at the corner position.”

Patterson said that Kansas quarterback Jason Bean might be the fastest quarterback Tech has faced this season. The Mansfield native finished third at the UIL State Track & Field Meet in the 100-meter dash during high school.

“You watch him on film, and he looks really fast,” Patterson said. “This kid can run, and that’s where it begins with the quarterback run game. We’ve got to be sound and set the edges on our defense and get people to run inside-out. Again, it boils down to the effort part of it where you’ve got to create population to the ball carrier so you don’t have to tackle a guy one-on-one with his speed and mobility.”

Going forward, Patterson said figuring out who’s going to be available any given week and building a defense around the guys on the field will be a key in their preparation.

“You can’t just cram people into a system,” Patterson said. “I have to see who’s available and eventually work on correcting what I saw on Saturday. Continuing to focus on developing consistency is the biggest thing for me. We’ve got to come back this weekend and play a clean game, and then we have to learn how to do that week after week to take this thing to another level.”