Takeaways: Defense looking to turn heads after impressive outing

After getting blown out by Oklahoma, Texas Tech made a statement win over the ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys while accounting for five takeaways, those being two fumble recoveries and three interceptions.

Another week and another dual-threat quarterback comes into the mix in Baylor junior quarterback Charlie Brewer, who played his high school ball at Lake Travis in Austin (TX). The six-foot one-inch gunslinger went 14-23 for 230 yards and a touchdown last week in a 31-12 routing of the Kansas State Wildcats, keeping the loss column with a goose egg and being ranked No. 22 in the latest AP poll.

Tech defensive coordinator Keith Patterson met with the media on Monday afternoon to talk about the upcoming matchup as well as the grading of the Red Raider defense from this past Saturday.

Right off the bat, coach Patterson wished he and his squad would have made it to the half against Oklahoma State allowing zero points for the Pokes, but appreciated a Jett-Duffey-led offense to open the lead more coming out of the break.

“We get them in third down and seven right off the get-go,” Patterson said. “Overall, the thing I liked most about what our players were able to do on Saturday: they executed the game plan almost to a ‘T.’ We knew that we wanted to try to make the quarterback play for us, we wanted to follow him to his left, which we did for the most part, not all the time. We noticed every time (Spencer Sanders) escaped he always wanted to go to his right. Second thing was stop the run, number thirty (Chuba Hubbard). Two of his longest runs of the day we had a misalignment and then a busted assignment, which a guy comes in there, I don’t know how many yards a carry he was averaging. We held him to 156 yards on 34 carries. I’ll take that against that kid any day of the week. And like I said, the 22-yard run was off of us misaligning, and then obviously we wanted to try to make sure we force three or more takeaways, and we were able to do that.”

Patterson said the defense also had 21 negative-yards plays, 14 tackles-for-loss, and seven sacks but would have liked to see the defense close the game out sooner.

“We did a lot of really good things,” Patterson said. “I just would have liked to see us close it out a little bit earlier than what them having to go all the way to the wire.”

Now, the Red Raiders have ranked and undefeated opponent this Saturday with the No. 22 Baylor Bears in Waco (TX). Patterson talked about having to go up against another well-coached Big 12 team.

“I think it begins with the quarterback (Charlie Brewer),” Patterson said, “then the Mims kid (Denzel Mims) at wide receiver. He’s as talented as anything we’ve seen to this point. Big body, athletic, throwing him a lot of 50/50-balls, let him go up and get it. It’s almost the same-type game plan as what we’ve had the last three weeks. We got a quarterback that can make plays with his feet. We got to keep him contained, which I think we’re getting much better at that. I thought (Jordyn Brooks) did a really, really good job of adding in and even had a couple of opportunities to have 21 tackles and a couple more TFLs in that game on the quarterback alone. They’re like any other offense that you’re going to see every week in this league. They’re explosive, we just got to limit those explosive plays, run and pass.”

After dropping their Big 12 opener to a great Oklahoma team 55-16, Patterson as well as sophomore defensive lineman Nelson Mbanasor and junior cornerback Damarcus Fields all knew Oklahoma State was trying to take advantage of them from the get-go and the kickoff, that being receiving the ball and not deferring to the second half.

“They called us out,” Fields said, “and what we’d been practicing all week was just matching them and matching the intensity, so just doing what we can do best.”

“All week we’d been talking about, “Mbanasor said. “We lost respect throughout the nation, you know. When we played against Oklahoma, we didn’t show who we really were. We took that as an opportunity to show who we really were that first drive (against Oklahoma State) and throughout the whole game.”

Mbanasor said the confidence got rolling after Broderick Washington’s tackle-for-loss on the first drive and the trip-sack a few plays later to create the first takeaway of the game.

“That started it off,” Mbanasor said. “From there, it was just – you all saw it. We were having fun out there.”

Next up: the undefeated Baylor Bears. Mbanasor and Fields talked on what they know about the Bears and what it will take to down another ranked opponent.

“You know, they got Charlie Brewer,” Mbanasor said. “Dynamic quarterback, good receivers, running back is good. O-line is decent. It’ll be like any other week. We got to prepare well and execute our calls.”

Fields said he remembers last year’s Baylor game which resulted in a 35-24 win for the Bears in the final game played in the series at AT&T Stadium.

“It sticks (in my mind) in a lot,” Fields said. “We went through a lot of ups-and-downs that season, and we’re just not on that road no more and hope to see better.

They pass, they run. It’s the same thing, same Baylor. That’s what they do well, and that’s what they do good. That’s nothing different than we see in the Big 12.”

Three Red Raiders were recognized by the Big 12 as well for their performances on Saturday. Quarterback Jett Duffey was recognized as the Offensive Player of the Week, while redshirt freshman Trey Wolff received Special Teams Player of the Week honors, and linebacker Jordyn Brooks was named the Reese’s Senior Bowl Defensive Player of the Week.

On the injury side, offensive lineman Jack Anderson will miss the rest of the season due to upper body surgery and receiver Xavier White will also be out the rest of the year due to surgery on an upper body injury.