Texas Tech's Matt Wells addressed the media in his weekly press conference on Monday following the team's second straight loss. Wells recapped the 34-24 defeat to Iowa State and looked ahead to the next opponent on the schedule – Kansas.

"Just recapping the game, (Iowa State) started fast. Credit to them. They took advantage of some of our errors, but they also came out and made some plays. We did not match it on offense, which was the disappointing part on our end, especially the first three drives. First three drives get past the 50 and then I think we dropped a ball on third down. Get all the way out to right around the 50 and bog down and then go three-and-out with another drop on third down. So didn't have very many drops in the day, but we had two key drops on third down. And then you look up after three series and it's 20 to nothing. And so sometimes teams gotta do that when your defense starts slow, and we did start slow on defense. Haven't done that on defense in the last several weeks. But we did and we didn't match it. On offense, and you gotta be able to do that. On the flip side one of the things I mentioned to our players is you look at the Oklahoma State game two weeks ago, and we did that in terms of we played very well on defense until the offense could kind of catch up to it. And then we did and then we kind of took off. But we didn't match it on offense. And then I thought we settled down. It's 20 to nothing, we settle down on both sides and we actually played fairly good. And proud of the guys really for how they played two and a half, almost three-quarters after that.

Then you get to a point in the fourth quarter where we made the pick by Damarcus (Fields) and it's 11 minutes to go. It's 27-17. It's a two-possession ballgame. We get a first down, move it inside the red zone and then have to settle for a field goal and we missed a red zone field goal. And that had a chance to put it to a one-possession game right there, and we didn't do it and we didn't take advantage of it. So Iowa State is a good team. Credit to them. They're well coached, and they're tough. They don't make mistakes. They make you earn it and go the long, hard way and we didn't do that. So it's an area or a part of our game that we've gotta get better at. We want to become the team that actually does that, and so they're a good team, and credit to them paragraph moving onto Kansas this week, Kansas is coming off a really big-time phenomenal effort against Texas down there in Austin Saturday. You know, after watching, I watched all three phases of the ball against Texas last night, and just, again, phenomenal effort. Those kids played hard. They spilled their guts. I thought they really, really played their tail off and deserved to win. They emptied the tank as some guys say. Anyway, they're a talented team on offense. You know, they're led by the quarterback, (Carter) Stanley. Pooka (Williams) is extremely, ultra-talented running back, and when that guy gets into the second level he's got the ability to hit a home run every single time, as evidenced by his play a little bit Saturday night. But not just Saturday night. You've seen it throughout this year. I know one of our defensive guys said you saw it last year. But the guy can hit a home run.

Four (Andrew Parchment), two (Daylon Charlot), eight (Kwamie Lassiter II) and then (Stephon) Robinson five in the slot. That's four guys that are really talented. They got really good receivers. You look at them on defense, the nickel, No. 1 (Bryce Torneden), plays everywhere. He's a really aggressive, active football player. I like him a lot. Got a big D line, both outside backers, 9 (Najee Stevens-McKenzie) and 5 (Azur Kamara), long, athletic, really long arms. Very athletic. You gotta account for those guys. Lee is really active in the secondary.

So they're playing with a lot of confidence, and again, like I said, what a phenomenal effort they played with and coach (Les) Miles we have a lot of respect for. Some of those guys on that staff I've known for a while. I worked with the D coordinator at one stop. So a staff that I got a lot of respect for. And we certainly need to start regrouping, starting today getting ready for Kansas Jayhawks."

Wells was asked what the problem this team faces when it comes to slow starts. For example, Oklahoma had the Red Raider's number from the get go then the Red Raiders followed that with a dominating start against Oklahoma State. Baylor ultimately won the game but the Red Raiders showed more of fight throughout the entirety.

Then Iowa State comes to Lubbock and grabs its fourth consecutive win over Texas Tech behind a 20-0 run to start the game.

"I don't know," Wells said. "I have my thoughts that, you know, but it's all tied to first year, trying to build this foundation and making sure that it's exactly what we want in terms of Monday through Friday the investment and pouring out and the way you're accountable in every area of your life, off the field, school, the way you practice, your practice habits, your demeanor. Even the week we beat Oklahoma State it's still not where I want it to be and where we want it to be. But yet we still made plays, and so you can't look back and go, oh, yeah, we were really good that week Monday through Friday. It's been a work in progress and there's things that have gotten better, but it just takes more guys doing it. I think it takes quite a few guys. I always say 48. That's not a magic number, 45 guys to win a ballgame. We're not there yet.

When you play the programs that we've played the last two weeks, you know, really four weeks, five, I mean Arizona is having a really good year right now. Just it's going to the Big 12 the last four weeks you've got, Oklahoma State was Top-25 at the time when we played them. Baylor is Top-25. Oklahoma is Top-5. Iowa State today, as they should have been last week. You can't afford to miss some of the opportunities that we've missed. Flat start, really just one out of the last three. But had we played -- had we finished the drives on the first two drives and got to midfield and got past midfield, I don't know, plus 40, I think Saturday may have been different. It wasn't. Credit to Iowa State. They played really good. They're really good on defense and offense, and that's how you build a consistent program. And I want to get to that point where you're not gift wrapping teams' victories. You make people earn them, and we didn't earn those. I just wish we could have played better out of the gate on offense, just to give the defense time to regroup, catch up, dial back in, because that happens within a season. Good programs can do that, and we're not to that point yet."

The Texas Tech offense faced a tough Iowa State defense that shuts down the deep ball with fierce. Texas Tech was able to utilize the run game with satisfaction, Wells said, but getting behind quickly forced them to throw the ball a little more during the game.

A lot of those passes were off of bubble screens and the short passing game. QB Jett Duffey threw the ball 52 times against the Cyclones and completed 40 of those attempts. His final yard mark, though, was 239. Iowa State's QB Brock Purdy had 20 fewer attempts but posted a 378 mark on his 23 completions.

"Well, they gave it to us, they gave (the screens) to us. A lot of those were off of the run game, which we'd done earlier in the year. The last couple opponents have been taking that away from us. And Jett did a good job of getting it out there. A couple times we didn't block very good, a couple times he didn't throw it real good, and then there were a couple others that were schemed in as well, which made it probably look like it was a little bit more. But some of them were coming off the run game."

Wells was asked if it was frustrating that multiple things are going on that held back the effectiveness of those screen calls.

"That's coaching. I mean I could answer frustration on everything we have to coach. It's not just coaching. It's what we do every day. We wake up, and we come in here and we correct, we encourage. We demand. And so it's never just one thing. And just because you did it right the next week doesn't guarantee you the same results without coaching it to the nth degree right now in year one, again, the next week. And in that particular case there were times we threw it out there and we shouldn't have. There's times we didn't block it well. There's times we really didn't -- we weren't really on the right track. So it's a little bit of combination of all those, but not frustration. That's just coaching, you know, and I mean that sincerely. You just -- you know what you're dealing with every day, and even when it's good, you still try to coach it and make sure it stays that way. But there's no sense in getting frustrated because we're going to continue to do it and it's part of our offense. So that's what we are asked to do and so we wake up and we do it every single week and every single day, and we'll try to do it better even the stuff I think we did well Saturday I think we're going to try to get better at. That could be termed frustrating if you want because just because you did something good, I'd like to quit coaching that and move on, but it won't be that way. But I respect the question. But it's really not. I mean you're really not. You continue, you gotta coach all facets of it."

Iowa State rushed for 182 yards against Texas Tech. The Red Raiders gave up a 75-yard run on one play to Cyclone RB Breece Hall. Here's what Wells said was the issue in stopping Hall and the Cyclone rushing attack.

"Well, I think he's certainly a good running back. They got a good scheme. They got good O linemen. The receivers block real physical on the perimeter. There's times where we didn't get off blocks on the perimeter. We had some missed tackles. I don't think it was a -- I don't think there were a ton of missed tackles, but there were a few. Obviously he missed one on the 75-yard run. He missed one right at the point of attack and, deuces, gone, you know. And it's talented Breece, and he is talented. Pooka will do the same thing if we miss a tackle like that."

Blitz plays were called 25 percent of the time against Iowa State by Texas Tech defensive coordinator Keith Patterson, Wells said, which against Oklahoma State were called 10 percent of the time. The problem was the Red Raider defenders couldn't bring down Purdy – not even once.

"We blitzed in this game more than we did the Oklahoma State game. Nobody probably would ever have known that. We probably pressured six or seven-man 25 percent this last game. Oklahoma State, it was less than 10 percent. We played better effort, played better energy, got on the edges, got after the passer a whole lot better really the last two weeks. Just because of scheme, we always say we try not to use scheme as a crutch, scheme being six or seven-man pressure. So how do you get to the quarterback better? Some of it is probably scheme. We can't rely on that. We gotta rush. We gotta get on edges. We gotta rush better. We gotta rush more efficiently. Guys have to hit home when they do, and when we do free them up, because of scheme, you've gotta hit home. You gotta cover a little bit better in the back end. When you don't cover as well on the back end, the ball is out a whole lot quicker. Therefore you're not getting home. So it ties hand in hand. We weren't real sharp on the back end either."

Adrian Frye is dealing with a hand injury. He's expected to be questionable to probable the closer Saturday gets for kickoff in Kansas.

Wells said they expect to hear an update on QBs Alan Bowman and Maverick McIvor soon but still doesn't have a date.

When Bowman comes back, what's the competition going to be like between him and Duffey?

"That's a long time from now. I don't know," Wells said. "It's not fair for me to speculate on any of that because that's not today and it's not this week. So that's not fair. So I'm not going to comment on that."

- Working on scoring off of turnovers:

"Well, we only had one turnover this game, and had we shielded all blocks a little bit better, we may have scored, which is really what we're trying to do and the intent to do because we're trying to practice how to score after those interceptions. But we only had one this week. You know, the one thing that we did do well is we got two three-and-outs, and I think Iowa State was leading the country in -- help me. The less -- least amount of three-and-outs. Thanks. Least amount of three -- y'all know I struggle with my English grammar sometimes. I appreciate your all's patience with me and our program.Least amount of three-and-outs in the country and we got two. We turned them both into touchdowns. We played off both three-and-outs. So that's part of ball. That's an emotion that's feeding off each other on the sidelines. Certainly we want to try to take every turnover and turn it right into points, and we missed a red zone field goal, or that question doesn't come up. You know, we would have liked that to have been a touchdown and been only down a field goal there with right around ten, nine, ten minutes to go in the game and it's a one-possession ballgame. And you think you got two possessions and they got two and here we go. Everybody's got two possessions and let's go play ball. So, yeah, I mean that's the goal. That's what we want to do."

- Wells on Duffey's ability to scramble by choice and his progress and growth

"I don't think so because the opportunities that you're talking about right there is good examples, but those are just choices by him to throw the ball or to continue to run on a scramble. And he's certainly dangerous, I think, when he gets out and runs. He's got good escapability. I think he's got good athletic ability, and I do think he presents a problem for defense, are you going to spy a guy on him. If you do, you got one less in coverage, obviously. If you're in man coverage, it's one less rat in the hole, or however it be. But if you spy a guy for him, you know, it can help. If not, he's out there running around, and there he goes. But, you know, I'm trying to encourage him to get down and get out of bounds and not take direct hits. And for the most part he's been able to do that.

"I just think he's gotta take another step. Saturday there were some good stuff and there were some things that he did outside the framework of the offense, and you can't do that. And he knows that, and some of that I think Iowa State caused, so again, credit to them. But I think it's just daily mastering the new things, because there's going to be new things in every game plan. And it's week to week. It's not just -- you know, now there's a book on him. So now as a QB you got two and a half games, two games and three-quarters, whatever it is, on him this year, and so D coordinators start to see him, and he's gotta be able to practice and take it to another level and then go out and play again this Saturday and against a new scheme and a new D coordinator and all that kind of stuff. It's just normal stuff playing quarterback."

- On Les Miles

I think coach Miles brings credibility to that program. I mean, the job that he obviously did at Oklahoma State and did at LSU speaks for itself. He's had success everywhere he's been. And those kids played hard on Saturday. They really did. They went out and, man, they did. They emptied the tank and had every right to win and deserved to win."