After a great showing last Saturday, the ball is now rolling as the Red Raiders head into week two in a night-game showdown with the UTEP Miners.

Defensive coordinator Keith Patterson talked on grading his squad and things they needed to fix. Here is what he had to say.

“I’d probably say a ‘B,’” Patterson said. “We gave up too many explosive plays, for me. The two explosive passes, the one explosive run, we had a miscommunication and exposed a gap and gave up a big run that was disappointing.”

Coach Patterson then gave his scouting report on the visiting UTEP Miners.

“Very similar to Montana State, to be honest with you. It’s kind of interesting we go all spring to see 21 personnel and 12 personnel formations. It’s like playing back when I played, so that’s always fun. They’re more traditional-style football. They’re going to try to run the football, obviously, and then I think they’re going to try to, once they establish the run, they’re going to play-action shot. They like double moves, double cuts, try to throw the ball over your head. We just got to be sound and technique and trust our training.”

Defensively, Patterson also talked on the playing time of transfer Ja’Marcus Ingram in the Montana State game. Ingram was put in as a cornerback, which isn’t what he was used to playing. Patterson said he did not take any reps at corner in his time at Texas Tech but had “tremendous trust in Ja’Marcus.”

Sophomore spur-position player Adam Back got a lot of playing time over junior linebacker Evan Rambo, who was listed as the starter on the released depth chart last week. Beck had a good outing against Montana State with two total tackles.

“I think he had a solid game,” Patterson said on Beck. “Could’ve been off the charts. He left a lot of meat on the bone, blitz tracks and things like that. Just technique things, and he knew. He was disappointed in himself knowing, ‘Man I left a lot of things out there on the table.’ He’ll improve from it. We had a great video session this morning and got those things corrected, just motivated him to become a better player.

In addition, sophomore safety Adrian Frye talked on a new matchup this week versus UTEP and what needs to be corrected heading into this week’s night game at Jones AT&T Stadium.

“I know with the coaching staff being so hard on us,” Frye said, “they focus on little things and how the little things can make a big difference in the game, later on down the road. Us playing well as a whole, it kind of helps boost our confidence, but at the same time we do still critique hard because we want to be the best that we can be.”

As far as what needs to be corrected, this is what Frye had to say.

“Mentally, I feel like we need to stay focused longer, keep our mental focus there because, I mean, as the game went on, people started to get a little lazy and things like that. Just normal human nature. We just need to be able to stay intense throughout the entire game. The intensity from quarter one to quarter four shouldn’t change, and I just think that was the biggest thing, that and our mental fatigue.