The Mississippi State offense was all the hype headed into the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, but it was Texas Tech that stole the show in a, 34-7, drumming of the Mike Leach led Bulldogs. The Red Raiders saved their best all-around performance of the season to help secure the program’s first bowl win since 2013. Mississippi State allowed 34 points only three times this season, and the 7 points given up by Texas Tech was their lowest total allowed since holding UTEP to only a field goal back on Sept. 7, 2019. Here are a few stats that show just how dominate the Red Raiders were against MSU.

· Explosive plays are defined by runs of at least 12 yards or more and passes of at least 16 yards or more. The Red Raiders had 113 explosive plays on the season for 20 touchdowns and added another 10 explosive plays (5 running and 5 passing) in the Liberty Bowl for 270 yards and a touchdown. The Bulldogs had 6 explosive plays (5 passing and 1 rushing) for 128 yards and one touchdown.

· Texas Tech crossed midfield eight times in the contest and were able to score points on six of the drives (4TDs and 2 FGs).

· MSU crossed midfield seven times but only scored once for their lone touchdown of the game. The other six drives into Red Raiders territory ended at the TTU 48, 42, 40, 46, 36, and 30-yardline.

· Texas Tech had zero turnovers against the Bulldogs. That was the first zero turnover game for the offense this season.

· Mississippi State turned the ball over three times against the Red Raiders. Texas Tech had zero takeaways in three of their previous four games (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor).

· The Red Raiders outgained the Bulldogs in every quarter but the fourth. Texas Tech outgained MSU, 169-82, in the first quarter and, 83-43, in the second. The Red Raiders had a, 172-67, yards advantage in the third quarter, but with Texas Tech possessing a sizeable lead and coasting in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs would outgain Tech, 149-88.

· The Red Raiders had a, 424-195, advantage in total yards and led, 27-7, after three quarters. Mississippi State’s 149 yards in the final quarter made up 43 percent of their total offense for the game, but they still couldn’t convert the extra yardage into a fourth quarter score.

· J.J. Sparkman’s 14-yard touchdown catch to go up, 27-7, in the Liberty Bowl was his first third-down reception of the year.

· Donovan Smith was able to put together a streak of six consecutive passes completed during the third and fourth quarter.

· Will Rogers had two different streaks of five completed passes in a row against the Red Raiders.

· Mississippi State’s longest pass completion was 28 yards from Rogers to Austin Williams.

· Texas Tech’s longest pass completion was 52 yards from Smith to Jerand Bradley. Smith also had completions of 48 yards to Myles Price and 39 yards to Travis Koontz.

· The Red Raiders finished with 512 yards against the Bulldogs and had five games of over 500 yards or more this season. They had only three games with 500 yards or more in 2020 and four games in 2019. Under Kliff Kingsbury in 2018, Texas Tech had five games where they passed the 500-yard mark. They went over 500 yards in eight games in 2016 and 10 games in 2015 with Patrick Mahomes at quarterback.

· The Red Raider offense ran 72 plays in the Liberty Bowl. The only two games this season where they ran more offensive plays was against TCU (78) and FIU (74).

· Texas Tech was 6-for-6 in the redzone, tying their best performance of the year. The Red Raiders were also 6-for-6 in the redzone against Florida International and Kansas. Texas Tech was 1-for-1 in the redzone in their previous two games headed into the Liberty Bowl. The Red Raiders scored the only time they reached the redzone against Baylor, and they failed to get into the redzone against Oklahoma State.

· The Bulldogs were 1-of-2 in the redzone, which was the fewest amount of redzone conversions Keith Patterson’s defense allowed this season. Houston and Kansas were both 2-of-2. The one score allowed also tied the mark for fewest redzone conversions given up during his tenure as defensive coordinator for Texas Tech. Houston Baptist was 1-of-3 in the redzone in 2020, and Montana State and UTEP were both 1-of-1 back in 2019.

· The Texas Tech offense had 18 pass plays of 40 yards or more with 5 touchdowns this season. The defense allowed 11 pass plays of 40 yards or more with 6 touchdowns.

· The Red Raiders had 147 total possessions on the year with 63 scores (48 touchdowns and 15 field goals) and finished with a scoring rate of 43 percent.

· Over the past five games, Donovan Smith was 18-of-32 for 273 yards passing on third downs. He converted 12 first downs and had 2 touchdown passes with one interception and was sacked three times.

· Texas Tech’s leading receivers on third down this year were Erik Ezukanma and Travis Koontz. They both had 8 receptions and 2 touchdowns apiece on third down attempts.

· The Red Raider offense had 41 penalties on the season with 17 false starts and 12 holding calls. The defense was penalized 21 times with six pass interference penalties and six defensive holding calls.

· Ezukanma led the way for the Red Raider receiving corps with 79 targets in the passing game. Kaylon Geiger was second on the team with 70 targets, and Myles Price added another 52 targets for the offense. Koontz was fourth with 27 targets (he caught 21 of them), and Dalton Rigdon added another 23 targets.

· Koontz exploded over the final two contests against Baylor and Mississippi State. He had 7 catches on 7 targets for 158 yards and a touchdown. Koontz had receptions of 75 and 39 yards in the two games.

· The Red Raiders had one offensive play of at least 50 yards or more in eight of the 13 games this season.