THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TEXAS TECH 41
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2012
PAGE 13
HOTO as
REWIND
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas' Tony Pierson tries to work past Texas Tech's Cody Davis during Saturday's game in Lubbock, Texas. Pierson rushed for 206 yards
Kansas falls to Texas Tech in double overtime
FARZIN VOUSOUGHIAN
fvousougian@kansan.com
After a season full of woes and mishaps in the second half of Big 12 road contests, Kansas traveled to Texas Tech and ended the game in double overtime, giving the Red Raiders a 41-34 win.
Unlike the first three Big 12 games on the road, the Jayhawks prevented a blowout. However, the defense gave up 41 points for the second-straight week.
The Jayhawk defensive backs had their hands full while trying to defend Texas Tech wide receivers Eric Ward and Darrin Moore. Even though cornerbacks Greg Brown, Tyler Patmon and JaCorey Shepherd needed a lot of safety help from Bradley McDougall and Lubbock Smith, the Jayhawks still struggled to keep up with the Red Raiders receiving corps.
"They do a great job of spreading the ball out," McDougald said. "There's no real dominant receiver they have and that's the beauty of their offense. They use the whole field and run a lot of
underneath routes to bring the safeties down and it leaves the receivers on the outside much more space to make plays."
Ward caught 11 passes for a career-high of 156 yards while Moore's gameday included seven catches for 66 yards and a touchdown in overtime, which helped seal the win by a perfectly executed trick play in double overtime. The two receivers alone had more catches than the entire Kansas roster.
Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege had a field day as he completed 42 of 54 passes for 436 yards and three touchdown passes. Doege got off to a quick start when all three of his touchdown passes came in the first half. Even though Doege didn't score in the second half, he moved the ball well against the Jayhawks defense with the help of his receivers.
Kansas had a hard time defending Doege's passes, and at times, didn't expect them. Patmon perfectly covered Texas Tech wide receiver Tyson Williams in the back of the end zone early in the
second quarter. However, with his back to the Doege, Patmon wasn't aware of the pass, which allowed Williams to make a play in the end zone to take a 14-7 lead.
Doege's fast start looked like it would translate into big numbers, but Kansas defensively gained momentum. When the offense returned to the field, it came up with scores of its own.
One of the biggest plays for the defense was McDougald's interception on the drive after Doege's third touchdown throw.
"We just settled in." McDougald said. "The beginning of the game is usually the toughest time. Coach Weis always talks about stop the bleeding. I just dropped back and put myself in a position to catch the ball."
McDougald's swipe in the second quarter was the only turnover of the entire game. Kansas went on a 10-0 run to end the first half as Texas Tech went three-and-on on its only position after the giveaway.
But Doege still managed to move the ball and put the Red
Raiders in position to pull off a win, even though it took two overtime periods. The Kansas defense appeared to be worn out near the end of the game with keeping up with Doege and when nearly the entire defense bit on the trick play, which created an easy pass from Eric Stephens to a wide open Moore in the second overtime period.
Despite another loss for Kansas and its 19th consecutive conference loss, Weis saw one of the best games he's seen from his players. While players are usually given 24 hours to forget about a loss, he wanted all of the players, including the defensive backs, to move on and get ready to play Iowa State for the final home game of the season.
"At the end of the day, our team played like a legitimate team and tried to gut it out through a complete four quarters," Weis said.
Edited by Christy Khamphilay
OFFENSE
The Jayhawks' offense is as one-dimensional as can be — but it works. Kansas ran the ball 57 times for 390 yards and two touchdowns while only attempting 15 passes and completing six of them. For what it's worth, Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege had as many receiving yards as Kansas did passing.
Grade: B
DEFENSE
Kansas wasn't the only one-dimensional team on the field. Texas Tech attempted 61 passes on 22 rushes, earning 501 of its 571 yards through the air. It wasn't the best day for the Jayhawks' secondary team, but they it Kansas a chance to win. Grade: B
Grade: B-
SPECIAL TEAMS
Grade: B+
From not being able to send a field goal kicker onto the field to splitting the uprights to tie the game, not too shabby. Still plenty of work to be done on this unit, but Ron Doherty averaged 37 yards per punt, and Nick Prolago notched two field goals. Dare I say improvement?
COACHING
Not bad play calling on offense — although there isn't much to choose from — but the defense looked like it was waiting for the TTU receivers to make a catch before it did anything about it. Three Tech wide outs gained more than 50 yards while five made plays of 20 yards or longer.
SCHEDULE
*All games in bold are at home
Grade: C+
DATE OPPONENT RESULT/TIME
SEPT. 1 SOUTH DAKOTA STATE W, 31-17
SEPT. 8 RICE L, 25-24
SEPT. 15 TCU L, 20-6
SEPT. 22 NORTHERN ILLINOIS L, 30-23
OCT. 6 KANSAS STATE L, 56-16
OCT. 13 OKLAHOMA STATE L, 20-14
OCT. 20 OKLAHOMA L, 52-7
OCT. 27 TEXAS L, 21-14
NOV. 3 BAYLOR L, 41-14
NOV. 10 TEXAS TECH L, 41-34 (20T)
NOV. 17 IOWA STATE TBA
DEC. 1 WEST VIRGINIA TBA
QUOTE OF THE GAME
"We knew they were going to come in and play hard. But losing this game would have been a big deal."
-Kerry Hyder, Texas Tech defensive end
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas' Michael Cummings (14) pitches the ball to Tony Pierson during the game against Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas last Saturday.
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