Assessing the Raiders' effort in blowout loss at UT | Texas Tech football report card
AUSTIN — No. 7 Texas routed Texas Tech 57-7 in a regular-season finale Friday night at Royal-Memorial Stadium, the last football game between the Longhorns and the Red Raiders for the foreseeable future with UT's pending departure for the Southeastern Conference.
Bert Auburn kicked five field goals for Texas (11-1, 8-1 in the Big 12), which will play in next week's Big 12 championship game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Keilan Robinson scored the game's first points on a 10-yard touchdown and returned the second-half kickoff for a 95-yard TD.
Tech (6-6, 5-4) suffered its worst loss since a 66-10 rout by Iowa State in November 2016. The Red Raiders will be hoping for a bowl invitation when those are extended on Dec. 3.
Tech quarterback Behren Morton narrowed the gap to 10-7 late in the first quarter with a 2-yard touchdown run, but the Longhorns intercepted Morton three times and held the Red Raiders to a season-low 198 yards total offense.
Tahj Brooks rushed for 95 yards, and Morton threw for 88.
Here is the Red Raiders' report card.
Offense: F
Red Raiders looked physically overmatched. No team had held Tech under 300 yards this season, but the passing game was nonexistent, and what holes Tahj Brooks had, he mostly made for himself.
Defense: F
Texas kicked five goals and did have to use the punter twice, so there were a few stops. But opponent rushing eclipsed 200 yards for the third game in a row and fourth time in the past six.
Special teams: F
Texas dealt Austin McNamara his first blocked punt since 2020, and Keilan Robinson returned the second-half kickoff for a touchdown. A 55-yard runback by Drae McCray couldn't make up for that.
Coaching: F
Zach Kittley couldn't come up with much of anything the offense could rely on, evidenced by a stretch in which the Red Raiders failed to get more than 20 yards on eight series in nine possessions. Tim DeRuyter's defense topped the previous season-high points yield from a 38-30 loss to Oregon.
Overall: F
The Red Raiders walked into a hornets' nest: It was a senior night, Texas' last regular-season game as Big 12 members and the Longhorns' seeking payback after their loss last year in Lubbock. They overwhelmed the Red Raiders, who gave their lousiest performance of the season, especially given the setting.
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This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Analyzing the effort in a blowout loss | Texas Tech football report card
