LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – While the No. 4 Texas Tech Red Raiders (12-1) are now days away from their Orange Bowl showdown with the No. 5 Oregon Ducks (12-1) in the Orange Bowl, offensive players and staff are preparing for Oregon’s defense- one they say is similar to their very own.
“Oregon has an amazing D-line. I think their defense is really, really good and I think they’re very, very well coached, but with that being said, I think the coaches have done a great job preparing us for it and we go against the best D-line in the country every single day. So yeah, I think they’re very, very similar,” said offensive lineman Sheridan Wilson. “Again, they’re very high effort guys, very, very well coached, and their technique is really, really good.”
While the Ducks enter the game with twelve wins this year, their defense has allowed no more than two touchdowns in nine of those games. During their most recent game, a 51-34 playoff win over James Madison, Oregon was up 48-13 late in the third before resting their starters when the game was out of reach.
“They’re a really good defense at every level. I think probably the strength of their defense is their defensive line, especially the four starters that they roll out there are all really good players,” said offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich. “Defensive ends are a little bit bigger body, play with a high motor, can get after the passer, and then they’ve got two pretty elite defensive tackles, so that’ll be big for us is handling those guys up front, and then to complement that, I think they’re really athletic in the back end and at linebacker, so not really many weaknesses with their defense.”
While the Orange Bowl will be Tech’s first-ever College Football Playoff appearance, the Ducks come in with redemption arcs of their own- whether it’s seeking a semifinal rematch with No. 1 Indiana, the only team to have beaten them earlier in the regular season, or erasing the pain from last year after they entered the playoffs as the No.1 seed before the fell to the eventual champions from Ohio State 41-21 New Year’s Day in Pasadena.
Red Raider QB Behren Morton says he and his teammates will look for their own chances to exploit Oregon’s defense.
“I think they’re a really good football team. I think they’re really big up front, very physical. I think they’re really long in their back end,” he said. “I think their DBs can cover a lot of ground, but I see a lot of things that we can do offensively, just doing the simple things, not doing too much of getting outside our comfort zone, just playing our base football, playing our standard football. But man, they’re a good team, and I think that we can really attack them in certain areas of the game.”
One of the few areas of concern for Tech’s offense has been efficiency within the 20-yard-line. Their 29-7 victory over BYU on Nov. 8 was marked by five field goals. Afterwards, they had 11 successful red zone trips during their wins over UCF and West Viginia. The team also renamed that particular area the “No Stone Zone” as way to encourage them to aim for touchdowns- and not Stone Harrington field goals. During their 34-7 win over BYU in the Big 12 Championship earlier this month, red zone woes continued, and Harrington completed four field goals. Coach Leftwich says much of this is because of penalties.
“I think you look at the trips of the red zone where we haven’t scored, whether it be a negative play on first or second down or a penalty, that’s been kind of an issue for us is getting down there and having penalties. We’ve ended up in too many third and long situations and when you get in third and long down there and the space gets limited, that’s where you that’s where you run into some problems,” he said.
The Red Raiders and Ducks will kick off 11 a.m. CT on Thursday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. KCBD will be there will complete coverage.
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