DALLAS \u2014 The optimist\u2019s perspective of a four-month college football season and the playoffs that ensue suggest that the teams left alive to play for a championship have seen it all or done it all on the paths that led them there.<\/p>\n
The pessimist\u2019s perspective \u2014 or, save for maybe those who played the toughest schedules in the SEC or Big Ten, the realist\u2019s perspective \u2014 suggests that there are few ideal regular-season comparisons for the nation\u2019s elite teams that stand in the way of advancement.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not an unexpected or unfair phenomena, either, but it\u2019s the situation that Texas Tech will find itself in as it continues to prepare for one of the most important games in program history.<\/p>\n
Have the Red Raiders seen something like Oregon\u2019s hardened offensive line that\u2019s been among the nation\u2019s best? Maybe BYU or Utah, dependent on who you ask. What about their projected first-round pick at quarterback? That elicited a \u201cnot really\u201d from safety Cole Wisniewski and a heap of praise about how Dante Moore is \u201chis own character.\u201d How about the tight end group that\u2019s scored double-digit touchdowns this year? The best comparison that linebacker Ben Roberts could offer was Kansas State\u2019s unit \u201cfrom previous seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve played some good teams from an offensive skill standpoint,\u201d defensive coordinator Shiel Wood said Saturday afternoon. \u201cThese guys are as probably good as any team that we\u2019ve played against.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what happens when the talent and production evolves into a best-on-best with eight teams left alive in the College Football Playoff field. That\u2019s what the No. 4 Red Raiders (12-1) and the No. 5 Ducks (12-1) will heave against each other in Thursday\u2019s Orange Bowl at Miami\u2019s Hard Rock Stadium with a trip to the national semifinals on the line.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just a matter of which team\u2019s premier unit can create the most sizable advantage over the other. Because the Ducks, whose best win against Penn State might\u2019ve been closer to fools gold, may need to ask themselves the same questions of comparison when they prepare for Tech\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n
Tech\u2019s defense may inarguably be the single-best unit in the entire playoff field and has been responsible for the historic postseason run. Their 96.9 overall grade, per Pro Football Focus, is the nation\u2019s best. Their run defense, pass rush and coverage grades are, too. They allowed just 17 touchdowns total this season and only three to ranked teams. They held BYU scoreless for three-plus quarters in the Big 12 championship game after the Cougars threw the kitchen sink at them on their first and only touchdown drive.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll meet their offensive counterparts in Miami Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unlike anything the Red Raiders have seen yet.<\/p>\n
The Ducks might be the closest match to the Red Raiders in terms of high-level balance across the board of their offense. Their 93.0 offense grade, per PFF, is the third-best in the country. Their passing offense, rushing offense and pass block grades are either first or second. They steamrolled James Madison in the first round \u2014 which Roberts acknowledged created a slight challenge to learn from given the talent gap between the two \u2014 and will bring a decade-plus track record of explosivity and speed to the table against a defense that\u2019s undergone a significant face-lift in one year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re explosive, they can run the ball really well, they can throw the ball down the field very well, they\u2019ve got great personnel,\u201d Wood said. \u201cI think, schematically, their coaches do a great job of creating a lot of conflict for you in the run game and the passing game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Red Raiders bullied competition at the line of scrimmage this season, led the Big 12 in sacks and boast an All-American edge rusher in David Bailey who\u2019s in line to be among the first defenders drafted this spring. Wood said that Oregon\u2019s offensive line is \u201cvery similar\u201d to Utah\u2019s. Linebacker Romello Height compared it to BYU\u2019s. Those units stymied Tech\u2019s front seven better than anyone else this season. The Red Raiders totaled just four sacks in three games against Utah and BYU but averaged nearly four per game in their other nine contests.<\/p>\n
The Ducks have allowed 14 sacks all season thanks to an offensive line anchored by a tackle (Isaiah World) and guard (Emmanuel Pregnon) that are expected to be selected in next spring\u2019s NFL draft. Top-ranked Indiana was responsible for six of those sacks in Oregon\u2019s lone regular season loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we can do is go out and play good football and play good ball,\u201d Height said. \u201cMaybe we could get, you know, 6 sacks, 10 sacks. As long as we play good ball, then it could go either way.\u201d<\/p>\n
If it goes one way \u2014 like, say, if Moore is left untouched and given time to operate within the pocket \u2014 the gap between the two widens. Moore has a 25-to-6 touchdown to interception ratio when kept clean this season and his performance with or without a blitz in his face is relatively similar. He was pressured 16 times in Oregon\u2019s loss to the Hoosiers and completed only half of his passes under duress. Against James Madison, which was statistically the second-best defense that the Ducks played this season, Moore was kept clean 85.2% of the time and passed for 240 yards on only 23 drop backs.<\/p>\n
Tight end Kenyon Sadiq, another projected first-round pick, caught eight of Moore\u2019s touchdowns this season and will be the focal point of a linebacker room that includes All-American Jacob Rodriguez. The Ducks have five other receivers that have caught at least 25 passes this season, though, and could stand to improve between now and Thursday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Wide receiver Evan Stewart \u2014 who caught 48 passes for 613 yards and 5 touchdowns last year \u2014 has missed the entirety of this season with a torn patellar tendon but could be cleared to return for the quarterfinal game. Red Raiders cornerback Brice Pollack said that they\u2019ve been \u201cwatching a little tape\u201d on the former five-star recruit in the instance that he does suit up.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just another wrinkle for the Red Raiders to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n
Not that they\u2019d expect anything less this deep into the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to put them in [favorable] situations,\u201d assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Kenny Perry said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to put ourselves in the same thing. They\u2019ve got to prepare for us as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a92025 The Dallas Morning News. Visit dallasnews.com<\/a>. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/a><\/p>\n \n Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.\n <\/p>\n \n Error! There was an error processing your request.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 The optimist\u2019s perspective of a four-month college football season and the playoffs that ensue suggest that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[261,416,300,168,170,169,154],"class_list":["post-102901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-college-football","tag-college-sports","tag-football","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}