{"id":107933,"date":"2026-01-01T23:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/107933\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T23:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:31:07","slug":"even-in-loss-to-oregon-texas-techs-defense-proved-it-was-championship-worthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/107933\/","title":{"rendered":"Even in loss to Oregon, Texas Tech\u2019s defense proved it was championship worthy"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. \u2014 Even in a gregarious 10-gallon hat, with a perfectly sculpted mustache that was plastered across the internet as part of a national award campaign<\/a>, it\u2019s still possible to say the quiet part out loud. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know we had a few drives start on our side of the 50 [yard line],\u201d linebacker Jacob Rodriguez<\/a> said in the immediate aftermath of a historic Texas Tech<\/a> season Thursday afternoon. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to play defense like that.\u201d <\/p>\n

His comment shouldn\u2019t be interpreted as a postgame shot at an overwhelmed Red Raiders offense<\/a> and, everything considered, his vaunted defense\u2019s performance hardly resembled a unit that flinched at the challenges. <\/p>\n

The truth of the matter, to borrow the All-American linebacker\u2019s phrase, is that it\u2019s hard compete in the College Football Playoff with only a defense like that. <\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s all the Red Raiders (12-2) had Thursday, in a 23-0 loss to Oregon in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium<\/a>, when their defense proved that it was good enough to compete for a national championship and their offense resembled a group that didn\u2019t belong. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of respect for Texas Tech\u2019s defense,\u201d Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said. \u201cThey don\u2019t play the way they played this year and not be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t say the same about Tech\u2019s offense, but, given how the Red Raiders throttled opponents in the regular season, it could\u2019ve conceivably fit. Their offense, which averaged 42.5 points per game in the regular season and totaled the second-most plays of 20 or more yards nationally, was at the very least an effective companion for a steely defense. They scored at least 23, points, which would\u2019ve matched the Ducks (13-1), in every other game that they played this season. <\/p>\n

Their defense never allowed more than that, and through three-plus quarters Thursday afternoon, was on track to keep that pattern. The Red Raiders \u2014 even though they totaled negative yardage in the first quarter and weren\u2019t any particular closer to a touchdown at halftime \u2014 were within at least two scores of Oregon until the fourth quarter. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just felt like, in this moment, it was going to be about chipping away and eventually it was going to break,\u201d Lanning said. \u201cIt kind of broke open with us creating some extra opportunities there with takeaways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Nearly half of Oregon\u2019s drive started in Tech territory and half of those were created by way of turnovers. Oregon scored its first touchdown after edge rusher Matayo Uiagalelei stuffed a Morton pass attempt, recovered it at Tech\u2019s 6-yard line and set up a Jordan Davison scoring run one play later with 11:20 left in the third quarter. The Ducks scored their second touchdown with less than a minute left in the game after the Red Raiders turned the ball over on downs at their own 36-yard line. Two of their three field goals were kickstarted by turnovers. <\/p>\n

The rest suggested that Tech\u2019s defense \u2014 which, per Pro Football Focus, was the nation\u2019s highest-graded unit this season \u2014 was as good of a unit as the advanced statistics said it was despite the lack of a high-level resume that other playoff competitors might\u2019ve boasted. <\/p>\n

The Red Raiders held a high-powered Ducks offense to just 1.4 yards per carry. Their star-studded defensive line had a clear advantage against Oregon\u2019s good-to-great offensive line, totaling 10 tackles for loss, 2 sacks and 1 forced fumble and was largely responsible for the touchdown-less first half. They held an Oregon offense that averaged nearly 40 points per game in the regular season to just two first-half field goals. They stopped the Ducks on four different fourth-down attempts. Oregon quarterback Dante Moore, a projected first-round pick in this spring\u2019s NFL draft, didn\u2019t account for a touchdown for only the second time this season. <\/p>\n

Tech head coach Joey McGuire was asked postgame how he\u2019d respond if, this morning, he\u2019d been told that Moore wouldn\u2019t throw a touchdown pass. <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d McGuire said. \u201cIf you would\u2019ve woke up this morning and you would\u2019ve told me it\u2019d be 6-0 at halftime, then I would\u2019ve taken that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The implied victory in that scenario, of course, is that the Red Raiders would\u2019ve gone on to score a touchdown or two in the second half. Instead they went three-and-out on their first third quarter drive, fumbled the ball away on their second, turned it over on downs on their third and ended their fourth with an interception in the corner of the end zone. <\/p>\n

Morton targeted wide receiver Coy Eakin on a fade route. The ball was lofted into the far left corner where Oregon cornerback Brandon Finney Jr. read the route perfectly and pulled down his second interception. The Ducks then marched halfway down the field, kicked a 43-yard field goal and took a 16-point lead with 7:53 left to play. <\/p>\n

The defense could only do so much to compensate for that.<\/p>\n

Even if it might\u2019ve been good enough to. <\/p>\n

Behren Morton emotional as Texas Tech tenure comes to an end: \u2018I love this university\u2019<\/a>Texas Tech TE Terrance Carter Jr. pledges return for 2026 season after loss to Oregon<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Texas Tech coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. \u2014 Even in a gregarious 10-gallon hat, with a perfectly sculpted mustache that was plastered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3688,154,27,29,28,415],"class_list":{"0":"post-107933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-colleges","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-news","13":"tag-texas-tech-red-raiders"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107933","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=107933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}