Texas Tech's Offensive Meltdown Exposes Bigger Problems For McGuire

For Texas Tech, a common occurrence throughout the first half of the season has been slow starts and overall inconsistency on offense. This sentiment couldn't have been clearer than in their performance against Cincinnati.

It started early in the first quarter, with quarterback Will Hammond running on a fourth-and-short situation and fumbling, giving the ball to the Bearcats at midfield. Cincinnati would convert that turnover into three points.

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For Tech, two more drives in the first would stall in Bearcat territory, bringing Stone Harrington on to kick two field goals to take a three-point lead by the end of the quarter.

This would be the last lead of the game for Texas Tech.

In the second quarter, Texas Tech had the ball three times, ending in two punts and an interception that turned into three Cincinnati touchdowns, outscoring the Red Raiders 21-0 in the frame to take a 24-6 lead.

The Red Raiders were unable to get anything going in the air during the first half, as the team went into the locker room with 74 passing yards total. There was little to be excited about looking at the ground attack, too, as the offensive line struggled to create gaps, leaving backs J'Koby Williams and Quinten Joyner with only minimal gains.

"That's what I think frustrates me more than anything for this game, I hate saying it self-inflicted wounds, but just not playing clean football and executing at a really high level," McGuire said.

Ok, Texas Tech is a second-half team; they have been all season. Regroup, refocus, and take care of business for the next 30 minutes.

Wishful thinking.

The Red Raider defense gave a spark in the form of two interceptions in the third quarter. One of which turned into a pick-six by Peyton Morgan. Unfortunately, on a two-point conversion right after, Kenny Johnson dropped the pass from Hammond in the middle of the end zone. No good.

The second interception turned into a missed field goal from 38 yards out. 

Following another Cincinnati touchdown, Texas Tech showed off their first instance of bad time management. 

With less than a minute left in the third, Will Hammond snapped the ball on second down and got sacked for the second time.

Instead of letting the offense talk about the next play, Tech had to start the fourth in a third-and-long situation.

As expected, Texas Tech would go three-and-out, punting the ball back to Cincinnati for the third time.

After a punt on the next possession by Cincinnati, Texas Tech put together seemingly their best drive of the game, getting down to the Cincinnati 15-yard line. The Red Raiders relied on the run game, including a 42-yard dash by Williams to the Bearcat 20-yard line.

From there, we saw the lack of discipline on full display, as head coach Joey McGuire was forced to burn two timeouts to prevent delay-of-game penalties down in the red zone.

"It's a mixture of everybody, and it starts with getting the call at the quarterback position, having the urgency to get the offensive line down, knowing that you've got motion, knowing when the play clock is, and everything like that," McGuire said regarding the two timeouts called in the fourth.

The icing on the cake was Texas Tech settling for a field goal on fourth down after two incompletions, and a tackle for loss for the Bearcats.

After another fumble and a garbage-time touchdown for Joyner, the game was over with Cincinnati shocking Texas Tech 37-24.

For the Red Raiders, this wasn't just another example of a slow start; this was a full-on shutdown, and listening to what McGuire had to say in the postgame press conference reinforced this.

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"This is 100 percent a setback as far as the execution goes," McGuire said.

The Red Raiders now look to Halloween weekend with a potential ranked matchup against the Arizona Wildcats