Proper evaluation requires context.
On its first nine third-down attempts, Texas Tech converted eight. After that, it was 1-7 for the rest of the game. K-State’s defense held the nation’s best offense to 1-7 on third down. That’s something, and it shouldn’t be discounted.
Yes, the defensive backfield looked ragged at times, but this is the best passing offense K-State will face this year. The adjustments the defense was able to make are encouraging and — if they can keep it up — should pay dividends throughout the rest of Big 12 play.
The offense is another story
Jesse Ertz was better, but this defense was considerably worse than last week.
“I wasn’t asked to do as much this week,” Jesse told me when I asked about difference from last week to this week.
Dalton Risner echoed that, saying things were simplified and ran much smoother for the offense. Charles Jones seemed happy with the improvement, but again, the competition wasn’t the same.
As Jon said in his recap, we really didn’t learn anything tonight that we didn’t already know. The third down stops late were encouraging, but we’ve seen this team do that this season. Next week, in Norman, we should learn a lot more about what this team can do.
Hopefully, it will be positive.