Mustangs fall to the highly favored Raiders (Photo by John Shreiber, The Daily Campus)
It was known going in that Texas Tech would put points on the board, but the question was could SMU keep up? The answer was a resounding no.
The Mustangs opened up the game strong forcing the Red Raiders to punt and driving down the field for the first three points of the game on a 38-yard field goal by Thomas Morstead. The only problem was that the Mustangs weren’t able to score the rest of the game.
There were two main problems for the Mustang offense, penalties and third down efficiency. SMU was only 3 of 13 on third down conversions. “Obviously the biggest part of the game was third down conversions,” Coach Bennett stated, noting SMU’s inability to convert on offense or stop Tech on Defense, the Red Raiders were 10 of 17.
Penalties also plagued the Mustang offense. Bennett was “disappointed offensively when we would get something going we would have penalties.” Most notably was the Mustang’s third drive of the game when SMU got the ball to the Tech 48-yard line only down 14-3. Then were three consecutive illegal procedure penalties that moved the Mustangs back to their own 42-yard line and forced a SMU punt.
It was SMU’s defense that kept the Mustangs in the game. Forcing the potent Red Raider offense into multiple three and outs. But the Mustang offense had their share of short drives too. Bennett “wasn’t disappointed in our effort at all,” but he was “not pleased with only scoring three points.” The lack of offense is the most notable aspect of Saturday’s lost. But Bennett was not upset with the play of red-shirt freshman quarterback Justin Willis. “Justin had some savvy out there,” Bennett pointed out about Willis’s play but did state, “they were probably too conservative with him.” Citing long third downs where the play call was a run up the middle.
Texas Tech was ready for SMU’s biggest offensive threat, DeMyron Martin. “They loaded the box,” Bennett pointed out, “they always sent one more guy than we could block, they weren’t going to let DeMyron run the ball.” Martin was held to just 30 yards on 12 carries. While Martin couldn’t get anything going, but senior Johnnie Fitzgerald and red-shirt freshman James Mapps each got five carries each and gained almost 50-yards between the two of them. It was promising to see that the Mustangs were able to run the ball when Martin wasn’t in the game.
But why didn’t the Mustangs run play action or throw the ball more with Martin lined up in the backfield? Bennett pointed out that in retrospect “we should have went to our passing game,” so why didn’t they? Hopefully that was just a consequence of it being the first game of the season.
Coming out of halftime the Mustangs still had a chance. At that point SMU was only down 21 to 3, and had the ball to start off the third quarter. But the Mustangs came out flat and gave Tech the ball after only three plays.
The game was a tale of two Willis’s. There were points in the game when Willis looked like a fifth year senior hitting his receivers in route. Unfortunately it was more consistently apparent that Willis is just a freshman starting in his first collegiate game. Anytime Willis was under pressure it appeared as though his first instinct was to scramble. Willis’s most notable scramble was a 22-yard dash cutting back across the field on a third down that put the Mustangs in position for the only points of the game.
The most heartbreaking play of the game was a Willis fumble with the Mustangs on the Tech 10-yard line. The fumble led to the final touchdown by the Red Raiders, a possible 28-10 deficits was turned into a 35-3, a 14 point turnaround.
But there is always good news. This was only the first game of the season, and was the toughest opponent the Mustangs will play all year. On Saturday SMU heads to Denton to play a North Texas team that was humiliated by Texas. The jitters should be gone for many first time starters. Eight Mustangs started their first game in Lubbock, and it was the first collegiate action seen for quarterback Justin Willis, and kicker Thomas Morstead. The Mustangs look to rebound against the Mean Green of the University of North Texas on Saturday, Sept. 9, at 6 p.m.
Mustangs fall to the highly favored Raiders (Photo by John Shreiber, The Daily Campus)
