Texas Tech Report Card: DB

With the first loss of the season, EerSports goes a little more in-depth with our review and grade of each position. Now, the defensive backs.

Joseph was seemingly the only DB who came to play Saturday.

The Stats:

Karl Joseph has nine tackles and an interception. Nick Kwiatkoski had five stops. K.J. Dillon, Darwin Cook and Pat Miller all had four tackles. Brodrick Jenkins (three stops), Nana Kyeremeh (two) and Ricky Rumph (one) also made their way into the stat sheet.

The Breakdown:

The safeties rarely gave help over top. Aside from Karl Joseph, they were frequently missing tackles. Darwin Cook lined up in man coverage and got beat almost every time, including a touchdown.

The corners were frequently seven to ten yards off and backpedaling at the snap. Pat Miller actually had two breakups, but was yanked for poor coverage. His backups were no help, giving up two touchdowns. JEnkins had a nice play breaking up a screen pass but wasn't around in the second half, presumably due to injury, but could have been for poor play. Rumph, his replacement, was hit or miss.

The Evidence:

The game was already over, but West Virginia still had their starters in and Texas Tech certainly wasn't letting up. With 2nd and five from the seven yard line, both defensive backs on the right side were lined up in the end zone.

Quarterback Seth Doege, about to jump out of his cleats, he was so excited, called for a quick snap and threw the ball out to the wideout for a receiver screen.

2nd and 5 from the 7-yard line, both defensive backs lined up in the end zone.

In the picture attached, the ball has already been thrown and caught, with the wide receiver already turning upfield.... and the first defender is still five yards downfield.

Not surprisingly, the receiver was able to run into the corner of the end zone with relative ease.

The Grade:

F