Texas Tech Looks To End Four-Game Slide In Thanksgiving Night Matchup With Texas

Thanksgiving night in college football will put a pair of Big 12 teams on the field as the Texas Longhorns face the Texas Tech Red Raiders. After a blazing start to the season, the Red Raiders have now dropped four-straight games to fall out of contention in the conference. But they can try to end their season on a positive note in their regular season finale. The Longhorns meanwhile get this game, and then close the year out with Baylor. Coverage of this one can be seen beginning at 7:30 pm ET on Fox Sports 1.

It wasn’t long ago that Texas Tech was the talk of college football, beginning 7-0 to start the season behind a high-flying offensive attack. But it was no secret that the Red Raiders hadn’t hit their toughest stretch of the schedule. And when they did, they were not up to the challenge. They have played three ranked opponents over their last four games during the losing streak. The latest was a 63-34 loss to Baylor on November 16th. The team had this past Saturday off to regroup and try to send their season off with a victory before a bowl game.

Texas started in the complete opposite direction as the Red Raiders. The Longhorns lost two of their first three games, but then once the conference schedule came around they caught fire. That was until the worst home loss under Mac Brown took place. The 38-13 defeat to Oklahoma State has now ruined the chances of Texas winning the Big 12. It’s not completely out of the question, but the Longhorns needs to win out (Texas Tech & Baylor), and hope that the Cowboys lose to Oklahoma.

One thing that Texas will need to do in this one is slow down the pass attack of Texas Tech. The Red Raiders remain the No.1 passing team in the country. Despite the fact they have lost four in a row, Texas Tech is still scoring points. The problem is that they give up 30 a game, which is good for 83rd in the country.

The Longhorns know that limiting the pass will be the key, but that actually might be done by stopping the run first. The Red Raiders do not run the ball well, but Texas will want to make sure that they don’t get that going at all to open up any play action.