It's just one game.
Let's keep this in mind as we start to examine the Texas Tech football team's 33-10 win over Abilene Christian. By all accounts, the game was relatively boring, a workmanlike victory for the Red Raiders to knock the cobwebs off and start anew.
Each season is a snowflake, no two ever exactly alike. However, when some problems trickle over from one season to the next, with entirely new personnel between the individual units, it's fair to wonder what the deal is.
Texas Tech operated functionally on offense, putting together back-to-back methodical drives to open the game. Rushing touchdowns by Quinten Joyner (on his first official touch as a Red Raider) and J'Koby Williams made it seem destined for another tail-whooping of the Wildcats.
While the outcome was never in question, there were no offensive fireworks until Malcolm Simmons got by an ACU defender late in the fourth for a score. Offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich called a conservative game, mixing the run with the pass and moving the ball down the field, usually without much resistance from the ACU defense. It was the small plays that wound up garnering Tech 471 yards of total offense. Only a few deep throw attempts from Will Hammond, who was more than happy to check it down to Williams as often as possible with nothing open.
It's that pesky red zone, which plagued the Red Raiders all of last season, that became the problem again. After those two initial TDs, Tech made three more trips into the red zone, another just outside of the ACU 20, settling for Stone Harrington field goals each time.
Having a reliable kicker like Harrington is a luxury. Texas Tech knows that. Having to rely on him so frequently with the ball so close to the end zone is something the Red Raiders have known to be an issue. Many pointed to it being a Behren Morton problem last season, an inability to rifle it through tight windows. Hammond had the same issues. Play calls generated little to no traction in moving the ball any closer to the end zone.
It's just one game. This could be a blip on the radar or the wake-up call for Tech to right this issue immediately. Whichever it is, it was obvious the Red Raiders haven't turned the corner in this area just yet.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Perhaps Texas Tech football's red zone woes weren't a Behren Morton problem
