Ben Roberts ignited the ninth-ranked Texas Tech football team with the Red Raiders' fourth interception-return touchdown in three games, and J'Koby Williams and Kenny Johnson put up career highs in a 53-25 victory on Saturday, Oct. 17, at Galaxy Stadium.
Williams' fumble at the Arizona State 2-yard line snuffed out a promising first series of the game, but Roberts delivered his pick-six with a 24-yard return three plays later and the Red Raiders rolled to a 43-10 halftime lead. Austin Romaine had two pick-sixes against Sam Houston and John Curry had one two weeks ago at Colorado.
Williams atoned for his early mistake with 165 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries. His previous high was 135 yards last year at Kansas State. Johnson caught 7 passes
for 120 yards, the latter breaking the Pittsburgh transfer's career high of 115 yards last year against Boston College.
After the Williams fumble, the Tech offense scored four touchdowns and three field goals on its last seven possessions of the half. Williams scored on runs of 62 and 38 yards.
Will Hammond's 9-yard TD on a designed run made it 14-0 less than five minutes into the game. Hammond threw for 232 yards and an 11-yard TD to Coy Eakin with 31 seconds left in the half.
Stone Harrington kicked field goals of 31, 42, 37 and 34 yards. Curry's interception 16 seconds before halftime set up the third one.
Tech is 6-0, 3-0 in the Big 12. Arizona State is 3-3, 1-2.
Here is the rapid-reaction report card.
Offense: A
Running back 1A Cameron Dickey's down for a while, so running back 1B J'Koby Williams did what you want in that scenario. Will Hammond and passing game clicked, too.
Defense: A
The unit checked a lot of boxes with an interception-return TD, six sacks and holding the Sun Devils to 5 for 14 on third down.
Special Teams: A
Stone Harrington made at least four field goals in a game for the fourth time in his career (career high: five last year against BYU). Other positives included Will Karoll's 65-yard punt downed at the 1 and Kenny Johnson's 23-yard punt return.
Coaching: A
The Red Raiders had a week off game-wise last week. The staff obviously put the free time to good use as the Red Raiders looked sharp in all facets.
Overall: A
A battle between the past two Big 12 champions turned out to be no showdown at all. The Red Raiders, two-touchdown favorites, put together their best all-around performance of the season.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football gets a report card to take home to mom | Post-ASU grades
