J'Koby Williams bolted 38 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter, and Coy Eakin caught a 32-yard scoring pass from Will Hammond in the fourth, giving the Texas Tech football team enough fuel to get past upset-minded Oregon State 35-24 on Saturday, Sept. 12, in Corvallis, Oregon.
Williams finished with 116 yards on 20 carries. His TD gave Tech (2-0) a 21-13 lead. After Oregon State rallied to lead 24-21 early in the fourth quarter, Eakin went up over 6-foot-4 defensive back Jaheim Patterson to snatch Hammond's throw with 6:31 left.
Backup quarterback Thomas Castellanos scored the game's first touchdown with a 7-yard run and delivered an insurance touchdown with an 8-yard pass to freshman tight end Matt Ludwig with 1:03 left.
Here is the rapid-reaction
report card on the Red Raiders:
Offense: C
Big-play touchdowns from J'Koby Williams and Coy Eakin helped the Red Raiders squeeze past a team they were favored to beat by more than three touchdowns. The offensive line has got to step it up, though.
Defense: D
The pass rush got pressure and hits on QB Braden Atkinson but sacked him only once. And Atkinson and freshman receiver Jesse Legree torched the secondary.
Special Teams: D
Kenny Johnson looks like a weapon on punt returns. Too bad a careless penalty wiped out one of his runbacks to the 11-yard line, and he muffed a fair catch.
Coaching: C
Tech's not committed a lot of penalties the first two weeks, but there have been some costly ones. Oregon State offensive coordinator Mitch Dahlen won a lot of Xs and Os compared to Shiel Wood and his counterpart, Mack Leftwich. The Red Raiders will gladly take the W, though.
Overall: C
Joey McGuire finally checked off the box for winning a non-conference road game, but not as easily as a team defending conference champion and CFP team should. A loss or losses are on the horizon if the Red Raiders don't get better in a hurry.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football report card: Win's a good thing, but not everything
