Welp.

That was my reaction as I’m sure yours was something similar after Texas Tech escaped against ACU on Saturday after the Wildcats’ failed 2 point conversion attempt in overtime. If you were to tell me that the Red Raiders were going to give up 51 points at some point this season…I probably wouldn’t have objected at all. However if you would’ve told me it would be in week 1 against Abilene Christian, well, frankly, I wouldn’t have believed you. But, alas, here we are. A record of 1-0 to our name and 51 points allowed against an FCS opponent.

In this brief but succinct article, I’ll grade the Red Raider defense based on the three levels of defense. D-Line, Linebackers, DB’s. I’ll talk briefly about what stood out to me as I was sitting in the stadium, and then we will take a shot followed by a chaser and pray that this was the worst performance we’ll see all year.

Let’s start with the line. The D-Line struggled to find consistency and were constantly pushed around by a much superior opponent not only in terms of size, but in my opinion, ability and motivation. The Red Raider defense never got home to Maverick McIvor once, and that push starts with the big boys up front, and their push was negative folks. Not a good debut for this group. GRADE: D-

Linebackers: I will say that Jacob Rodriguez is still a baller. Ben Roberts made his presence felt because ACU stayed away from his side of the field all night. After those guys, the drop is steep. Rodriguez and Roberts kept you in this game at times but were forced to be all over the field to make plays. I’m sure they enjoyed the rest they got after the game was over because they didn’t get many plays off. GRADE: C-

DBs: Yikes. Getting carved up for over 500 yards by an FCS offense is not a positive and not having Bralyn Lux hurt you in this one, Mo Horn stepped up hugely in his absence as did CJ Baskerville, and folks if those two guys don’t play or have as big of performances, we would be talking about a loss with possibly 60+ points given up. Unfortunately for this level of defense even those two great performances can’t get this group out of the gutter. GRADE: F-

Overall this was about as bad of a performance as we could’ve imagined. The stop of the two point conversion to secure the win salvaged what little dignity was left in this one. Unfortunately if something does not change, we may be in store for an abysmal year on the defensive side of the ball, compared to the likes of the Kingsbury era.

OVERALL GRADE: F

Hopefully next week won’t be as disappointing.