157 LOUISIANA TECH at 158 TEXAS TECH
Take: LOUISIANA TECH +11
Louisiana Tech is catching doubles from a Texas Tech team that can’t defense anything. That’s the condensed version of why the Bulldogs should have an excellent chance to be in this game all the way.
Here’s some additional thought on this game and it mostly centers on Texas Tech. Yes, the Red Raiders have a very explosive offense and it will be a tremendous challenge for Louisiana Tech to contain that attack. But I have to question the philosophy being utilized by the Red Raiders. It’s great to race up and down the field at a breakneck pace and score lots of points. But when a defense is this bad, maybe it’s not such a great idea to force them to log so many minutes. In other words, my thought is that perhaps head coach Kliff Kingsbury should consider going a little slower on offense so that his substandard defense isn’t on the field for 37 minutes as they were last week.
This is one of the problems I have with some teams that insist on trying to play at warp speed. If the defense is unable to contain the opposition, I actually think that this style ends up being somewhat counterproductive.
Louisiana Tech is not going to show up in Lubbock in awe of facing this Big 12 opponent. The Bulldogs just missed upsetting Arkansas on the road, and a win here would be huge for Skip Holtz as he preps his team for a run at the CUSA title. I don’t see this team being the favorite to win its division, but the regular season finale at Southern Mississippi has a good chance to be very meaningful as far as the division crown is concerned.
I made the number on this game Texas Tech -9, so there appears to be a little value on the underdog side. As it happens, I’ve already got a very deep Saturday college card, so I had to cut it off at some point. But I will be watching this game for a potential halftime wager. If Louisiana Tech focuses on running the football and trying to sap a weak Texas Tech run defense, I think there’s a real chance they could be the stronger team down the stretch. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the Holtz game plan, and if he decides to go pass-heavy, it could work against his team’s chances. Louisiana Tech plus the points is nevertheless the free opinion, and I’ll return tomorrow with a personal service NFL play for Sunday.