2021 Week 6: Red Raider Preview

[rcarlson77]

 

Match-up: #14 Baylor (4-1) at Texas Tech (0-4)

 

After falling to 0-4 on the season, the road won’t get any easier for Texas Tech. Saturday will mark another match-up against a Top 25 opponent, this time against the 14th ranked Baylor Bears and coach @Vivid. It will be the Red Raiders fourth game against a ranked opponent this season. If there’s one positive from a winless start, it’s that the Red Raiders have played a challenging schedule, and for the most part, have kept the games close. But at the end of the day Texas Tech remains a winless team, no matter how close the scores may be.

 

For the Baylor Bears, they find themselves on a three game win streak and with a 2-0 record in conference play. The pass happy Bears have to feel pretty good about their chances to improve their record to 3-0 in the Big 12.

 

What to watch for (TTU): Can Texas Tech slow down the aerial attack? For the second consecutive week, the Red Raider defense will be tasked with stopping an offense that looks to air it out. The defense was unable to rise to the occasion last week giving up 366 yards through the air along with four touchdown passes. On the bright side, they did force two interceptions. Texas Tech simply does not have the offensive weapons to get into a shootout, so if they want to come away with a victory, the defense will need to step up their game and limit the damage done by Evan Cooper.

 

What to watch for (Baylor): Can Evan Cooper continue his performance? During the Bears three game win streak, Cooper is averaging 357 yards per game and has thrown for 11 touchdowns. The strong armed quarterback has to be salivating knowing he is facing an opponent that just gave up 366 yards passing last week. Baylor likely does not need a 350+ yard effort to be victorious, but if that does happen, they’ll almost certainly have an easy victory.

 

What will happen: We didn’t have much faith in the Red Raiders ability to keep things close last week, but they ended up being more competitive than we had thought. That likely won’t be the case this time around. Baylor is one of the better teams in the conference and Texas Tech simply doesn’t have a team that can go toe-to-toe with the Bear offense. Look for Baylor to win this one easily.

 

Prediction: Baylor 35 Texas Tech 17

[Vivid]