The Graham Harrell to Michael Crabtree connection was alive and well for another week as Harrell threw for 338 yards and 5 touchdowns on 26 of 40 passing.
Crabtree finished the game with 8 catches for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns. The standout freshman now has 14 touchdowns on the season, which breaks the Texas Tech record for touchdown receptions, which was previously held by Jarrett Hicks and Joel Filani.
Crabtree’s 14 touchdowns also tied him for the NCAA record for receiving touchdowns by a freshman.
"He is definitely better than average," said Mike Leach. "I think one of the greatest catches I have ever seen was the one they negated, and that is about as good as you get."
Although the offense was impressive, Red Raider fans were really excited to see what the new Ruffin McNeill coached defense would do.
The defense only gave up 118 total yards to Northwestern State and held them to just 1 for 13 on 3rd down conversions.
"We got a start," said interim defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill. "Sunday we talked about starting at ground zero, and we wanted to take everything in stages both in practice and in the game. We wanted to establish our personality, building a team that would swarm to the football, play aggressive, and make and finish plays."
The defense looked more active than they have all season, with the front seven getting good pressure on Demon QB Germayne Edmond all night.
“They just had better players than we did and with their offensive attack, nobody’s slowed them down,” said Northwestern State head coach Scott Stoker. “The quarterback’s great and the wideouts played well.”
The cornerbacks played much closer to the line of scrimmage than in previous games, with most plays having at least 1 of the 2 corners playing bump coverage.
Also of note, is that true freshman Detron Lewis played for the first time this season and had 2 catches for 63 yards and 2 touchdowns.
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