By Wendell Barnhouse | wendell@big12sports.com
Big 12 Sports.com Correspondent
AUSTIN, Texas - Some numbers are important, others are insignificant.
Texas Tech junior quarterback Taylor Potts, in his first road game and third start of his career, completed 46 of 62 passes for 420 yards and three touchdowns. Those numbers are impressive.
Texas' defense sacked Potts three times and intercepted him once. And beyond the three sacks, the Longhorns' defense often forced Potts to throw off his back foot and out of rhythm.
The defensive numbers turned out to be more significant. Second-ranked Texas played with a game-long fury that was enough to beat the Red Raiders, 34-24, Saturday night before a Royal/Memorial Stadium record crowd of 101,297.
Unlike last year's memorable game in Lubbock - memorable for Texas Tech, forgettable for Texas - there was little drama in the 2009 version. Other than a field goal on their opening possession, the Red Raiders trailed the entire game. While it wasn't a matter-of-fact victory for the Longhorns, it was a game that Texas Tech never threatened to win.
The predicted offensive shootout didn't happen until the second half. Texas led 10-3 at intermission and the second 30 minutes turned into a point-trading affair. The difference was the third and final sack by the Texas defense.
After trading interceptions, Texas Tech took over at its 19 trailing 24-17. On a second-and-12, the Longhorns' Sergio Kindle came flying in from the left side. He separated Potts from the football and his helmet. Sam Acho recovered the fumble and Texas eventually scored to take a 31-17 lead.
"In the first half, I was using more of a bull rush to see what kind of rush I could use to get to the quarterback," said Kindle, who had been sackless in UT's first two games. "In the second half, I went more with the speed rush. I timed up the snap well and the quarterback was there for the taking."
Texas Tech committed 14 penalties for 108 yards and that negated Potts' performance.
"We'd get on a roll offensively and then get a penalty and go right back where we started," Potts said. "We tried to beat Texas and ourselves in the first half. In the second half, we just tried to beat Texas."
The Red Raiders also finished with minus six yards rushing. That's the third time in the last six meetings with the Longhorns that Texas Tech has finished in the negative in rushing yardage.
"I thought our defense hung in there until our offense got going," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "Give credit to Taylor Potts. He had some unbelievable passes."
Not only did Texas win its Big 12 Conference opener and gain some payback for last season's last-second loss in Lubbock, the Longhorns appeared to have found two solid contributors to its offensive scheme.
Sophomore Dan Buckner, who is the closest thing Texas has to a tight end, had six receptions for 75 yards and a touchdown. He also had a 25-yard reception that set up another Texas touchdown.
"Buckner is doing a heckuva job," Texas offensive coordinator Greg Davis said. "He's a tough matchup against linebackers and he's playing with more confidence each week."
Texas faced a third down at Texas Tech's 3-yard line. Leading 24-17, the Longhorns needed a touchdown, not a field goal. Quarterback Colt McCoy convinced Davis to run a play where Buckner would try to get open along the back of the end zone. Buckner did and McCoy delivered the pass that put the Longhorns up 31-17.
"That shows the kind of confidence Colt has in Dan," Brown said.
Sophomore Tre' Newton had career highs of 20 carries and 88 yards rushing. His 19-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter gave the Longhorns a 17-3 lead and put Texas Tech into comeback mode for the entire second half.
"Tre' has good patience and good vision," Davis said. "I didn't realize he had 20 carries."
McCoy, the senior quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate, will turn a deaf ear to any talk that his statistics are sub-par.
The only touchdown of the first half came on Jordan Shipley's 46-yard punt return. He kept running about 20 yards past the end zone and into the area where Bevo, the 2,000-pound Texas mascot was in repose. As Shipley ran by, Bevo jumped up.
"Bevo surprised me. I looked up and there he was," Shipley said. "I'm going to try to avoid Bevo from now on."
Brown said this week that he thought McCoy was playing "tight" and wasn't having fun. He saw a different quarterback in the second half.
"He was laughing, having fun," Brown said. "We'd score, then Texas Tech would score and he'd say, 'OK, here we go.'"
McCoy was 24-of-34 for 205 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. No doubt the national experts and talking heads will downgrade McCoy's Heisman Trophy chances - at least for this week. All McCoy is interested in is the final score and the fact that Texas is 3-0.
"We're winning," he said with a shrug of his shoulder pads.