Before last week's... debacle in Las Cruces, I actually texted Ben that it was nice to write the Three Keys post when I had some hope about the team's chances. Like a lot of fans, I saw what Tech put on the field against MTSU and thought, "Now that's a Tech team that can win some games!"

And, like many of you, I thought maybe, just maybe, one of the games they'd win would be against lowly New Mexico State.

But I was wrong. And we were wrong. We are who we thought we were. The MTSU game just let us off the hook.

Now we're heading into another Tuesday night game where I don't really know what to expect. On one sideline will be a horrible team who has one FBS win on the season. On the other? UTEP.

That's harsh! And I'm joking.... mostly.

1) Get off the field

When the Miners have the ball, they really struggle to put together sustained drives. They really, really struggle on passing downs, with a success rate of just 27%, and a third down conversion percentage of 34% (112th).

In last week's game, Tech played another dismal third down team but allowed the Aggies to convert on 8 of their 15 attempts.

This week, our defense needs to take advantage of the Miners' ineptitudes and get off the field.

2) Penalties, penalties, penalties.

Listen. Tech isn't the most penalized team in the nation. In fact we rank 51st in penalties per game and 53rd in penalty yardage. But if you watch the games, you'll see that there's a huge problem.

Tech's lack of discipline has cost this team dearly on both sides of the ball. To illustrate the point, let's look at the FIU game. As a reminder, we lost 17-10. BOTH of the Panthers' TD drives were aided by penalties, and we also lost a pick six that was called back due to a roughing the passer.

Against the Aggies last week during regulation, NMSU scored 10 points on drives where Tech gave up penalties (and stupid ones, at that - offsides on a kickoff/personal foul for remaining in the play with your helmet off, then later targeting). Now, NMSU scored 14 points on drives with no Tech penalties... but 24-14 is a W for the Dogs.

It is BEYOND time for us to clean up these momentum killing, game stealing penalties.

3) Recapture the magic

Frankly I don't know what happened last week. All of the magic of Nathan Young's inaugural play calling was gone. Evan Bullock looked lost, the OL couldn't block against what had been a terrible front seven... it just wasn't an ideal performance.

The previous Thursday, a totally different Tech team showed up to play at the Joe. Whatever caused the lackluster performance on Tuesday, forget it, move on from it, and get back to the brand of football we've been sorely missing for so long.

Other than that, I don't know what to say. Just beat a bad team, please.

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Evan is also a part of go tech pls dont die, a zany LA Tech sports blog, Twitter, and podcast. Check us out!