GAME NOTES: The 21st-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders have been on a roll of late, and now they'll turn their attention to the Texas A&M Aggies for a Big 12 Conference clash at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock.

Texas Tech has reeled off three straight wins, including a thorough 31-10 victory at No. 15 Nebraska last weekend. In addition cracking the Top-25 for the first time this season, the win also marked the Red Raiders' first victory on the road. They'll round out their schedule with four home games over the final five weeks. A win this weekend would be No. 82 for head coach Mike Leach at Texas Tech, which would tie him with Spike Dykes as the program's all-time leader. It would also be the team's 13th straight home win, which would also be a record.

On the opposite sideline, the Aggies enter this matchup trying to avoid a fourth straight loss. They traveled to Kansas State last weekend and got manhandled, 62-14, by a Wildcats team that was coming off a 52-point loss the week before. At his weekly press conference, A&M head coach Mike Sherman put the onus on himself to right the ship.

"When you get your butt kicked like we did I do worry about (the team's mental state)," he said. "I put that on my shoulders. I'm the captain of the ship so to speak, and you've sprung a leak, and it's my job to go fix it. That's my job. However I lead them this week will be how they'll react to this loss. If I do a good job I'll lead them in the right direction."

Sherman would love to lead them to their first win over Texas Tech in the last five meetings. Overall, the Red Raiders own a slight 34-32-1 advantage in the head-to-head series.

Texas A&M committed a season-high five turnovers against K-State, which helped the Wildcats claim their largest margin of victory since 2002. Aggies' quarterback Jerrod Johnson had been enjoying a breakout season, but he was sacked six times and had some costly turnovers. Johnson did set a Big 12 record with 225 consecutive pass attempts without an interception. However, things quickly fell apart after Johnson set that mark, as he went on to throw three picks in what turned out to be a laugher. Sherman said the offense simply could not get into sync, and obviously the turnovers were a big factor. The Aggies lost an early fumble, which led to a touchdown, and they were never able to recover. Uzoma Nwachukwu caught two touchdown passes, though both came after K-State had put 59 points on the board.

Defensively, it's hard to imagine the Aggies putting together a worse performance than last week. K-State led 38-0 by halftime and went on to pile up 24 first downs and 424 yards of total offense. The A&M defense had no answer for the running game, as the Wildcats rushed for 232 yards and six touchdowns despite not having a single 100-yard rusher.

"There were a number of times on the run, we knew they were going to run the football, we had nine guys in there, and we still couldn't make the play," Sherman said. "We just couldn't make the play. We overpopulated the box, we were going to allow them an opportunity to throw the football, and we just could not stop it to save our life."

Thankfully for Sherman, Texas Tech's preferred method of attack under Leach is to drop back and throw, throw, and throw some more. Of course, given the Wildcats' overwhelming success with the run last week, don't be surprised if Leach sneaks in a few extra runs.

The Texas Tech offense continues to light up the scoreboard, coming into action this week ranked second in the nation in both scoring offense (41.43 ppg) and passing offense (413.6 ypg). Steven Sheffield and Taylor Potts are the latest in an increasingly long line of quarterbacks to thrive in the Red Raiders' spread attack. However, injuries have sidelined both signal-callers. Potts started the first five games and was completing 67.7 percent of his passes for 1,817 yards with 13 touchdowns and six interceptions. But he has been sidelined since sustaining a concussion against New Mexico on October 3rd. Sheffield stepped in against Kansas State two weeks ago and threw for 490 yards and seven touchdowns in his debut. Last week, he completed 23-of-32 passes for a more modest 234 yards and a touchdown in the upset win at Nebraska. However, several reports this week have indicated Sheffield could miss at least two to three weeks with an apparent foot injury suffered late in the fourth quarter. Coach Leach said Monday that his starting quarterback would be a game-time decision.

Red Raiders' defensive end Brandon Sharpe was a major thorn in the Cornhuskers' side last week, setting a career-high with four sacks as part of his seven total tackles on the day. For his efforts, Sharpe was named the Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Week. Getting after the quarterback has been one of the defense's strong suits thus far. The team ranks eighth in the nation in sacks, averaging better than three per game. Sharpe now has a team-best eight sacks on the season, while guys like Daniel Howard (five sacks) and Rajon Henley (three sacks) have also been key contributors to the pass rush. Last week, the defense opened lots of eyes around the conference by slamming the door on Nebraska. The Cornhuskers' 10 points marked their lowest scoring output since a 41-6 loss to Missouri in 2006. They were also held to a mere 285 total yards for the game. Huskers quarterback Zac Lee was relegated to check-down duty, as he threw for just 128 yards on 16-of-22 passing before being benched in the fourth quarter. Tailback Roy Helu managed just 68 yards on 16 carries against the Texas Tech defense.

Leach hasn't had an injury at quarterback in the 10 years since he's been on the sidelines at Texas Tech. And if history is any indication, it hardly matters who is under center in his system. Expect the Red Raiders to put up big numbers at home against an A&M defense that is still reeling from last week's embarrassment.