Sloppy. That's one way you can describe Texas Tech's offensive performance against Baylor. The Red Raiders were going to have to play mistake-free football to beat the Bears and that didn't happen. The outcome of the game proves that.
Overall Grade: C-
Going into the game against Baylor, Tech's turnover margin was +5 and the Red Raiders looked like they had turned things around in the penalty category. On Saturday both of those came back to haunt us and the team looked like a replay of the 2014 squad. There were two interceptions, a costly fumble, and 17 penalties with 12 of those being on offense.
Quarterback Grade: C+
Patrick Mahomes completed 64% of his passes for 415 yards and 3 touchdowns. While those numbers look nice, Mahomes also threw a pair of interceptions. One resulted in a 46 yard return that set up for an easy Baylor touchdown. Many thought Mahomes' mobility would be limited since he was banged up and wore a brace. That was true for the most part, he only had 2 rushes but one of those was a 25 yard TD scamper. Davis Webb came in for mop up duty and played well. He completed 8 of 15 passes for 115 yards and a touchdown.
Running Back Grade: C-
Limited. That's what the run game was against Baylor. DeAndre Washington had 39 yards on 13 rushes and touchdown. He managed just 3 yards a carry which is well below what he's been doing. Washington also had a very costly fumble early in the game. The Red Raiders were driving and needed to answer a Baylor touchdown when the fumble happened. This put a halt to the Red Raiders momentum. Justin Stockton was basically shut down all game having only 6 carries for 33 yards.
Wide Receiver Grade: D+
Drops, drops, drops. Those killed the Red Raiders. It looked as though the team had put the early season blunders behind them but they reared their ugly face in a big way against Baylor. Jakeem Grant dropped a for sure touch down, Devin Lauderdale dropped a touchdown in the endzone and the team as a whole just looked sloppy in the receiving game. There were a few bright spots though, freshmen Tony Brown and sophomore Zach Austin led the way for the Red Raiders in catches and yards.
Offensive Line Grade: C-
As I mentioned in the beginning of the article, Texas Tech had 17 total penalties with 12 of those coming on offense. A lot of those offensive penalties happened on the offense line. Penalties are basically drive killers. It's hard to get something going when you have to go 10 yards back and replay a down. Also, the line could not get anything going on the ground. There were two positives I did see though, La'Raven Clark decleated Shawn Oakman and for the 5th game in a row the offensive line did not give up a sack.
