Texas Tech Offensive Grades: Louisiana Tech

It's the beginning of the week so ya'll know what that means? Yep, it's time to hand out grades for the Red Raider offense. Let's get right to it!

Overall Grade: A

The Red Raiders racked up their largest total yardage so far for the season with 666. Don't be frightened, unless you're the next team to face them. Patrick Mahomes had another impressive game through the air and Tech established the running game for the first time all season. One receiver stole the show and the offensive line provided solid pass protection along with helping pave the way for the running game.

Quarterback Grade: A+

Mahomes celebrated his birthday the right way! He was 26 of 36 for 470 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions. After three weeks of play, Mahomes is still number one in the country in passing yards with 1,493 and is tied for first in the nation with Louisville's Lamar Jackson in total touchdowns with 18. If Mahomes keeps this up, he may very well be a contender for the Heisman Trophy.

Running Backs Grade: B

From the opening drive of the game, it seemed like Kingsbury wanted to establish the running game more than he did in the first two. Demarcus Felton had his best game as a Red Raider. He had 16 carries for 123 yards and scored two touchdowns. This was the first time this year a running back had the most rushing yards for the game. Overall Tech had 196 rushing yards with the bulk of them coming from Felton. Based on his performance this past game, I would look for Felton to get more carries and possibly start at running back. Stockton chipped in 34 yards, but as I expected, he was used more in the passing game.

Wide Receivers Grade: A

It was the Jonathan Giles show this game! Giles had his best game as a Red Raider with 6 catches for 186 yards and three touchdowns including a 42-yard catch and run on a trick play by Mahomes and Cameron Batson. Dylan Cantrell added 6 catches for 81 yards and a score of his own and Batson had one in the 3rd quarter. For the third consecutive game, Mahomes did a great job of spreading the ball around as eight different wide receivers recorded a catch.

Offensive Line Grade: B-

The offensive line played better than they did against ASU. While Mahomes did have to scramble quite a bit again, he was only sacked twice and was not forced into throwing any interceptions due to poor protection. However, there were some penalties that cannot be ignored. Tony Morales was called for being an illegal man downfield on the opening offensive play for Tech which wiped out a 52-yard catch by Derrick Willies. He also had a holding penalty and so did Madison Akamnonu. The line still has some stuff to clean up, but they played better this week than they did last week.

With the bye week coming up, hopefully Tech will be able to clean up some blemishes they've had over the past three weeks. Overall their offense looked good against the Bulldogs on Saturday. Check back after the game against Kansas to see what grades I hand out then!