Texas Tech Football Offensive Grades After Non-Conference

Texas Tech Red Raider Football is 3-0 after defeating New Mexico Saturday night in Lubbock 49-14, a game they were up 42-14 at halftime. Here are my team grades for the Offensive, Defensive, and Special Teams after the first three games of the season in non-conference action.

Offense

The Red Raiders have shown great consistency in almost every phase of the game, but work can still be done. In the season opener against Northwestern State, Quarterback Seth Doege threw an interception in Tech territory and against Texas State on 4th down Javon Bell fumbled a pitch on a reverse and Texas State recovered.

No points came off the turnovers, but we'll talk about that with the defense later. Against New Mexico, Tech raced to a quick 14-0 lead, then Kenny Williams on a big 25 yard run fumbled at the New Mexico 20. Turnovers haven't cost Tech much yet, but that will change when Big 12 Conference play starts in two weeks.

Quarterback Seth Doege had some first game jitters against Northwestern State going 23-34 for 199 yards, but the next two games he has thrown for 11 TD's and 659 yards with no interceptions. Redshirt Freshman backup Michael Brewer has played well in his first three games, all in mop up action. The future of the Tech Offense looks good.

Running Back Eric Stephens has come back strong after his knee injury last season and has shown great flashes of his 2011 start this season in 2012 so far. Kenny Williams also has played well in sharing the load with Stephens. Texas Tech is 24th in country rushing the football with 230 yards per game, which includes a 325 yard gashing of the New Mexico defense.

The Red Raiders might be the deepest at wide receiver in years with 14 different players catching passes in the first three games. The great thing about the receiving corps is that no player has more than 136 yards receiving among the different players who have caught passes.

Texas Tech is 6th in the country with 597 yards per game of total offense.

Grade: A

Total Offense: 597.67 YPG (3rd in Big 12, 6th in NCAA)

Passing Offense: 367.67 YPG (3rd in Big 12, 6th in NCAA)

Rushing Offense: 230 YPG (5th in Big 12, 24th in NCAA)

Scoring Offense: 50.3 PPG (4th in Big 12, 7th in NCAA)