Texas Tech football alumni: Pat Mahomes making NFL look easy

Texas Tech football alum Pat Mahomes is on a record-setting pace to start his NFL career after tossing six touchdowns Sunday in a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

One day after Pat Mahomes had one of his Texas Tech football records broken by Alan Bowman, he established a new NFL mark.  Mahomes now has an NFL record 10 career touchdown passes in his first three career starts after a six touchdown performance Sunday in a 42-37 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Mahomes, who started the final game of the 2017 season before being promoted to full-time starter in 2018, broke the old mark of 8 TD passes held by Tennessee Titans’ QB Marcus Mariotta and former NFL QB Mark Rypien, the Super Bowl XXVI MVP.

Entering the second-straight road test of his run as the Chiefs’ starter, many though it would be tough for Mahomes to top what he did in week one.  Against the Los Angeles Chargers, Mahomes went 15 of 27 for 256 yards and 4 touchdowns for a QB rating 79.5 a week ago.

But as amazing as that performance was, it paled in comparison to what the young gunslinger did for an encore.  Facing one of the AFC preseason favorites, Mahomes went 23 for 28 for 326 yards for a 154.8 quarterback rating as be became just the second player in NFL history to throw at least four TD passes in the first two games of the season (matching Drew Bledsoe in 1997).

Where Mahomes improved the most from week one to week two was in his accuracy.  Throwing one more pass this week, he saw his completion percentage rise from 55.6% to a nearly flawless 82.1%.  HIs yards per completion also rose from 9.48 to 11.64 as he continued to threaten defenses deep.

And against Pittsburgh, Pat Mahomes did not have any easy touchdown passes as he did in week one when two of his TD passes came on jet sweeps that required him to simply pitch the ball forward to his receiver.  But against the Steelers, Mahomes was a surgeon with the ball.

He hit five different players for touchdowns including two scoring throws to tight end Travis Kelce. What’s more, four of his TD throws came in the red zone where his ability to read defenses and deliver the ball with accuracy and on time was tested more than his phenomenal arm strength.

And like he did at Texas Tech, Mahomes continues to pass every test the NFL throws at him.  And just like he did as a Red Raider, he is making the game of football look unbelievably easy.