Would this team’s offense be able to make up for the defense?
Pat Mahomes and Kliff Kingsbury both know what it is like to have to put up huge numbers just to give their team a chance to win thanks to ineffectiveness on the other side of the ball. And that’s likely what they would have to do again on the rest of Texas team.
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This offense stacks up with any of the other offenses we have looked at thus far. Of course, with Mahomes at QB, this team would have an advantage at the most important position on the field.
What’s more, the receiving corps and running backs are as lethal as anyone could hope for. And this offensive line is the best of any of these all-time teams.
But this secondary is concerning, especially at corner. And the linebackers were all solid as Red Raiders but did not dominate the way the West Texas LBs did as a group.
The hope for this defense would be that the defensive line would be able to harass the QB enough that the secondary’s flaws would be masked. That could happen with Gabe Rivera, Ecomet Burley, and Adell Ducket, three of the best pass rushers in Tech history, getting after the QB.
As Red Raider fans, we’ve come to love the high-scoring shootouts. Even when it does not go our way, the back-and-forth action and unpredictability of that type of game is what we know and have embraced. And if we were rooting for this roster against other all-time teams, we’d likely be in for much of the same.
In Pat Mahomes’ career, Tech lost 12 games in which the offense put up 30 or more points. That includes four losses that saw Mahomes put up at least 50 points. That’s part of the reason he has become one of football’s top gunslingers (even in the NFL he has to play that way because the Kansas City defense is the NFL equivalent of the Red Raider defenses that he played with) and that’s why he is the perfect QB for this roster.