Texas Tech football: Areas of concern remain even after WVU win

Though the mood around the Texas Tech football program is far more positive following Saturday’s win over West Virginia, there are some concerns that have crept up in the wake of the team’s first road win of 2019.

Everyone hates a buzzkill.  But with that said, there are some concerns that Texas Tech football fans have to come to grips with even after the Red Raiders’ 37-34 win over West Virginia on Saturday.

But first, let’s look at some of the positives that came from this game.  First of all, we have not seen an offensive outburst from this team anywhere near the likes of the first five drives of Saturday’s contest.

Not only was Saturday the first time that Tech has scored a TD on its first offensive series in Big 12 play, but it was also the first time Tech had opened a game with five-straight touchdowns since 2016 when Pat Mahomes led his team to such a feat against Louisiana Tech.

Interestingly, the first quarter has been when the Red Raiders have been at their best.  WIth 21 points in the first 15 minutes in Morgantown, Tech now has outscored its opponents 72-27 in the first quarter.

This game followed the same pattern that we saw in Tech’s three other wins this year where the Red Raiders jumped out to multi-score leads in the first quarter.   Of course, that was also the case in Lawrence two weeks ago when Matt Wells saw his team give up a 17-0 first-half lead.

"“Really proud of the turnovers, and then our offense was able to capitalize with the touchdowns,” Wells said following the game.  “We’d struggled with that a little bit this year and the way we turned it right into a touchdown and got that big lead.”"

What was fun to see was that the Red Raiders delivered a knockout blow when the opportunity was there rather than allowing the opponent back into the game.  Hopefully, that is an indication that Wells is starting to develop within his program a killer instinct and the tenacity needed to choke the life out of a team that is on the mat.

Every Red Raider fan also had to enjoy seeing Texas Tech finally play the role of the schoolyard bully against West Virginia.  In the now-dead Mountaineers’ five-game winning streak in the series, we repeatedly saw WVU come out and hit Tech in the mouth only to find that the Red Raiders had no counterpunch.

In 2016’s 48-17 WVU win, the Mountaineers jumped out to a 24-7 lead at the break.  Of course, last year the Red Raiders faced a 35-10 deficit after two quarters when the Mountaineers came to Lubbock.

Coming off a bye week that was preceded by a mortifying loss to Kansas, we were not sure what we could expect to see from this team.  There was just as much of a chance that Tech could have come out flat and uninspired but instead, the Red Raiders played their best half of the season.

However, there are still some concerns facing this team as the final three games of the year draw near.  How the Red Raiders deal with these issues could determine if the season extends past November.