Texas Tech football: Turning points in Red Raiders win over West Virginia

Jett Duffey’s 81-yard TD pass to Dalton Rigdon

Though junior QB Jett Duffey has been better than most of us expected this year, he’s struggled when it has come to hitting receivers deep.  On several occasions, he’s failed to connect with open targets who are running free behind the defense.

It’s as if Duffey can only throw one type of pass; a supersonic laserbeam and most often those laserbeams have been just out of the reach of his downfield receivers.  But on Saturday, he put just enough air on one of those laserbeams for his fastest receiver to catch it and take it to the endzone.

Leading 7-3 on the third drive of the game, Tech took over at its own 19-yard-line.  Off an RPO play fake, Duffey found a wide-open Rigdon at least 15 yards behind the defense on a straight go route from the slot.

But when Duffey let the pass go, many thought that his latest downfield attempt was again going to be overthrown.  Fortunately, he put just enough air on it to allow Rigdon, who runs track for the Texas Tech track team, to get under the ball and make the grab in full-stride.

This was the second-straight game in which the duo has connected for a huge TD.  In Lawrence, Rigdon hauled in a 48-yard TD pass off a slant route to put Tech up 34-27 in the 4th quarter.

Don’t undersell the importance of big plays for this year’s team.  That’s because they haven’t been all that plentiful.

This is an offense that lacks speed, and being able to connect with one of the only game-breaking players on the roster for a score is a tremendous boost early in the game.  Rigdon’s play was important not only because it put Tech up 14-3 and took the home crowd out of the game but it gave this offense an easy score and a much-needed shot of confidence early in the day.