Texas Tech football: Three Baylor offensive weapons to know

When the Texas Tech football team takes on Baylor this weekend, these three Baylor offensive weapons will need to be contained.

On Saturday, one of the worst offensive teams in the Big 12 is headed to Lubbock.  And what’s even worse for the Baylor Bears is that this week, they lost one of their best weapons.

In this past weekend’s 38-31 loss to Iowa State, Dave Aranda’s team saw leading rusher Caleb Williams suffer a season-ending knee injury further depleting one of the worst rushing attacks in the nation.  Though Williams did lead his team on the ground, he had amassed just 197 yards on the season.

We must keep in mind that all of Baylor’s offensive stats are going to be modest because of the fact that COVID-19 has limited them to just five games.  But still, when you look at the per-game averages that Baylor has put up, what becomes obvious is that the BU offense is really bad.

In fact, Baylor is last in the Big 12 in rushing (88 yards per game), 8th in scoring (27.6 points per game), and 9th in total offense (313.6 yards per game).   But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some offensive weapons on the BU roster that can be dangerous.  So let’s look at three Baylor offensive players to know.

Ebner is a threat in the passing game out of the backfield

Showing just how strange of a year this is for the Baylor offense is the fact that their second-leading receiver is a running back.  Trestan Ebner is a 5-11, 208-pound senior from Houston who has caught 17 passes for 220 yards and a pair of TDs this year making him one of the most active BU targets for QB Charlie Brewer.

But when it comes to rushing the ball, he’s got just 75 yards on 29 carries, an average of just 2.6 per rush.  However, it is fair to think that he will get more of a workload this week with Williams sidelined.

It’s been a strange month for Ebner and his teammate, John Lovett, a fellow RB.  That’s because, in mid-October, reports surfaced that the two had opted out of the remainder of the BU season.  However, that proved to be not the case and both remain with the team.

Lovett will likely get the bulk of the carries this weekend.  Last year against the Red Raiders, he carried the ball 17 times for 77 yards.

Still, this is a rushing attack that Tech should be able to stop.  Baylor has averaged only 70 yards and 27 carries per game over their last three contests.  That’s why it might make more sense to be aware of Ebner in the passing game than on the ground.

Though Red Raider fans may not want to think about it again, Ebner was Baylor’s main weapon on their 89-yard drive to tie last season’s game at the end of regulation.  With Tech leading 20-17, he caught two passes for 47 yards to help set up a critical Baylor FG to push the game to overtime where the Bears would win in the second OT, 33-30.

So despite the fact that Ebner had no rushing yards in that game, he was a huge factor as a running back.  Tech can’t let that be the case again this season.