Texas Tech football: Red Raiders that we want more from vs. FIU
Tonight, the Texas Tech football team will square off with Florida International in what has to be considered a rebound opportunity for the entire team after last week’s uninspiring 28-22 win over FCS opponent Stephen F. Austin. That means there are plenty of Red Raiders that need to step up and have performances more on par with what we expect from them.
So let’s take a look at some Red Raiders we want to see more from than we got last week. And we will start with the most important player on the team.
QB Tyler Shough
Last week, Red Raider quarterback Tyler Shough was awful. Completing just 12 of 22 passes for a meager 174 yards, he had only one TD pass and two interceptions.
What’s more, if you consider that 75 of those yards came on one play, the TD strike to Erik Ezukanma on Tech’s first drive, you realize just how ineffective Shough was for the rest of the game as he threw for only 99 yards after that.
His 54.4% completion percentage marks the lowest of his career for a game in which he has attempted over 15 passes. It was also the first time in his career that he’s thrown more interceptions than touchdown passes in a game.
The Red Raiders simply need more from their QB1 than that if they are going to be successful this year. After all, he is the centerpiece to the entire offense.
Tech needs to see the Tyler Shough of week one tonight. That Tyler Shough completed 70.8% of his passes while looking to be in complete control of the offense. He was poised and made the correct decision far more often than not.
But against SFA, he failed to survey the field and did not distribute the ball evenly to his receivers. Rather, he was nearly obsessed with getting the ball to Erik Ezukanma as he completed only six passes to other players. Whether or not that was the game plan we will never know for sure but it certainly isn’t a strategy that is going to work against good teams.
Fortunately, this week he won’t be facing a good team as FIU enters the game fresh off of a loss to Texas State…at home. This should be an opportunity for Shough to fine-tune his game a week ahead of next Saturday’s Big 12 opener at Texas and he needs to show once again that he has full control of the offense.