Texas Tech football: Tahj Brooks, Defense power Red Raiders past Baylor

Behren Morton was wonderfully efficient for Texas Tech

I love the new version of Behren Morton that we’ve seen in the last two weeks.  Not being asked to carry the offense by himself, he’s playing under control and showing a level of efficiency that indicates that he’s maturing as a QB.

Only asked to throw the ball 26 times, he completed 19 passes for 180 yards and 3 TDs.  He did have one pick but it was one that we can live with given that it wasn’t a boneheaded decision but rather just an underthrown ball.

While Morton has all the talent in the world, he is still green.  He isn’t to a place where the game plan needs to revolve around his right arm.  (That time will come next season.)  When he feels that’s the case, he is prone to try to do too much as we saw earlier this year in Morgantown.

However, when Tech is majoring in the ground game, Morton knows that he only has to pick his spots and that’s what he did on Saturday.  What’s more, he was especially good on third down, which is when you want your QB to be at his best.

In fact, his first two TD passes came on third down.  The first was a nice back-shoulder stop route thrown to Coy Eakin who made his first TD grab as a collegiate.  The second was a perfectly placed fade route to Baylor Cupp who used his 6-foot-6 frame to go over a smaller DB to make a beautiful grab.

There will be times when Morton has to do more in a game that he’s been asked to in his two starts this year.  Still, for the rest of the season, he needs to be the secondary option for Tech because when the ground game is churning, he seems to be more in control and more reliable than he tends to be when he has to channel his inner Brett Favre and be a gunslinger.