Ugly truths that Texas Tech fans must accept after blowout loss to Baylor

The home team is never the one that is supposed to be embarrassed on homecoming but that's what happened to the Texas Tech football team on Saturday. In a 59-35 loss to a bad Baylor team, the Red Raiders were exposed as a college football pretender.

The loss was the worst of the Joey McGuire era. It wasn't the most lopsided loss that the third-year Red Raider head coach has endured. That would be last season's 57-7 road defeat at the hands of a Texas team that would reach the College Football Playoff.

However, what we saw on Saturday at Jones Stadium was completely inexcusable. Coming off of an open week and playing against a team that was winless on the season against Big 12 teams, Tech was lifeless, ill-prepared, clueless, and overmatched from the onset of the game.

McGuire and his coaching staff had no answers against Baylor's low-energy head coach Dave Aranda, who is on the hot seat in Waco. Make no mistake, Baylor is a bad football team and yet the Bears made the Red Raiders look like the Cavazos Jr. High developmental team.

Now, Tech's 3-0 start in Big 12 play looks rather misleading. Instead of being a conference title contender, the Red Raiders must head back to the drawing board to figure out just how they are going to correct the endless list of flaws that this loss exposed.

As a result of this inexplicable defeat, Texas Tech is being forced to confront some ugly realities. Let's look at some truths that Red Raider fans must come to grips with about this year's team.

Texas Tech QB Behren Morton is only playing mediocre football this season

On a day when Lubbock native Sawyer Robertson completed 21 of 32 passes for 274 yards and five touchdowns, we were forced to come to grips with the fact that Red Raider QB Behren Morton was once again merely average. In fact, all season long, he's been just a bus driver.

Against Baylor, Tech needed Morton to be better than he was. He completed 33 of 49 passes for 286 yards and three touchdowns with one pick. Those numbers are fine but he averaged only 8.6 yards per pass compared to 13.0 for Robertson.

What's more, the Red Raiders needed Morton to help the offense keep pace with Baylor on a day when the running game couldn't completely dominate the Baylor defense. Yet, that didn't happen. And it hasn't happened all season that Morton has led the way against a power conference team.

While Morton is 4th in the Big 12 in passing yards per game at 275.1, that's because he's tied for the second most passing attempts of any QB in the top 10 in that category (270). But when it comes to pass efficiency rating, he ranks only 8th in the league at 142.1. Also, he is not in the top ten in yards per completion putting him behind such mediocre passers as Arizona State's Sam Leavitt, West Virginia's Garrett Greene, and Oklahoma State's Alan Bowman.

Some of that has to do with O.C. Zach Kittley's playcalling. But there is no denying that Morton has not been as dynamic as he was expected to be. He has been just an average Big 12 QB this year and he hasn't been the primary reason Tech has won a Big 12 game. As more teams start to key on slowing Brooks, that is going to have to change because the Red Raiders are likely going to have to win a bunch of shootouts in the second half of the season if they want to keep pace in the Big 12.

Texas Tech is miles away from being good enough at the line of scrimmage

Yet another game has come and gone with little to no improvement on either side of the line of scrimmage. That's why we have to accept the fact that this program is still searching for answers in the trenches. Until it finds solutions there, success is going to be hard to come by.

The simple fact is that Tech has been trying to plug holes along the line on both offense and defense for years. To do so, the coaching staff has tried to bring in players from non-power conferences.

On offense, Tech turned to transfers from Toledo (Vinny Sciury), Memphis (Davion Carter), and Middle Tennessee (Sterling Porcher). On defense, it was a transfer from Nevada (James Hansen) and one from Rice (De'Braylon Carroll) who were supposed to fill in the gaps.

That's not a strategy that is going to pay off in the Big 12. Sure, some players from the lower tier programs in the sport are capable of competing in a power conference but to major in bringing in Group of 5 players to be key starters is not a winning strategy, especially along the line of scrimmage.

Saturday, we saw Tech give up 255 rushing yards while recording no sacks or tackles for loss on defense. On offense, the line paved the way for only 149 rushing yards against a defense that was gashed for over 260 yards on the ground in its previous game. What's more, Baylor had two sacks and six tackles for loss.

This team is overmatched along the line and it shows week after week. Until that changes, Tech isn't going to compete for a Big 12 title.

This is as bad of a Texas Tech defense as we've seen in nearly a decade

We all have nightmares of the defenses that Tech put forth in the Kliff Kingsbury years when Tech was second-to-last in the nation in total defense in 2015 and dead last in 2016, the two years that Pat Mahomes was the starter at QB.

Now, it is time to come to grips with the fact that this year's defense is almost just as bad. In fact, it is a historically bad unit. So far, Tech ranks 129th in the country (out of 134 programs) in total defense by giving up 466.7 yards per game. The only power conference defense that is worse is Oklahoma State at No. 130.

Why is this defense so bad? There are several reasons. First, injuries have hit the defense hard. Tech is without the two players expected to start at outside LB, Joseph Adedire and Dylan Spencer, both of whom will miss the entire season without playing a down. Also, players such as OLBs Isaac Smith, Amier Washington, and Harvey Dyson as well as safety Chapman Lewis, and corner Bralyn Lux have all missed at least one game this year.

Second, the defense is extremely young and inexperienced. Of the 22 players on the two-deep, 12 are redshirt sophomores or younger. Additionally, 12 are either starting or playing key snaps for the first time in their college careers. That's one reason why this team continually has back-breaking mistakes at all three levels of the defense.

Finally, the talent across the board simply isn't up to par. Only two of the players (defensive backs Maurion Horn and Brenden Jordan) in the two-deep were four-star recruits coming out of high school.

It all adds up to a woeful defense. What's scary though is that the Red Raiders are also set to face some high-powered offenses in upcoming weeks. Iowa State is ranked 32nd nationally in total offense, TCU is 37th, and Colorado is 64th. Those teams have to be salivating at the thought of facing the Red Raiders while Tech fans have to accept that this year's defense, which has registered only six sacks in seven games, is just going to go down as one of the worst in program history.

Texas Tech could be in danger of suffering through an extended losing streak

The 5-1 start to the season was nice. However, that was the easy portion of the schedule with four of those games at home. Now, in the final five games of the regular season, business is about to pick up and if Tech doesn't improve in a hurry, we could witness an extended losing streak.

Three of the next four games will be on the road where Tech has struggled during the McGuire era. What's more, in two of the next three games, Tech has to face a Big 12 contender.

If the Red Raiders can't win in Fort Worth this weekend, something that this program has not done with any consistency over the years, then, it will enter Ames, Iowa looking to snap a two-game losing streak by beating what will likely be an undefeated and top-ten-ranked Iowa State team.

Then, Tech returns home to face a hot Colorado team that features two of the best players in the nation, QB Shedeur Sanders and DB/WR Travis Hunter. There is no guarantee that the Red Raiders will be able to pull off that win at home given how mismatched the Tech defense will likely be against the Colorado passing attack.

Then, a road trip to Oklahoma State, where Tech never plays well, leads into the regular-season finale at home against West Virginia. Though those two teams are playing poorly right now, both could give Texas Tech fits.

This weekend's game at TCU should be a tossup but after that, Tech will have two games in which the opposition will likely be the favorite. Thus, it is entirely possible that the Red Raiders could be in for an extended losing streak if they can't find a way to beat the Horned Frogs.

A Big 12 title is still a pipe dream for Texas Tech

All of these truths lead to one final conclusion, this program is a long way away from competing for a Big 12 title. There are just too many issues within this program right now for that dream to become a reality.

It seemed as if Tech might start to believe that this year could be a magical run to Arlington, Texas for the conference title game after the 3-0 start in Big 12 play. However, we now know that Arizona State, Cincinnati, and Arizona are just middling teams in the conference.

Tech doesn't appear ready to compete with the Iowa States, BYUs, or Kansas States of the world yet. That's a painful reality to accept but it is the truth.

What's more, this team is going to have plenty of holes to fill next year with the loss of Tahj Brooks, wide receiver Josh Kelly, Bralyn Lux, DT Quincy Ledet, TE Jalin Conyers, and three starting offensive linemen. Thus, if the Red Raiders can't do better in the transfer portal this offseason, especially along the line of scrimmage, next year could be just another struggle to get to bowl eligibility.

Sure, Tech still technically has a shot at playing for the Big 12 title this year. But to do that, the Red Raiders would likely have to win out, and given the warts of this team, that's not a realistic outcome.

In fact, it seems more likely that the program is headed for another seven or eight-win regular season at best. That would constitute just another spin around the loop for Tech instead of measurable progress toward competing for a conference championship. That's a dream that feels incredibly unrealistic right now, especially given the most recent showing that this program put forth.