The Texas Tech football team took the criticism from the first two weeks of the season to heart and took it personally against North Texas on Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium, posting a 66-21 victory.
The Red Raiders had one of the best halves in the program’s modern history, scoring 35 points in the second quarter alone and leading 52-7 at halftime.
Here you can find out what stood out in the competition.
Tahj Brooks is pretty important for Texas Tech Football’s offense
While Tahj Brooks’ absence wasn’t the Red Raiders’ biggest problem in last week’s loss to Washington State, Brooks showed against UNT how different the team can look with him.
Brooks rushed for 109 yards in the first half alone. With the dynamic back to watch out for, Behren Morton was very successful in the run-pass option game, which led to his first touchdown to Josh Kelly and later to Johncarlos Miller II.
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The defense is convincing in a great way
Aside from a broken play that resulted in a 75-yard touchdown, the Red Raiders defense appears to have turned things around. A dynamic North Texas offense was able to gain some yards through the air but no points.
Chandler Morris also threw three interceptions in the first half, one to Bralyn Lux, who returned it for a 44-yard touchdown. Two more bounced off the Mean Green receivers and landed in the arms of Tech defenders Bryce Ramirez and Chapman Lewis.
Behren Morton distributes the wealth
Morton threw four touchdowns in the first half, each to a different receiver, and added a 10-yard rushing score, completing 15 of 19 passes for a total of 279 yards.
Seven different receivers caught passes in the first half, none more than three.
BRING IT TO LIGHT: Texas Tech Football Scores Historic First Half Against North Texas
Backups get the green light in the second half
Leading by 45 points after the first half, Texas Tech opened the second half with a number of substitutes. Morton was replaced by Cameran Brown, Brooks by Cameron Dickey and Micah Hudson made his first real run of the season at receiver. True freshman QB Will Hammond was used in the third quarter.
This is the Texas Tech football team we’ve heard about
Throughout preseason practice, Texas Tech’s coaches couldn’t stop raving about the team’s depth and ability on both ends of the field, and Saturday was the first time the Red Raiders showed that that can be the case.
The question now is whether Tech can maintain this momentum when Big 12 play against Arizona State begins next week at 2:30 p.m. at Jones AT&T Stadium.
