The Juice: Killer instinct, when the amazing becomes routine, more

What a difference a year makes.

Last September, following Texas Tech’s lackluster 59-45 win over Sam Houston State, Kliff Kingsbury harped on his team’s lack of killer instinct during his postgame press conference.

"We've got to find it (killer instinct), though," Kingsbury said at the time. "I think Pat (Mahomes) has some of it in him. I think some of those receivers, when that ball is there and it's in your hands, those running backs, we've got to catch it and we've got to finish the game."

Kingsbury was upset that his team, specifically its offense, had failed to build on a 59-31 lead. He left Mahomes and the first-team offense out there for two more drives and nothing came of it.

To the Red Raiders’ credit, they improved in that department over the course of the 2015 season. They closed out a tough win at Arkansas two weeks later – though the end of that game was a bit more Yakety Sax than most care to remember – put the hammer down on Iowa State in mid-October and closed their regular season with a fourth-quarter offensive clinic against Texas.

Saturday, Kingsbury was visibly displeased with parts of his team’s performance – namely the second-team offense – but he never questioned its killer instinct.

Mahomes and the first-team offense scored on eight of their 10 drives on the night, leaving the game up 52-3 on Stephen F. Austin with 7:50 left in the third quarter. Through that drive, before emptying the benches, David Gibbs’ defense had limited the Lumberjacks to three points, 164 yards of offense and minus-6 rushing yards.

That will do.

Ultimately, because of the position he plays, Pat Mahomes’ place in Texas Tech football history will be determined by how successful the team during his time on campus. If he helps elevate the Red Raiders beyond 7-5, Mahomes will finish his career in the same conversation as Graham Harrell. If he doesn’t, he’ll join a growing list of Air Raid quarterbacks that have put up elite numbers in the midst of average seasons.

Individually, when you don’t tag him with the successes or failures of the team’s defense, Mahomes is one of those very rare players that makes the amazing seem routine.

Mahomes made a throw in the second quarter against Stephen F. Austin that perfectly encapsulates that dynamic. The Red Raiders were up 35-3 with about five minutes to play in the first half. Mahomes had a defender in his face, threw off of his back foot from the opposite hash – variables that often lead to calamity for most quarterbacks – and dropped a dime right in front of a streaking Dylan Cantrell for a 54-yard gain.

Yet these kinds of plays happen so often with Mahomes that it has become the new normal. His 54-yard bomb to Cantrell didn’t make it into in any of the postgame video highlights because it really isn’t that unusual.

Harrell, the gold standard of Air Raid quarterbacks, was a surgeon in the shotgun. His play was as impressive as it was successful, but there was an almost sterile quality to it. Mahomes is frenetic and unpredictable. More Evel Knievel than Doogie Howser. More Michael Bay than David Attenborough.

No. 6 made us say “Wow!” No. 5 makes us say “Did he really just f****** do that?”

1. Oklahoma State (2) – Pokes quietly took care of business against an FCS team. No fuss, no drama.

2. Texas (7) – Horn fans probably feel the same way about their newfound production at quarterback as Red Raider fans feel about their run defense. Will it last?

3. Texas Tech (4) – Big test looms for the Red Raiders.

4. Oklahoma (1) – Take Sterling Shepard away and limit Samaje Perine and, suddenly, the Sooner offense is a big, tall glass of average. Huh.

5. West Virginia (5) – ‘Eers got some bad injury news against Missouri but still took care of business at home against an SEC team.

6. TCU (3) – What in the hell was that, Frogs?

7. Baylor (8) – Bears dominated an FCS team, like normal. Interested to see how this team responds to adversity once it finally faces a team with a pulse.

8. Kansas State (6) – Even with Jesse Ertz at the helm, the Wildcats’ offense was pretty pedestrian.

9. Kansas (10) – RUSH THE FIELD.

10. Iowa State (9) – It’s going to be a long, long season in Ames.

I have struggled to find a good, solid protein bar. The ones that pack the best calorie and protein punch typically taste like plastic. The ones that taste good are typically full of junk.

Quest Bars are kind of the gold standard when it comes to protein bars. They come in all sorts of different flavors and people generally swear by them. I must have tried at least 20 flavors and none impressed me. They generally taste like flavored Play-Doh. It’s not necessarily that they taste bad, but they definitely don’t taste good.

It has taken a while, but I have finally found a brand that checks off all of the boxes: FitJoy. The chocolate chip cookie dough flavor is legitimately good. They have several other flavors that I haven’t tried yet, but My New Favorite Thing this week – even though they’re a bit on the expensive side – is definitely FitJoy protein bars.

… Texas Tech leads the Big 12 and ranks fourth nationally in plays of 10-plus yards. The team is tied for second nationally with 10 plays of 20-plus yards.

… The Red Raiders allowed 19 plays of 10-plus yards on Saturday. Last year against Sam Houston State, the defense allowed 24 such plays. Just four of those 19 plays were runs.

… Pat Mahomes leads the FBS in total offense (540 yards) and is second in passing yards (483). He also leads the FBS in pass plays of 10 or more yards (18) and is second in pass plays of 20-plus yards (9).

… Cameron Batson is one of just two FBS players (Oregon’s Charles Nelson) to return two punts for 30-plus yards in Week 1. Batson is just six yards short of tying his punt return yardage total from all of last season (81).

… Eight of the Big 12’s top 25-leading receivers are Red Raiders: Jonathan Giles, Reginald Davis, Justin Stockton, Dylan Cantrell, Ja’Deion High, Devin Lauderdale, Derrick Willies and Kash Knutson.

… Last season’s opener against Sam Houston State: Lauderdale caught eight passes on 13 targets. Saturday against Stephen F. Austin: Lauderdale caught seven passes on 13 targets.

… Oklahoma State (plus-3), Texas Tech (plus-2) and Kansas (plus-1) are the only Big 12 teams with a positive turnover margin after Week 1. Every team committed at least one turnover over the weekend and every team but Baylor and Texas forced at least one.

… The Red Raiders have scored 50 points or more in seven-straight home games. The last time the team failed to crack 50 points at Jones Stadium was Nov. 15, 2014 – a 42-30 loss to Oklahoma.

5. Texas Tech defeats Arkansas 35-24 in 2015 - This was almost more cathartic than entertaining, but the atmosphere made for an entertaining game.

4. Texas Tech defeats UTEP 38-35 in 2006 - Graham Harrell's first road start happened to be at a sneaky-hostile Sun Bowl against a UTEP team that had a sneaky-good offense.

3. Texas Tech falls to NC State 48-51 in 2002 - If you were at this game, I can understand not thinking it was very entertaining considering the heat.

2. Texas Tech defeats TCU 70-35 in 2004 - From down 21-0 to rattling off 56-unanswered points, Sonny Cumbie and the Red Raiders engineered one of the most unlikely blowout wins in school history.

1. Texas Tech defeats Ole Miss 49-45 in 2003 - Shootout in The Grove. B.J. Symons had a performance for the ages.

Arizona State is 1-5 in its last six games against teams that utilize Air Raid offenses. In those games – West Virginia, California, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and two matchups with Washington State – the Sun Devils have surrendered an average of 39.2 points per game.

TEXAS TECH 42, Arizona State 35

Four days until we find out a whole lot more about this Red Raider team.