Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree caughs up the ball upon impact with the field as SMU's Derrius Bell hangs on his back, Saturday night in Lubbock. Crabtree finished the night with 164 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell releases the ball downfield before SMU defender Julian Herron approaches from behind. Harrell finished the night with 418 passing yards and five touchdowns. (Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Mike Leach has been accused in the past of caring too much about his team’s offensive stats while not winning a championship.

Saturday wasn’t one of those times.

Leach specifically said Texas Tech’s still-gaudy offensive numbers are masking substandard play in the first three games of the season. If it continues, Leach added, the Red Raiders are “in for a long year.”

He heaped criticism on quarterback Graham Harrell and the Tech receivers, right after a 43-7 rout of Southern Methodist on Saturday in which Harrell threw five touchdown passes and All-American Mike Crabtree caught three.

“What we’ve done, quite honestly, for 21/2 games I don’t consider acceptable,” Leach said. “I don’t know at what point they think we arrived. This group of quarterbacks and receivers, we haven’t done anything impressive. I don’t think it’s impressive at all other than some numbers inflated by some explosiveness and the efforts of others. As far as any steadiness, there’s nothing impressive.”

Tech (3-0) advanced in the polls Sunday, to No. 10 in the coaches poll and No. 11 in the media poll.

Leach exempted most of the team from his criticism – the defense that had a shutout for 56 minutes, the running backs who had 297 yards rushing and receiving and the offensive line that opened the running lanes and allowed only one sack.

What’s bugging Leach is that his receivers are dropping too many passes and Harrell has played unevenly without his usual accuracy.

“How can (receivers) drop the ball when you throw it as much as we do?” Leach said. “When you come away from a practice where you throw 270 to 300 balls and drop two? The fact that we’ve had a little success in the past, it gets candy coated. Oh, they’ll come along.’ Baloney.

“When it hits you in the hands and you drop it, when you get re-routed out of bounds. When you throw the ball short and out of bounds all the time. … Right now, we’re nothing special, not at quarterback or receiver.”

Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell releases the ball downfield before SMU defender Julian Herron approaches from behind. Harrell finished the night with 418 passing yards and five touchdowns. (Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal).

That description didn’t fit much of the rest of the team. Baron Batch broke a 43-yard touchdown in the first quarter, putting him on the path to a career-high 98 yards on 10 carries, and Shannon Woods added 13 attempts for 86 yards. Aaron Crawford, the third running back the Raiders normally use, didn’t suit up because of a turf toe injury.

“It’s fun to have coach Leach put (responsibility) on us and give us opportunities like he did tonight,” Batch said.

SMU came in having scored 27 and 46 points in its first two games and ranking No. 9 in the nation in passing, but Tech intercepted Mustangs freshman quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell five times. Tech safety Daniel Charbonnet set a school record with three.

“He’s a true freshman,” Charbonnet said. “He’s probably never seen a defensive line like ours that rushed him that well. He’s probably never seen linebackers that really are physical with receivers and stuff like that. I attribute a lot of it to that – our defensive line and linebackers getting after him.”

Charbonnet could have had five interceptions. Another throw by Mitchell was coming right to Charbonnet, but cornerback Jamar Wall picked it off in front of him. Later in the game, a receiver tipped a pass just beyond Charbonnet.

Tech finished with five interceptions, one short of the school single-game record.

“We knew they were going to throw the ball a lot, so this was our opportunity to go in and take it,” Wall said. “Our scout team guys probably gave us best look we’ve had in a long time.”

SMU avoided its first shutout in 39 games when Aldrick Robinson caught a touchdown pass in the game’s final four minutes.

“I thought the kids played well, played hard,” Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill said. “We knew they could move the ball and throw the football, so I was proud of us responding to their offense.”