Follow along as our Devon Messinger jots down notes from today’s game between the Texas Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies.
First Quarter:
Noise is certainly going to be a factor and that was evident on Texas A&M’s first drive. On that drive, Barryn Sorrell was drawn offsides – extending the Aggie drive. Thankfully for Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense, the Longhorns were able to step up later in the drive, forcing a turnover on downs.
The first drive for Texas was not a pretty one. To start, Quinn Ewers tried to find Isaiah Bond on the perimeter on a deep pass, but it looked like the receiver wasn’t expecting the ball and stopped running. Afterwards, Ewers misfired with Gunnar Helm and the Longhorns were forced to punt.
On the second drive, the Longhorns opted to keep the ball on the ground – and it paid off. Similar to Texas’ final touchdown drive against Kentucky, in which they ran 15 run plays in a row, Sarkisian relied on six run plays to get the majority of the team’s yardage. To cap it off, Sarkisian elected to sub in Arch Manning at quarterback for a run play and it worked. On the play, Manning scored a 15-yard touchdown to kick off the campaign’s scoring action.
Second Quarter:
What a start to the second quarter for the Longhorns. In their first drive of the quarter, Quinn Ewers and the offense marched 80 yards over a span of eight plays. Ultimately, it was Jaydon Blue who entered the touchdown club with an impressive seven yard reception in the corner of the end zone on a pass from Ewers.
So far tonight, the Texas defense has done a solid job of containing the Aggie offense to minimal yard gains. While Marcel Reed has already had his fair share of rushing attempts, they have not burned the defense. In fact, even without a designated spy on most plays, the Longhorns have utilized their sideline-to-sideline speed to quell most of Texas A&M’s plays.
Third Quarter:
Unfortunately, the Texas offense continues to cough up points at the worst of times. Marching towards the Texas A&M end zone, Quinn Ewers threw a pick-six when he had Gunnar Helm wide open in the end zone. Instead of a positive play for the Longhorns, the Aggies are a step closer to making things interesting in College Station.
The Longhorns possessed the ball for 12:34 in the third quarter yet were outscored 7-0. Unfortunately for Quinn Ewers, the third quarter was one in which the turnover bug bit hard. Following the interception, Ewers fumbled the ball in the red zone.
Fourth Quarter:
I have mentioned it before, but I will mention it again. There is an old saying in football that “defenses win championships.” While you can debate the saying, you cannot debate the fact that the Longhorns have had an elite defense this season. When the going got tough, it was the defense that bailed the offense out in College Station. Defensive lineman Ethan Burke had a huge stop on fourth and goal to seal the game for Texas, but the entire unit played a darn near perfect game against the Aggies on Saturday.
