The Texas Longhorns beat the New Mexico Lobos 45-0 at Darrell K. Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday night in front of an official crowd of 101,000 folks. While it wasn’t the most comfortable win for the Longhorns it showed both the positives and the deficits of a team that has high aspirations on the season. Sophmore quarterback David Ash scored a touchdown on the Texas opening drive after scrambling 49 yards on a 4th and 1 from the New Mexico 49 yard line, which would constitute the longest run of the night for any Texas player. Ash threw for two touchdowns and 221 yards in what could be considered a successfully “average” night for the Belton High School product. Joe Bergeron led the Texas running backs with 49 yards on 11 carries, with Jonathan Gray finishing second on the ground with 30 yards on 7 rushes. Malcolm Brown rushed 2 times for 5 yards. Hardly the running game you would expect against a team like New Mexico…
The Texas defense knew they had their work cut out tonight against a prolific rushing attack and they did only a fair job of doing just that. The New Mexico triple option attack led by quarterback B.R. Holbrook gained 206 yards on the ground and 35 yards in the air, but Holbrook was knocked out of the game in the second quarter after being hit by Texas defensive back Quandre Diggs. Texas made the stops when they needed to, but the New Mexico offense moved the ball considerably well against a defense that was a bit scattered all night.
Positives on the night included the play of Tight End D.J. Grant, who caught 3 passes for 42 yards, and the play of true freshman Daje Johnson who led the Texas receiving corps with 66 yards on 3 receptions and a touchdown. The kicking game continued to be mediocre yet again, with freshman Nick Jordan missing a 43 yard field goal attempt and making one from 40 yards.
Backup quarterback Case McCoy saw playing time in the 4th quarter and was 5/8 for 64 yards, including a 13 yard touchdown pass to tight end M.J. McFarland.
The Longhorns have work to do to correct the apparent mistakes on both sides of the ball before they travel to Oxford, Mississippi to take on Ole Miss next Saturday night. A win is a win and the Longhorns are 2-0 but the schedule gets increasingly more difficult in the upcoming weeks. Time to tighten up.
Hook’em.
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