On Saturday, the Longhorns made the trek up I-35 to take on the Baylor Bears for potentially the last time in Waco. Despite several miscues on special teams, the Longhorns marched into McLane Stadium and left no doubt thanks to strong performances from sophomore running back Jonathon Brooks and the Texas defensive line. Ultimately, the final score was decided by the end of the fourth quarter, with Texas winning their first game of conference play 38-6 over Baylor.
After rushing for 164 yards last weekend against Wyoming, Jonathon Brooks was once again on a mission – finishing the night with 106 rushing yards and two touchdowns. In addition to Brooks, the Texas offense was firing with Quinn Ewers showing accuracy and passing for 293 yards and a touchdown. However, Ewers also took a page out of Brooks’ repertoire and showed off his wheels on a 29-yard touchdown rush that gave the Longhorns an early 14-3 lead with 9:07 left in the second quarter.
While Brooks and Ewers kept the offense loaded and firing, the Longhorns defense continued to have another impressive performance. Against Baylor, the defense only allowed a total of 60 rushing yards, most of which came during garbage time in the fourth quarter. Several Longhorns such as Byron Murphy II, T’Vondre Sweat, and Vernon Broughton brought their A-game all night and were virtually unstoppable up front. Furthermore, senior linebacker Jaylan Ford came up with a big third quarter interception when the Bears were looming in the red zone. Other than moderately shaky play from the Texas secondary at times, the Longhorns defense was playing lockdown all night. For now, the Texas defense has been the most consistent part of this year’s team and should be considered the team’s overall strength.
In the receiving game, junior tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders had a monster night in which he caught five passes, including a one-handed grab, for 100 yards. Sanders provided some major chunk yardage plays when the offense was on the brink of stalling, and showcased why the Longhorns offense can be a nightmare for opposing defenses when it is firing on all cylinders.
Following the game, Quinn Ewers spoke of Sanders’ play and said, “I think he did a phenomenal job… he has the ability to make big plays like he did tonight.”
While the offense had a solid game, it too missed a couple of opportunities to put additional points on the board. However, the real disappointment of the night was Texas’ special teams play on punt returns. Although Xavier Worthy had one impressive return, which would have been a touchdown had he not gotten tripped up by the last line of defense, the return game was hard to watch. Even with such a sizable lead for most of the game, it almost seemed like the special teams group wanted to make things interesting. Both Xavier Worthy and Jordan Whittington muffed punts in Saturday’s contest and, unfortunately for Texas, both were recovered by Baylor. With that being said, the Longhorns defense bailed these athletes out by minimizing the damage and not allowing the mistakes to kill the team’s momentum.
After Saturday’s win, Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian addressed the media and discussed the team’s business-like nature and said that he was happy that the team “showed such great composure.” Now, with a win over Baylor under their belts, Texas can let loose a little bit and celebrate a 1-0 start to conference play in their last year as a member of the Big 12 Conference.
Next weekend, the Longhorns will host an undefeated Kansas team at home. Kickoff from Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium is set for 2:30 P.M. (CT), and the game will be televised on ABC.
