Another game. Another double digit lead blown by Texas.
- Texas has a mental hurdle they can not get over right now. Even when Bijan Robinson converted a short TD run on 4th down to put Texas up 21-10 in the 3rd quarter, it never really felt like Texas controlled the game. They had opportunities to pull away early, but the mistakes mounted and ultimately costed Texas yet again in the second half.
- The Texas defense was gashed on the ground…..again. The Longhorns had a lot of issue holding the point of attack and Baylor repeatedly had gigantic holes for their running backs. The tackling issues and bad angles continued. At this point, Texas is going to have to pick their poison because they are allowing way too many yards in the short and immediate passing game while leaving limited numbers in the box to defend running games that are running wild.
- It was very obvious that Baylor decided they did not want Gerry Bohanon to give the game away after his two first half interceptions. They did a good job of basically taking the ball out of his hands in the second half unless they absolutely had to throw. Texas never adjusted.
- Building on the Texas issues defending the run, I am not quite sure what Texas is doing in the secondary right now. They rarely muddy the picture for the QB and give up a lot of easy pitch and catches for 8-10 yards.
- Onto the offense, Texas left so many points on the field it’s tough to go back and recount them all. Casey Thompson couldn’t connect on a wide open Xavier Worthy in the endzone in the second quarter, and two plays later Joshua Moore fumbled. A few minutes later, following a Luke Brockermeyer interception that gave Texas the ball back with the chance to add points before the half, Thompson’s throw to Moore bounced off his hands and right to a Baylor defender.
- Baylor was determined to not let Bijan Robinson beat them. Robinson finished the game with 17 carries for 43 yards. Steve Sarkisian even admitted in an interview at the half that if Baylor was going to continue stacking the box, Texas would need to continue to move the ball through the play action game. Texas made them pay a handful of times, but it wasn’t enough.
- As I have mentioned several times in the past few weeks, Texas misses Jordan Whittington badly right now. Marcus Washington did a nice job of stepping up today (7 catches for 70 yards), but the Longhorns are lacking someone who can go over the middle of the field on 3rd down and help move the chains.
- For the most part, I thought the Texas offensive line held up okay in pass protection. Kyle Flood opted to tinker with the lineup throughout the game for the second consecutive game. In the run game, they were whipped repeatedly. Some of it had to with the numbers Baylor was dedicating to the running game, but the Texas offensive line was unable to generate any type of push even when the box thinned out.
- All the issues on both sides of the ball were compounded when Texas tried to make a punt in the 4th quarter with the ball around midfield. Not only was the decision to fake the punt questionable, but it was 4th and 11. Sarkisian said after the game that Dicker had the option to run or pass the ball, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Baylor had it defended well and stopped Texas on downs. The Bears then turned the short field into a TD when Abram Smith went into the endzone untouched after Texas had no one in the cutback lane.
What’s next?
- Any hopes that Texas had about back-dooring their way into the Big 12 championship game are gone. Now, the Longhorns have to go to Ames next weekend and are staring 4-5 in the face. I am far more concerned about the state of the Longhorns defense than I am the offense. Texas is simply getting whipped along the defensive line and teams are running the ball at will. While there are some personnel issues that limit the ability of some of the position groups, the unit as a whole should be playing much better than what they have been showing. Steve Sarkisian needs to evaluate everyone these last 4 games, both coaches and players, to figure out what this team needs to do in the offseason to get over the hump. Whatever they are doing now isn’t working.
