For the second straight week Texas played an unranked opponent and turned a double-digit lead into a 27-24 loss. The score was familiar. So were the problems.
A team that spent a month ranked No. 1 isn’t the national championship contender people expected it to be. Problems aren’t at one position or one costly mistake, they’re systemic and spread across the roster. But the biggest questions belong to Steve Sarkisian and his offense.
Texas is struggling at quarterback, losing too often along the offensive line and failing to sustain drives. Whatever Sarkisian had in mind for this group isn’t showing up on Saturdays.
With a top-10 Ole Miss team coming to Austin this weekend, the Longhorns have run out of time to find answers.
An Offense Without Answers
Florida was supposed to give Texas an opportunity to get its offense going. The Gators had allowed more than 37 points per game in SEC play coming into the game and the Longhorns managed to score just 17 offensive points.
Against that defense it was an unacceptable performance.
Again, Texas couldn’t build on its relatively strong opening. Once those early possessions were gone, the offense stalled too often and the Longhorns couldn’t protect a lead or give their defense any meaningful breathers.
The blame doesn’t lie with one guy. Arch Manning’s inconsistency, offensive line breakdowns and Sarkisian’s play calling all need to be questioned.
Manning keeps showing flashes of what he can be, but too often those moments are followed by costly mistakes. Turnovers, dropped passes and holding the ball too long have kept Texas from establishing any rhythm at all.
Some mistakes are learned. Repeating them makes it harder to say the concerns are growing pains.
Sarkisian has to give backup quarterback KJ Lacey some meaningful reps in practice, at a minimum. That doesn’t mean changing quarterbacks will necessarily fix the offense though. Behind an underperforming offensive line, with inconsistency all around him no quarterback is going to be a sure fix. Unfortunately, Texas is at the point where opening up every option makes more sense than assuming this will work eventually.
Sarkisian Needs to Evaluate His Own Role
If the offense keeps regressing, Sarkisian must consider giving play calling duties to an offensive coordinator. Running a major college football program while also running the offense is a big job. He has called plays at the college and NFL level, so that shouldn’t immunize that arrangement from review.
The offensive line deserves just as candid a review. Texas cannot protect its quarterback or lay a solid foundation for offense. Both problems compound each other – shaky protection makes the quarterback’s job harder, and slow decisions make protection more difficult.
The accountability has to be across the offense (head coach included).
Without a lot of improvement, a 7-5 finish doesn’t seem alarmist at all. In fact, it seems more realistic.
The Defense Can’t Do It All
For most of the season Texas’ defense has given them a chance. Against Florida it gave them their worst performance.
It also spent more than 38 minutes on the field.
That doesn’t excuse every missed assignment or failed stop. It does, however, matter when thinking about how Texas lost. An offense that can’t sustain possessions gives its defense little margin for error and few opportunities to recover.
The Longhorns finally paid for that imbalance.
Special teams gave them a lift, as Ryan Niblett returned a punt for a touchdown in what was the unit’s best game of the season. The offense didn’t support it enough to make that contribution truly matter.
The defense has got to solve its own problems. Texas hasn’t forced a turnover since the UTSA game, so that claim to being an elite unit is shot.
Colin Simmons left the game in the second half with an ankle injury and did not return. His availability for this week’s game against Ole Miss is a big question mark. If he is out any length of time, Texas will be without one of its most important defensive players at a time when they can least afford another problem.
Still, the Longhorns can’t make their season depend on the defense playing nearly perfect football.
The offense has to sustain drives, finish possessions and protect leads. Against Florida it didn’t do any of those things.
