Media/$9.95-er postgame analysis articles (Week 11)

[satyanash 15610]

Collecting post-game analysis articles regarding the TCU game here:

Cody Daniel: Initial thoughts from No. 18 Texas’ 17-10 loss to No. 4 TCU

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Steve Sarkisian’s offense is becoming a major issue for the Longhorns. In the most significant game of the Steve Sarkisian era, his Longhorns — specifically, the offense — failed the show up. And thus, the Texas Longhorns fell to the TCU Horned Frogs, 17-10, and likely played themselves out of conference title contention in the process. Here are a few initial thoughts from Texas’ latest loss.

This loss is entirely on Sark. You can say “he isn’t the one dropping passes or overthrowing passes or struggling to block” or whatever, but that’s his unit. Sark is responsible for the offense and more and more often, it’s been completely inept. This time around, when Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense gave Texas every bit of a chance to take complete control of it’s destiny in the conference by overwhelming the No. 4 team throughout the better part of three quarters, Sark’s offense pissed the opportunity away, putting together one of the hardest-to-watch performances I can recall. In fact, Pete K’s defense outscored Sark’s offense, 7-3. So now, in yet another example of Sark’s offense going missing — Texas hasn’t scored a second-half touchdown in three games — his team’s ceiling is probably a Texas bowl.

Texas defense more than did its part to win. The offensive struggles from Sark and co. will headline this loss, but Coach K’s defense played at a championship level in a game that had those kind of stakes on the line. Aside from one busted coverage against the that proved to be costly (sound familiar?), the Longhorns defense was mostly dominant. 14 tackles for loss, five sacks, and a scoop-and-score touchdown paint the kind of picture of how that group played tonight. Between this and the Alabama game, that’s two losses in which the Texas defense played at an elite level and it didn’t matter.

Jahdae Barron coming out party? If you want another bright spot, the junior defense was a huge presence for a Texas defense that played well enough to win. Starting in place of the injured D’Shawn Jamison, Barron was all over the field, especially in run coverage, totaling 11 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss, and his scoop-and-score kept Texas in the game late.

Is it time for Sark to bench Quinn Ewers? I don’t have the answer, but he’s been pretty poor since the OU game — a stretch that now spans a third of the season. Aside from his 49% completion percentage (71-145) over the past four games with four interceptions to his seven scores, Ewers is routinely missing wide open receivers and making the wrong reads, and his just doesn’t seem like a young player playing with any sort of confidence at all. Think of it like this — if his name wasn’t Quinn Ewers, would it be time for a change before Texas one-dimensional offense completely spirals down the stretch?

I’m curious about how much fight we’ll see from Texas the next two games. Two losses in three games and you’ve almost certainly just played yourself out of the conference title conversation? There isn’t too much left to play for in the grand scheme of things aside from a better bowl, and again, the Texas Bowl might be the peak there. Sark has talked all offseason and throughout the season about the culture change, and now that the games will mean a little less, we’ll see that statement get tested.

Gerald Goodridge: Longhorns’ offense falters, TCU wins again

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Texas once again was unable to get the offense in sync and lost a winnable game. The Texas Longhorns once again scored just three points in the second half. Unlike previous games, that was the entirety of the offensive output and Texas fell to the TCU Horned Frogs 17-10. It felt like a repeat of nearly every Texas close loss of the last two seasons, with the offense having chances and showing signs of life, but not enough to actually get the job done when it needed to. Texas’s bell cow, Bijan Robinson, only had 12 touches in the game, while quarterback Quinn Ewers went 17-49 for 171 yards and an interception.

Defensively, the Longhorns played one of their best games of the year, holding the TCU offense in check and holding them to their lowest-scoring outing of the year. With two games left, on the road against Kansas and at home against Baylor, the Longhorns can win out and salvage some of the hype from this season.

https://www.facebook.com/LonghornPod/videos/492904976118364/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[satyanash 15610]

(Ian Boyd) Five quick thoughts: Shutdown by TCU

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Like many TCU games of yesteryear, the Texas Longhorn offense found themselves against an opponent who’d scouted and prepared them remarkably well. This lead to an impotent day on offense which doomed them, despite a strong defensive effort. Except this time their own strong defensive effort was clearly aided by Gary Patterson while it was a new Horned Frog staff which schemed up a way to put Steve Sarkisian’s offense on lockdown.

Quinn Ewers was in a nightmare, back in the Oklahoma State where he felt the weight of trying to win the game for Texas and went a ghastly 17-39 for 171 yards at 4.4 ypa with zero touchdowns and one bad interception. Those numbers are one easy way to sum up what went terribly in this game. Another way is Bijan Robinson‘s line. 12 carries for 29 yards at 2.4 ypc. Cancel the flights to New York and don’t fill up the bus to Arlington with gas just yet.

Quick thought no. 1: TCU’s winning defensive plan

I was very bearish on TCU’s chances of playing winning football this season, primarily because I figured the tatters of a defense left behind by Gary Patterson would NOT easily convert into a 3-down flyover in a single offseason. However they added a few transfers which have helped them a good deal, freshman nose tackle Damonic Williams gave them a (literally) huge missing piece, and their coaching staff has done a terrific job.

Because they’ve been much better inside than expected, they’ve been able to double down on it because of their cornerbacks. ULM transfer Josh Newton and Tre’vius Hodges-Tomlinson played a lot of man coverage and freed up the Horned Frog safeties to sit in the middle of the field close behind the linebackers.

Nothing wild, but what TCU did with their linebackers and D-line gave Texas fits. Defensive end Dylan Horton slipped inside into the B-gaps and gave Cole Hutson fits. Linebacker Johnny Hodges had 11 tackles and sniffed out a lot of Texas’ plays. Safeties Mark Perry and Nook Bradford combined for 10 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss. Hodges-Tomlinson finished the day with three pass break-ups and an interception matched with Xavier Worthy much of the night, who in turn was targeted 12 times and caught four balls for 32 yards to finish with a dismal 2.7 yards per target.

Texas wanted to keep up their hammering process from previous, successful outings against this defense. It wasn’t working though. Getting Andrej Karic and the tight ends on the field didn’t help them block the bunched bodies, TCU’s angles and aggressive run throughs at linebacker gave them fits. The answer of throwing the ball outside to 1-on-1 matchups, which is what the Ewers-Worthy connection is supposed to grant for Texas, yielded nothing.

Sarkisian adjusted in the 4th quarter or so and Texas manufactured a couple of drives into the red zone only to bog down in the red zone and translate three trips into three points.

Quick thought no. 2: The Texas defensive gameplan

Unsurprisingly, Gary Patterson and Texas had an outstanding gameplan for TCU’s offense as well. The Frogs have lived off power-option football from the spread this season, mixing downhill inside zone and GT counter plays with the threat of Max Duggan keepers off the edge or quick flips out into space.

Unfortunately for the Frogs, there were some major tendencies to their approach. The Longhorns feasted early with nickel and boundary corner blitzes off the edge when they saw certain motions which indicated runs were coming and TCU was living all night with plays in which one of two things happened.

1. Texas played base defense, the Edge would play contain, and Duggan would have to hand off for an inside run into the tackles and teeth of the Longhorn defense.
2. Texas brought a defensive back blitz off the edge and crashed the Edge player after the run, leading to a lot of tackles for loss.

Between the modest gains running on Texas’ run fronts and the frequent negative plays from the blitzes (or from the perimeter screen game which Jahdae Barron and Texas were abusing mercilessly), TCU couldn’t come out ahead. Duggan kept his head though, TCU dramatically won the field position game thanks to Texas offensive impotence, and eventually Texas made a mistake on one of those spread zone runs and Kendre Miller broke free for a 75-yard scoring run.

On the day, Miller had 21 carries for 138 yards at 6.6 ypc with one score. Aside from the long run, he had 20 carries for 63 yards at 3.2 ypc. The long run was almost the difference in the game save for a snafu by Duggan late in the game when he tried to pull the ball late on a tight zone play (no quarterback keep read), fumbled, and Barron returned it for a 48-yard score.

So ultimately, Texas broke even against the TCU run game. However they had one bad coverage bust on a Quentin Johnston post route which allowed him to break wide open for a 31-yard touchdown. That was the game.

Unless I’m mistaken in regards to this blitz version of quarters, the safety has to go cover the slot vertical but freshman Terrance Brooks is trying to pass off the post route to Anthony Cook and no one takes it. Perhaps a review of the other occasions Texas used this coverage will reveal the freshman had the right idea but it looks doubtful. Such things happen. Brooks’ opening night as a starter was otherwise pretty clean and promising. Count on the older quarterback/receiver tandem making the play and taking advantage in a big moment in the game.

Quick thought no. 3: It was a good thing Jahdae Barron played

Rumors were floating heading into the game about D’Shawn Jamison missing and perhaps Barron as well. Jamison was indeed out, hence Brooks’ presence, but Barron was very much a factor in this game. 11 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and a defensive touchdown is a nice day. His disguises and constant shifting were a thorn in TCU’s side as he mixed blitzes with coverage drops and confused TCU’s receivers on blocking angles for their perimeter screen game, which he devoured hungrily.

He did get isolated on Quentin Johnston and came up short in a crucial 3rd-and-4 after his fumble return. Texas had a chance to get a stop and get the ball back with three minutes to tie the game. They faced 12 personnel from TCU in what looked like an obvious attempt to just run the ball and shrug and punt if it was stopped. Texas played the 3-4 personnel with DeMarvion Overshown at outside linebacker and blitzed him off the edge. With DMO’s hands in his face, Duggan fired off a slant outside to Johnston (same combo Sam Ehlinger and Collin Johnson used to connect with on 3rd down) and they brought it in to effectively win the game.

Barryn Sorrell also had a terrific game with 11 tackles, 1.5 sacks, three tackles for loss, and a pass break-up. Going into the game it was known TCU’s offensive tackles were a little heavy-footed in protection if Texas could force them into passing situations but it wasn’t known whether they had an Edge who could make much of the situation. Sorrell has had several big home games this season and figures to have a great year in 2023 as he continues to grow and learn how to use his hands to create a pass-rush.

Overshown also had a nice day with 11 tackles, a .5 sack share, and several plays where his speed erased the spread stress of the Frog offensive design. As for his punt block “roughing the kicker” penalty, it was a bad beat.

TCU was inviting the edge rush all night, Texas nearly got home several times and every single time their punter would take a dive like a Premier League star striker and hunt a call. I’ve actually wondered why we haven’t seen as many kickers doing that these days, Oklahoma used to crank out some amazing actors, but it appears TCU has the art down pretty well.

Quick thought no. 4: Quinn Ewers’ performance

Terrible game from Ewers.

He continues to look for Worthy down the field but he can never seem to find him. On many of these throws it’s hard to believe the error lies with Worthy when Ewers can rarely seem to find his line. The interception in the first half was a disastrous play, fresh off the heels of some initial success they took their shot and Ewers didn’t see the weak safety sitting on the post. Or if he did see him, his reaction was to throw it behind Worthy to keep it away from the safety and thus into the hands of the trailing Hodges-Tomlinson.

Ewers’ timing was routinely off. He was early in the red zone, such as on the open glance to Jordan Whittington where he rifled the ball in hard just as Whitt was finishing his move to get open (nearly precise, but too early). He was late on the first throw of the game to Worthy on a deep out pattern which was wide open. There were some amazing throws mixed in, such as the seamer to Ja’Tavion Sanders which took Texas down to the goal line. Then there was the fumbled snap, the self sack where he tripped the pocket, and countless other “he looks rattled” freshman moments.

There’s a lot of talent evident but these throws down the field from bigger sets require extra precision because the windows down the field are narrower and the timing is so difficult.

Sark did him no favors with the gameplan, which was much too hesitant to accept that neither the power runs in the box nor the deep throws outside were winning against TCU’s defenders. Finally they accepted the need to get into spread sets to get TCU defenders out of the box and hit some screens to Whittington who finished with six catches for 78 yards.

They needed considerably more there though, and sooner, or else a better plan for blocking TCU’s loaded boxes. The Longhorn O-line seemed to struggle with the angles and speed TCU’s deep alignments at linebacker created and the run game came up empty. The dropback spread passing game they brought out was okay at times but that style requires a lot of precision as well with protections and quarterback progressions and this unit ain’t there yet, to say the least.

The missed wheel to Bijan Robinson running free into the end zone was agonizing for Texas and juxtaposed well with Duggan making Texas pay when they busted coverage on Quentin Johnston.

Texas’ identity this season is mostly “line up in big formations, run the ball, and hit enough throws to keep em honest.” TCU had answers and the Longhorns didn’t have enough counters they were comfortable turning to in order to adjust. If there’s a bright side it’s that Ewers’ jittery play in some of these losses is likely to stick with him as he approaches this coming offseason.

Quick thought no. 5: So what happens next?

Texas fans will be inclined to see this as a total disaster. The program brought in all of those recruits and Arch Manning only to drop that stinker of an offensive performance and lose their best shot at the Big 12 Championship?

However bringing in Arch to hang out with nearly every top player the program is targeting in front of a record crowd (104k fans) will likely yield dividends in recruiting even if a win would have been better. With Texas A&M and Oklahoma also losing (both may even miss bowl season, A&M at least will), recruiting is going to go well for Texas.

As for the Big 12 title hunt, the Longhorns are now back in a tie for third place at 4-3. TCU is a lock to make it into the Big 12 title game. They could lose the final two games and be no worse off than tied with Kansas State, over whom they’d hold a tiebreaker. Kansas State whipped Baylor 31-3 tonight and are 5-2 in conference play with a road trip to West Virginia and home date with Kansas remaining. Texas needs to beat Kansas on the road and then take down Baylor at home then they need for K-State to lose one of those games. If all that happened, and Oklahoma State also lost one more game, Texas would hold the tiebreaker over K-State and be in. If they got in a three-way tie with OSU and K-State, I’m not sure how things would break out.

Suffice to say Texas had control of their own destiny, their young quarterback slipped, and they lost it. They might still sneak in but a best case scenario is more likely to be 8-4, a productive set of bowl practices and monster recruiting class, big bowl win, and then to nail down this passing game in the following spring.

 

[Monahorns 39]

Ian Boyd is a pussy, who has never played the game.  Who cares what he has to say.

 

His comment on Arch Manning is at best ignorant.  He didn't notice how unprepared the team was in a make or break game for the season?  I don't buy it.  Sure he had fun hanging out with people.   He will also enjoy Thanksgiving with his family.  Poor analysis on how people make decisions.  Arch may in fact come to Texas.  Or he may decide he won't be developed enough.  No one knows until he signs the paper.  One thing I do know. Arch won't be satisfied being on the field and making NIL money.

[Loop 1604 227]

Arch is going to TN

[satyanash 15610]

Bobby Burton: Morning after thoughts from Texas' 17-10 loss

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Sugar-coating it won’t help. Texas was badly beaten on Saturday night in the most unexpected way. The Longhorns couldn’t muster enough offense despite a yeoman’s performance from its defense. Talk about a switch of mindsets. Unfortunately, it’s not the first time this year that the Texas offense has sputtered. But this is certainly the longest stretch.

Including the second half of Kansas State, the Horns’ offense has now not scored a touchdown in six consecutive quarters of play. And scored all of six points to boot. Last night, the run game couldn’t get going. Bijan may have missed a cut here or there but the truth is, the OL moved no one all game long. Furthermore, the passing game was erratic and inconsistent.

Too much early focus on Xavier Worthy gave way to better fortune focusing on JT Sanders and Jordan Whittington in the second half. But even that wasn’t enough. In the red zone, the Horns failed to convert more than a single field goal on two trips. The run game failed Texas. The passing game failed the Horns, too. Texas simply had no answers for any of it.

**

The opponents’ book on the Texas offense is now clear:

1. Take away the Texas run game at all costs.

2. Take away the deep stuff to Xavier Worthy and/or knock him off his route early.

3. Hit Quinn Ewers early then reap the rewards of a hurried quarterback the rest of the way.

**

Ewers never settled down on Saturday night. He was jumpy in the pocket. Didn’t set his feet often enough. And he was processing slowly. But, I will say this: he’s a freshman. That’s not an excuse. It’s a reality. TCU counted on that lack of experience in their successful game plan.

Of course, Ewers’ receivers did not do him a lot of favors. Worthy short-armed a would-be first down throw in the first half and may have played his worst overall game as a Longhorn. Sanders couldn’t corral a low throw up the seam that would have taken Texas off its own goalline. And Jahleel Billingsley had one hit him in the chest and bounce off.

In other words, when Sark says it wasn’t all on Quinn, I agree with him. The OL couldn’t move anybody. The QB was erratic and unsure. And the receivers didn’t exactly play well.

**

On the opposite side of the equation, the Texas D played extremely well almost the entire game. Pete Kwiatkowski was aggressive early and often. And it took the Horned Frogs by surprise. A terrific effort generally was overshadowed by such a poor performance of the Texas offense.

**

I didn’t feel like Texas missed D’Shawn Jamison at all. Freshman Terrance Brooks stepped in and played admirably. The secondary, as a whole, played well other than the one mix-up on the Quentin Johnston TD catch. Jahdae Barron played his best overall game as a Horn, even though I’m still flummoxed by how the refs missed an obvious hold call on TCU against him.

**

Is PK finally putting things together? Or is it a mirage? If Texas can play defense that inspired on a weekly basis, good things are ahead for this Texas team. Maybe not this year but in years to come. But that’s a big IF.

**

Texas is 6-4. I predicted 7-5 in the pre-season and I see no reason to come off of that projection. Kansas and Baylor are left on the schedule. Like Texas, both are flawed but capable teams at times. The Horns need to get to 7 wins in the regular season and win a bowl. Eight wins coming off a 5-7 campaign, if you look at things in the totality, is moving in the right direction, even if it’s not as fast as we all want it.

 

[satyanash 15610]

Coach V: The Texas Longhorns defense gets an A+, but the offense was full of minuses

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Watching the first half two things on offense became very apparent. We ran ten “run” plays in that first half and nine of the ten went to the right of center. We continued the same pattern in the second half with four out of five going to the right of center. That’s understandable if you are gashing them but actually the total opposite was the fact of the matter. Not a well thought out game plan or execution of the actual plan. We didn’t play well at the OC, RG, and RT positions yet we kept the point of attack directly behind them. How did we game plan Bijan Robinson only a dozen carries?

The first half also pointed out our all-out effort to throw to Xavier Worthy (8) as much as possible or was he the only one eligible? We threw 7 of our first 8 throws to Worthy and for the first half it was 9 of 14 to Worthy. The second half was much better with only 5 out of 23 targeting Worthy as we spread the ball around to Ja’Tavion Sanders (0) and Jordan Whittington (4) along with a few others. We did manage to play two second halves this week with a total bust for 60 minutes.

Most DC’s would chomp at the bit with our first-half strategy as it was. We failed to get our weapons into a variety of advantage taking situations as we became stubborn with repeating non-creative plays. The second half offensive production has turned into a full game failure to win enough battles. Blame the entire offensive system for this contest. We overused our punt blocking attack but I can forgive that due to the lack of offensive wins we had tonight. We needed to make something happen and the punt blocking game has been good for us.

We had our best defensive effort in Steve Sarkisian’s tenure. Every starter made plays and played aggressive assignment football. Extremely fun to watch. It’s a shame we had a coverage bust late but we were working with groups of DB’s that haven’t had that much work together and they caught us adjusting to motion and we gave up an easy one. We had a backup LB take the fake on their long td run and the RB split the alley and outran our backside pursuit. If the LB just fills the correct gap you make the RB bounce or break stride which gives your secondary a chance to get him.

Barryn Sorrell (88) had a huge game. Jaylan Ford (41) and DeMarvion Overshown (0) made several plays between them. Ryan Watts (6) and Terrance Brooks (8) had good games. The DT’s (all 6 of them) didn’t have many bad plays until deep in the 4th quarter. Jahdae Barron (23) had a super game. Fun game to watch defensively. Kansas is next and they will play their super bowl against us.

 

[satyanash 15610]

(Scipio Tex) 2022 TCU Post Mortem: Offense

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Steve Sarkisian has two full time jobs at Texas: offensive coordinator and head coach. The number of college coaches that can successfully navigate that dual role can be counted on one hand. The number on that hand that don’t have a major supportive brain trust to help shoulder the burden in both roles may be counted on one finger. Maybe.

We like to imagine the impact of holding down two 60 hour a week jobs flows in only one direction – that the overwhelming burden of controlling the offense can inhibit broader program management – but in fact it can also flow from the myriad time-consuming duties of head coach to degrade offensive coordination. Particularly when Sark doesn’t have a true right hand man on offense that he can offload big portions of game planning to or task with a discrete offensive package implementation to anticipate a particular defensive approach.

Typically, Sark nails the pregame preparation, evident on the first half scoreboard, and then sees offensive options compress as the game wears on. Either by virtue of opponent adjustments to a youthful offense ( a true freshman QB and four underclassmen OL limit autonomy) or his own self-imposition that a great play call is forever burned and that he doesn’t build in counters to certain core identity plays. Sometimes both.

If your only solution to linebackers firing recklessly downhill behind a three man defensive front is to shelve your limited right handed running game and fire incompletions downfield from bunch formations that compress the field, you lost this game on Tuesday when you were putting in your game plan. When TCU wants to play in a phone booth, you don’t hunt for a pay phone. TCU’s tactics were predictable (if IT writers can anticipate them, a coach can) and given his freshman quarterback’s inexperience, it was paramount to have solves for TCU’s neutral down run-blitzing defense before the game starts. By now it’s clear that in-game adjustments are going to be inefficient and halting. They shouldn’t be as bad as what we saw, but fixing stuff on the fly is a lot easier with 5th year seniors. Worst of both worlds, Sark didn’t have the right game plan.

Texas totaled 199 yards of offense at 3.3 yards per play and scored no offensive touchdowns. Texas had a season low 28 yards rushing overall. The best pure football player on the field, Bijan Robinson, ran 12 times for 29 yards and didn’t touch the ball in the passing game. The longest Texas drive in the 1st half went for 24 yards and the first five Longhorn drives of the game totaled 19 yards on 17 plays. I counted five drops, but even most of those were also bad throws or halting execution.

Sark’s solution to TCU jumping the Texas running game was to shelve the running game entirely. Any rare successful run was immediately followed by a downfield incompletion. The most implementable solution to TCU’s tactics given Ewers inexperience was to spread the field out, get the ball out to individual mismatches if they continued to outnumber the box and to incorporate fly and jet sweep misdirection in the running game to conflict their downhill linebackers and edges. Texas offered no eye candy, no creativity and no attempt to punish TCU’s overplay other than the same downfield incompletions that have characterized the offense over the second half of the season. It’s binary offensive thinking. The only limited success Texas saw was spreading the field late without any accompanying creativity, allowing Jordan Whittington to create yards after the catch and power a pair of late semi-successful drives (12-71-FG, another ended on downs on the TCU 10).

QB

Texas fans love discussing talent as a Platonic abstraction. This has everything to do with the recruiting industry. Talent as what an athlete might one day be. Consequently, they struggle to understand applied talent. On Saturdays, effective talent is what they can actually do on the field. By that reality-based metric, Quinn Ewers is one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the Big 12. There are obvious reasons for this, but holding forth about his “talent” is irrelevant. The further he is divorced from a tight game plan, the worse he gets. Typically, that happens in the 3rd quarter. Against TCU, it happened last Wednesday. From a mechanical standpoint, Ewers’ unorthodox release points and footwork are now working against him. He has no base to fall back on so even basic throws are pressed. He finished 17 of 39 for 171 yards and an interception. Statistically he is the worst performing QB in the Big 12 over his last three starts. The offense must meet him where he is. Not where Sark would like it.

Sometimes a change can provide a spark. Last Saturday, Kansas State subbed in Will Howard for an ailing Adrian Martinez after a scoreless first quarter. He threw for three touchdowns and Kansas State cruised on the road, 31-3. A few hundred miles away, West Virginia upset Oklahoma as a 8 point home dog after benching former 5 star JT Daniels for Garrett Greene. Greene ran for 119 yards and two touchdowns and threw for another score as OU failed to adjust their JT Daniels focused defensive game plan. Is Garrett Greene “more talented” than JT Daniels? No. But he provided a spark and what OU’s defense allowed played directly into his limited skill base.

Might there have been a similar parallel in Austin? TCU was begging to be spread out and have accurate zippy passes delivered to good Texas athletes in space forcing the Frogs out of their layered phone booth, perhaps also punishing defensive overplay with opportunistic QB runs or at least a run threat. Like Greene against OU, Hudson Card’s skill set, however limited, may have matched Texas need. I’m not sure what’s lost giving him a spin for a series or two.

RB

Can’t evaluate. They weren’t part of the offense. After the half, RoJo and Bijan had a combined 6 carries for 4 yards. Neither caught a pass. Keilan Robinson ran zero jet sweeps and had zero perimeter flips. 21 personnel was an afterthought. Texas consented to removing the best unit on the team from the game.

WR/TE

Xavier Worthy was poor but Hodges-Tomlinson played a role in that. It’s chicken-egg at this point. He lacks confidence in Ewers and watching him pull up in disgust or confusion has become a thing. Jordan Whittington provided a big spark with 6 catches for 78 yards and TCU’s defensive backs had difficulty getting him on the ground or dealing with his small area quickness/size combo. Sanders dropped two catchable balls and looked frustrated for four quarters despite notching 7 balls for 61 yards. I think both Sanders and Whittington could have forced TCU to make some hard coverage choices if Texas had spread them out but we’ll never know. Billingsley dropped a ball on his chest and didn’t block.

Only three Longhorns caught passes.

OL

TCU jumped two primary telegraphed run plays and the OL never got started. Pass protection was actually fine, if uneven, particularly when you consider the vanilla nature of the game plan and you get past an early blown assignment or two. TCU’s primary personnel exploitation was targeting Cole Hutson by lining up their most explosive DL Dylan Horton on him in some tight fronts and Horton gave him a really hard time in both the running and passing game early. Oddly, Texas played into TCU’s hands by running 80% of their run plays right and never attempted to create conflict.

Final

A terrific effort from the Texas defense was wasted on a day when OU and A&M were whipped by conference cellar dwellers as a score of blue chippers and 104,000 riled up Texas fans watched the Texas offense throw away their inside track to the Big 12 title game. The goal now is to show some resiliency and progress and finish with a three game winning streak.

(Scipio Tex) 2022 TCU Post Mortem: Defense/Special Teams

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Somehow the Texas Longhorns frittered away their best defensive performance of the season against a high octane TCU offense. Texas held the Frogs to almost half of their season total yards per game average (289 yards, 68 at halftime), cut the Toad’s season scoring output by 60% (41.3 to 17), inflicted 5 sacks and double digit tackles for loss, eradicated their passing game (Duggan was 19 of 29 for 124 yards), added a defensive score of their own hoping to inspire a listless Horn offense…and provided the most amazing statistic of all: they held TCU scoreless on five drives that started at the Texas 49, 44, 36, 34 and 38, respectively. The first four of those were consecutive TCU possessions. Unbelievable. How did Texas manage that? By holding the Frogs to 25 yards on 22 plays on those drives, forcing a fumble, then getting a hand on a field goal attempt. They held an offense averaging 7.4 yards every time they snapped the ball to 3.9 yards per play. The Horn defensive approach looked like the best possible melding of PK’s calls with Gary Patterson’s scouting report on TCU’s personnel.

The Texas defense wasn’t perfect, but they were damn good. So let’s get the only two major defensive mistakes of the game out of the way. The first was a 75 yard run by Kendre Miller (my TCU preview: “Miller has a knack for breaking long runs”) where TCU caught Texas in an alignment where any mistake by the unblocked play side linebacker was going to be punished badly.

The edge overhang at the top of the screen is in a wide alignment and can’t squeeze down the tackle. Byron Murphy has the interior play side covered. All Tucker-Dorsey has to do is mind his only gap. He has no blocker to worry about either. You’ll notice that he begins hopping around after faking a blitz and then takes false steps to a gap that isn’t his concern. He should be standing like a statue and then firing on Miller when Kendre angles out. Miller runs right by him, has a two way go with a blocker on Watts and 75 yards later, TCU has a 10 point lead. It felt like the Alabama Jase McClellan run in terms of game impact.

The other mistake was a blown coverage by Anthony Cook and/or Terrance Brooks. Was Brooks supposed to carry Quentin Johnston? I can’t tell. He settles into a zone with conviction, as if he’s now #11’s problem. Even if Brooks was supposed to carry him, Cook is the deepest man. A safety needs tiered vision: awareness of the receivers near you, but still watching the QB’s release to allow your break. Cook is fixated on the sideline receiver. Cook also can’t allow a receiver across his face even if that’s not his guy. That score gave TCU 17 points and, amazingly, that’s all they needed for a 7 point win.

Of course, that second touchdown never happens if Texas doesn’t attempt a punt block. Putting those two plays aside, Texas was otherwise dominant. Constant disciplined pressure on Duggan (who never posed any pocket run threat), the best zone and combo coverage I’ve seen this year and terrific aggression. Texas played at a defensive speed we haven’t seen since Bama and a physical and multiple pass rush coordinated with corner and nickel blitzes completely disrupted TCU’s rhythm.

DL

Here’s a good 4 play slice up illustrating their physicality and effort:

Strong job all around. By far the best performance for the edges this season. Barryn Sorrell was everywhere with 11 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and a batted ball. Sorrell exploited his quickness advantage against a slow-footed TCU offensive line. Ovie Oghoufo turned in his most physical performance of the season, containing Duggan beautifully while repeatedly driving bigger TCU tackles into Duggan’s lap. I have to think that Ovie’s disappointing KSU film was used heavily as both motivation and a tool for instruction. Ovie effectively created Sorrell’s first sack by moving Duggan off his spot, not via flyby but by parking #74 in his lap. You’ll see that on the first clip above. #18 finished with 7 tackles and 2 tackles for loss. Coburn and Sweat were the primary standouts inside. They combined for 9 tackles and Sweat had a blocked pass. They were largely responsible for Texas being able to bring stunts and movement without being punished inside.

LB

Ford and DMO combined for 20 tackles. Jaylan Ford played with consistency and effort, though he wore down a bit in the 4th quarter. This was a DMO friendly game for sure. At least until the closing run sequences where Texas wore down and the linebackers didn’t fit some gaps ideally. With the Texas DL dominating inside, DMO was free to roam and run and did a lot of cleaning up across the board. There was a discernible drop off to DTD’s snaps, though he did have a nice stunt sack on a flushed Duggan. Ghosting his gap on the 75 yard TD run was a backbreaker.

DB

 

Texas was without D’shawn Jamison and were probably better for it. Physicality abounded, highlighted by the terrific play of screen hawk Jahdae Barron. Barron totaled 11 tackles, a scoop and score touchdown and 3 tackles for loss, all inflicted by jumping TCU’s staple screen game. Destroying those easy yards out wide put TCU’s offense into a pickle early. The best DB play of the game came when Barron split a double team to stick a TCU pass catcher 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Before the play, you can see him kamikaze to the spot before the ball is even out of Duggan’s hand. That play was emblematic of the confidence and aggression that so many Texas defenders played with. No hesitation pulling the trigger. Ryan Watts played a heck of a game and PK’s habit of blitzing corners and nickels wasn’t fruitless, but was greatly enhanced by the efficacy of the regular pass rush. It was also a nice containment insurance on Duggan getting out of the pocket. Watts finished with 6 tackles, 2 tackles for loss and a sack.

Props to Terrance Brooks and Austin Jordan for holding up in tough circumstances at the other corner spot. Brooks got the lion’s share of snaps and he held up pretty well on most of his snaps. Jerrin Thompson and Anthony Cook didn’t have much work as TCU avoided the middle of the field and the Texas edge defenders of all varieties (both DL and CB, nickel) didn’t let much bleed past them.

Special Teams

Keilan Robinson had a nice kickoff return to midfield and the Horns had very good coverage on a dangerous TCU special teams unit while Kitan Crawford got a finger on missed TCU field goal attempt, but the new set of downs gifted to TCU at the beginning of the 4th quarter with a punt block attempt was a decisively bad call. One I understand emotionally, but can’t countenance logically. That’s why there are head coaches and not just three coordinators running the team. That’s a frustration “let’s make something happen” call by Jeff Banks meant to compensate for a pathetic offensive performance. You have to set up return, make TCU kick (they were punting from their 27) and hope the offense puts it together. You don’t put the defense at risk again in a one score game when they’ve been under constant stress and just gave up their only touchdown the drive prior. TCU parlayed a new lease on life into a touchdown. Ultimately, that was the decisive score of the game.

Final

The Texas defense drew by far the most difficult assignment of the TCU units and they kicked TCU’s ass on about 85% of plays, even with considerable headwinds provided by other units. The Texas offense played so abysmally that they managed to kill themselves and drown their rescuer.

 

[Red Five 41739]

Beat me by about two seconds. I was in the process of posting the offensive postmortem. What a fun read. 

RB

Can’t evaluate. They weren’t part of the offense. After the half, RoJo and Bijan had a combined 6 carries for 4 yards. Neither caught a pass. Keilan Robinson ran zero jet sweeps and had zero perimeter flips. 21 personnel was an afterthought. Texas consented to removing the best unit on the team from the game.

Fireable offense.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Red Five

[TwiceHorn 32079]

"Applied talent."  That's good shit and why I love me some Scipio.

[satyanash 15610]

Eric Nahlin: Former state championship winning coach Bryan Erwin discusses Texas vs. TCU

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Lunch With The Coach is our weekly segment on On Texas Football with Bobby Burton (subscribe!) in which we get perspective from two-time state champion head coach Bryan Erwin. Coach Erwin was at La Marque when he reached the heights of 4A football twice. He is also a Texas-Ex, so hints of his irrepressible fandom often appear. Because of that, and the fact he speaks authentic Texas High School Football coach, to gain the full experience I’d encourage you to listen on your drive to work, while working out, etc. But if you can’t listen or watch, you can at least read his thoughts here.

Erwin’s initial takeaway was the defense played very well considering how many bad positions it was put in. Said Erwin, “Really proud of our defense, the way they got stops, the way they got off the field, just an incredible display of defensive football.”

Burton mentions the inability of the offense to get the run game going. Erwin responds, “No, we couldn’t, there wasn’t much there. You gotta keep pounding it. You have to have the ability and capacity to stay with it, because guess what, they couldn’t run the ball either and they just kept staying with it and they put themselves in position to stay with it until finally the dam broke. I was at the game, there was no space out there. They were blanketing us. There was just no space. They took the air out of our offense.”

Erwin mentions on defense you want to compress space, on offense you have to create it and Texas wasn’t creating it. “Quinn struggled, it wasn’t a great game. Sark struggled, it wasn’t a great game. But I’m telling you, there wasn’t much there. Credit to TCU, they played great defense. Lack of credit would go to our offensive line and wide receivers. We got re-routed and then re-routed. We couldn’t get off re-routes from the defenders.”

Burton states Texas struggled with Sark’s preferred personnel packages and asks Erwin if Sark should have looked to spread them out earlier. Erwin responds, “In hindsight yes. I think Sark found that midway through the 3rd quarter. We found it and had some success and stayed with it. Maybe we should have stayed with it a little bit more. That was our best combination of plays because basically what we were doing we were getting in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1, TE, 3 WR) and we had the tight end set on the same side as the three receivers. So because we’re not a Zone Read team we can hand it to the tailback without Zone Reading it because we have a tight end on the back side to protect the C-gap. Block the guy most people normally read. We run the ball to the two-man service side. And then you got your RPO out to the same side. Quinn was throwing the RPO bubble to Jordan (Whittington) and we were picking up big chunks of yardage or we were handing it off to Bijan (Robinson). I think his best run was 9-yards, I believe, out of that set, that RPO scheme, in which we actually handed it off. Yeah, I wish we would have found that earlier.”

Burton wonders if we are getting to a time of the year where moving the football is more difficult due to teams having more familiarity on what. “I think it’s because you have 7, 8, 9 games of film on people. You know their route concepts, they’re not going to start developing new route concepts. You know the adjustment off those concepts. You’ve got a ton of data (the gruff voiced Erwin is a dat-uh not dayt-uh sort) that you can scout and show your players throughout the week. The passing game is a little easier to defend this time of year. That’s exactly why you gotta be able to run the ball in November. The college game and the NFL game, you’ve got to be able to run the football. We didn’t run the ball worth a lick the other night and therefore we played the way we played and produced the way we produced. It’s inexcusable, we have to be able to run the football to be a championship club.”

Does Erwin have any words of encouragement for Ewers? “Keep your head up. Have fun. Make sure you’re preparing as hard as you possibly can. That’s up to him. We don’t know what that looks like throughout the week, I know what it should look like. Prepare, work your tail off, be the hardest worker on the team. Be ultimately prepared going into the game so you’re physically and mentally ready to go. Let’s have a great week this week. Let’s rebound. He’s a player but he’s a freshman. We gotta go through these growing pains. Sam Ehlinger went through these growing pains. Colt McCoy went through these growing pains. Vince Young went through these growing pains.”

Burton notes Pete Kwiatkowski may have had his most aggressive game plan to date. Erwin’s thoughts, “Oh it was fun. Snap-1, they lined up trips and we start matching those trips receivers, I’m like okay here we go we’re going with man coverage on first down, first route out of the box. We played aggressive, we played physical, they flew to the ball. We shut down the running game from the start. They had no air in there, there was no space in there. Doing a great job against the run, getting great pressure on (Max) Duggan and just played very, very well especially under the circumstances because the field position game was ugly in the first half. At half time I thought we were so fortunate to be down three to nothing. It’s a win. You know I didn’t blame Sark at all for not being aggressive right there at the half. I thought let’s get to half time, this has been about as ugly as it can be. Let’s get to the half, let’s make some adjustments, let’s talk through this, and get out of there because I was happy we were only down three at the half.”

What did Erwin see that was new on defense? “Early on, starting out playing some man coverage. I love that. I love the aggression there. We brought some pressure off the edge, especially from the field. Or we baited them, we bluffed them. Jahdae Barron did a great job of showing pressure and then not coming. And not showing pressure and then coming. We got great push from those guys inside, our edge guys played well. By and large, stopping the run and getting pressure on the quarterback. And just flying around, our guys were flying, and physical, and having fun. You know what I really like most, no matter how bad it got — the first couple of series, okay our offense isn’t moving the ball, no big deal but it’s fixing to come. Third series, didn’t move it. Fourth series, didn’t move it. Fifth series, didn’t move it. I was watching our defensive guys and their body language to see kind of were they gonna keep that energy level up, and they were. No matter how bad it got, no matter how bad the circumstances were, those guys’ body language was there. They were confident.”

For this week, “Everybody needs to step up, this is not on Quinn Ewers. Everybody’s gotta step up their play.” Erwin goes on to state Xavier Worthy needs to compete for balls, “he’s not even drawing PI’s.”

Erwin mentions this week is more about Texas than Kansas. Texas has to be able to run the ball. “What I’m most concerned about today, we probably lost a tremendous amount of confidence on offense. And when you lose confidence, especially on offense, it’s tough, tough, to regain it. As a play caller, as a quarterback, as a tailback, it’s tough. And so that’s my biggest concern right now is offensively we haven’t scored a touchdown in six quarters. We’ve lost some confidence. They can say they haven’t — we have.”

“We need to get our confidence back on offense and we need our defense to come out and play like they did last week.”

Eric Nahlin: Sark the head coach vs. Sark the coordinator

Quote

How’s the hangover? Every loss is frustrating in its own unique way. Had it been known the Texas defense would hold TCU to 17 points how much money would you have wagered on the Horns? I often write it, but it’s not a good sign when the side of the ball struggling is the same as the head coach’s expertise. We saw that with Charlie Strong and Tom Herman. A&M is seeing it now with Jimbo Fisher.

Texas fans are back to entering that territory after the offense could only muster three points in 60 minutes. Of course we’ve seen it a couple of times when Texas only scores three points in a half, but the whole game? Against a fairly average TCU defense? At home?

When he was hired it was hoped Steve Sarkisian’s offensive acumen would set a pretty high floor for the program. It’s my opinion the Sark we’re seeing now is probably a better head coach, yet worse coordinator than people realize. You’re probably re-reading that sentence to make sure I actually wrote it, but look at what Sark the program manager has been doing compared to Sark the coordinator.  

Team culture is much better than it was a year ago. Most of the malcontents were exiled. The players work hard and don’t complain. The team is not getting pushed around and was the more physical team yesterday. We’ve seen countless examples of individual players performing better than a year ago; real development and growth. Almost across the board the coaches are recruiting well. Roster health is being restored. Yet because of inconsistent offense, it’s not registering like it should in the win-loss column. The passing game has largely been a disaster since Texas shellacked OU. Not just bad, a full on disaster.

Iowa State: 17/26, 172 yards, 6.6 YPA, 3 TD, 0 INT [Granted, Quinn was good in the red zone.]

Oklahoma State: 19/49, 319 yards, 6.5 YPA. 2 TD, 3 INT

Kansas State: 18/31, 197 yards, 6.4 YPA, 2 TD, 0 INT

TCU: 17/39, 171 yards, 4.4 YPA, 0 TD, 1 INT

That puts Ewers at a dismal 71/145 over his last four games. His YPA is 5.92. Remember, 7 YPA is poor. It’s hard to foresee things improving next week as Texas returns to the road. Sark’s refusal to bench Ewers, even if just for a drive or two to settle him down, is curious. That decision is impossible to separate between Sark’s head coaching and coordinating duties.

I understand his logic, but I don’t agree with it. Same with his insistence to continue to throw the ball deep. Texas is no longer playing for the Big 12 title, but make no mistake, these are must-win games upcoming against Kansas and Baylor. These are not ‘develop your players’ games. Save that for bowl practices.

It remains to be seen how much yesterday hurt recruiting. I tend to think it won’t due to Sark’s reputation for offense and the bulk of UT’s remaining class needs being on defense. Defensive recruits couldn’t have had issues with anything they saw on their side of the ball. Yesterday certainly didn’t help, but I don’t believe it hurt too much. Though, the next two weeks need to be wins. 7-5, or, gasp!, 6-6, isn’t going to cut it as the 2023 class gives way to 2024.

Sark will justifiably be judged by his final win-loss record, but his biggest issue right now is his own call sheet, his offensive preferences working against where he is at this stage of his build, and youth and nearly unfathomable inconsistency at quarterback. Yesterday was rough. It was even more un-even between offensive and defensive quality than Texas vs Oklahoma State in 2017. That written, it was good to see the defense play well. They’ll need to build off that while Sark figures out his issues at offensive coordinator.

I largely think the program is stable and I had a shell of an article written last week stating that. I’m glad I shelved it for now, but points of emphasis included leadership (triumvirate), NIL long game, talent accumulation, player development, and the SEC move. There are good fundamentals in place when taking the altitudinal view. More granularly, Sark needs to figure out where his processes are breaking down and fix them ASAP.

 

[Codaxx 6255]

33 minutes ago, satyanash said:

Eric Nahlin: Former state championship winning coach Bryan Erwin discusses Texas vs. TCU

Eric Nahlin: Sark the head coach vs. Sark the coordinator

 

Thanks. I always like the Bryan Erwin video. 

[satyanash 15610]

(Justin Wells) PFF Grades: No. 4 TCU 17, Texas 10

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Inside Texas takes a closer look at the grades for the offense and defense of the Longhorns after their 17-10 loss to No. 4 TCU in Austin on Saturday, per PFF.

QB

Quinn Ewers, 49.9.

This was the redshirt freshman’s worst outing as a Longhorn. Ewers went 17-of-39, 144 yards passing, and one interception. The TCU defense had Ewers figured out from the start.

RB

Bijan Robinson, 58.5; Roschon Johnson, 61.2

The Horns’ dynamic backfield duo combined for 43 total yards on Saturday. 43! Robinson (45 snaps) and Johnson (21 snaps) also averaged 2.6 yards per carry between them for their worst grade in the 2022 season.

WR

Jordan Whittington, 69.6

Whittington led the UT receivers in all categories – six catches, 78 yards, on 62 snaps. He also led the offense in scoring grade, 69.6%, which is telling for an offense that didn’t produce a touchdown. He also had a solid 74.4% run-blocking grade.

TE

Ja’Tavion Sanders, 64.0

The metroplex-raised sophomore collected a team-high seven catches, added 61 yards receiving on 62 snaps, and a modest 71.4% pass-blocking grade. Jahleel Billingsley had one target, but dropped the pass.

OL

Christian Jones, 66.3; Hayden Conner, 64.4; Kelvin Banks, 69.5

The Texas offensive line has had better days. Banks led the way with the highest overall grade in 62 snaps, adding a team-high 84.0% pass-blocking. DJ Campbell added a 80.3 pass-blocking mark, while Jones notched a team-high 63.0% run-block grade.

DL

Alfred Collins, 71.7; T’Vondre Sweat, 68.4

The Texas defensive front played well against the Horned Frogs. Collins led the group (11 snaps), Sweat played 40 snaps and tallied 70.9% run-defense grade. Keondre Coburn led the position with five tackles.

EDGE/LB

Ovie Oghoufo, 72.0; Barryn Sorrell, 60.0; DeMarvion Overshown 71.6

Oghoufo notched seven tackles, two tackles for loss, and an half-sack, while leading the group with an 81.3% run-defense grade. Sorrell tied a team-high 11 tackles, three tackles for loss, and one and half sacks. Overshown added 11 tackles, half sack, and half tackle for loss on 66 snaps.

CB

Ryan Watts, 63.6, Terrance Brooks, 68.9

Watts led the secondary with 82.6% tackling grade on 74 snaps. Brooks graded 68.9% in a career-high 67 snaps for the injured D’Shawn Jamison, adding a 77.9% tackling mark.

S/Nickel

Jahdae Barron, 77.0

Barron played fantastic tying the team lead in tackles (11), three and half tackles for loss, while adding a 76.3% coverage grade on 74 snaps. His fumble return for a touchdown was the only time a Longhorn found the end zone on Saturday night.

 

[Duane Moore 5756]

2 hours ago, satyanash said:

It’s my opinion the Sark we’re seeing now is probably a better head coach, yet worse coordinator than people realize.

This seems exactly right to me. At the risk of sounding like an Aggie bitching about Jimbo, I think Sark needs to turn over the play calling reigns to Flood or Milwee. 

[Brothahorn 10097]

He needs a Brian Daboll/Mike Locksley/Jim McElwain.

 

If he had actually been paying attention while under Saban, he would know this already. Another negative mark against him.

 

A smart man knows his limits.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Brothahorn

[satyanash 15610]

Ian Boyd: The missing Ewers-to-Worthy connection

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Texas was eager for a change at quarterback after the 2021 season. Casey Thompson‘s long ball left a lot to be desired, Hudson Card was inconsistent throwing down the field as well, and the ultimate weapon to pull defenders away from Bijan Robinson and the run game was frequently left unfired. In several big games in which Texas blew early leads, opponents would pack the box and sit on their run game, wasting Bijan’s talent.

Heading into 2022, Texas rebuilt the offensive line with several big men taking roles across the front. They got a major boost when Kelvin Banks emerged as a fantastic left tackle, both improving that position and allowing Texas to build a jumbo package by moving Andrej Karic to tight end. Texas also developed young tight ends Ja’Tavion Sanders and Gunnar Helm while adding Jahleel Billingsley from Alabama.

Texas depth at running back is better, the offensive line is stronger and more coherent in year two of the scheme, and they can add more and better blockers around the line. Finally, despite the loss of Isaiah Neyor to an injury in fall camp, they still have 10.5 sprinter Xavier Worthy to serve as a target on play-action. This team is built to pound teams with the run game and punish overplays with deep shots, the composition is nearly ideal.

Throwing the ball? Generationally gifted thrower Quinn Ewers, who arrived via transfer in time for winter drills and spring practices. With the season and a chance at translating all of this into a Big 12 Championship with a home win over TCU, here’s the kind of defensive looks Texas is getting. 1st snap of the first half:

Eight in the box and the deep safety was playing flat-footed despite his initial depth, reading the tight end. Early in the 2nd half:

Eight in the box and now the deep safety is flat-footed at just eight yards deep. What’s the deal? Wasn’t this nightmare supposed to be behind the Longhorns?

A post away from a Big 12 Championship?

The post route is the ultimate weapon of the power running, play-action team. You get a fast receiver running down the field, breaking open at an angle, then you chuck it over the middle of the defense’s head and hit him on the move and he scores. Oklahoma State won a ton of football games over three years of Mason Rudolph throwing post routes to James Washington.

Texas is unfathomably bad at throwing the post route to Xavier Worthy. They tried a couple of times in this game, as they have in every other game, and once again came up empty.

There’s a lot that’s not great about this one which feeds into why it was caught by the other team. The ball is kinda lofted out there for one, this is window which needed to be hit with more zip. The throw arrives late, it’s apparent he threw into double coverage but Ewers didn’t have to give the safety a chance to make a play on the ball. Additionally, the ball was intercepted because it was late and behind to the cornerback, the safety couldn’t quite get there.

Here was the other attempt.

The fact you never see Worthy dive or lay out for a ball makes him an easy person to blame for these routine misses but… he was open on both of these throws and didn’t get an accurate ball into the right window. Might he have laid out and made some desperate attempt here? Possibly, but it wouldn’t actually make a difference save for making his quarterback look worse and potentially getting him injured.

Again, the ball is late and this time completely off Worthy’s line. The safety who appears in the picture late was sprinting there and only had time to arrive in the vicinity because the ball sailed. The concept on this one is “dig-post” which was OSU’s favorite way to hit James Washington down the field. Texas missed an identical play to Worthy with Card against Iowa State in 2021.

There have been similar issues with the slot fade route, which Texas attempted a few times in this game and couldn’t connect on. Ewers did hit a seam/post from closer range to Sanders (rifled that one in with perfect timing) and had some chances at throwing deeper stop routes, including one he missed late in the game throwing off his back foot.

The overall mechanics have been shaky and Ewers simply isn’t connecting on these deeper throws, the timing and accuracy isn’t there.

So what’s to be done?

I’m seeing a lot of arguments about what Texas should have done which quickly move past the “Ewers isn’t hitting the post” issue underlying the offense. This issue is actually a bit more serious and clear than perhaps we’ve appreciated. For instance:

Casey Thompson (2021): 261 passes for 2,113 yards at 8.1 ypa with 24 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

Quinn Ewers (2022): 212 passes for 1,507 yards at 7.1 ypa with 13 touchdowns and six interceptions.

Texas’ ability to land big plays in the passing game has actually DIMINISHED since replacing Thompson with Ewers, with the obvious caveat Ewers could potentially catch up with big games against Kansas and Baylor. He could also fall further back. It’s diminished despite having Whittington healthy all year, getting Worthy more reps in the system, drastically improving pass protection, and improving the run game. This wasn’t supposed to happen and the primary variable that’s changed for the worse is quarterback.

During fall practice I noted Card was actually more effective in deeper throws because he was reading the defense and delivering with much better timing. Nevertheless Ewers got the job. He was shaky but flashed against ULM, hit a few massive throws against Alabama before his injury, and then really hasn’t been particularly good since although he makes a handful of throws every week few others can.

An interesting quirk over recent weeks has been teams refusing to respect the post from Texas.

Ewers was hitting the crossers run underneath the deep safeties when they cleared out to stop the post really well, particularly against Alabama and Oklahoma. Now defenses are making him prove he can throw the post… and it’s not connecting. Unless I’m mistaken, the only post Texas has hit to Worthy all season was by Card against West Virginia. Without the intermediate crossers or run game, Texas’ offensive well dries up.

Thus you end up with teams loading the box again as they did in 2021. They can try more spread sets but this team was built to run the dang football with Bijan and Roschon Johnson and they were doing it well before opponents went back to loading the box. What happens when they get into 11 personnel and the lack of a third receiver emerges as an issue? How much of the spread passing game can Ewers reliably execute after repping the power/play-action sets more heavily? Can this offense really work their way down the field without errors given Ewers’ struggles to read defenses and check out of bad situations?

Ultimately this offense doesn’t work until they can connect on throws down the field. Every offense has a limit if you can’t force good safeties to back off.

Perhaps next week the dam breaks and Ewers hits the post or other vertical routes multiple times, but it’ll likely have been too late for 2022. Texas is clearly invested in Ewers’ talent and future, it’s easy to see why, but in a year in which the league was down and ripe for conquest the Longhorns probably just wasted another opportunity for a title. Now they’re pot committed to developing his talent. A big offseason looms for Steve Sarkisian and Ewers.