The No. 9 Texas Longhorns looked outclassed in many facets of the game, dropping an embarrassing road game to a struggling Florida Gators team. While the Longhorns looked like they found some of their
rhythm, they head into Red River reeling on one of the worst performances we’ve seen from Texas since Steve Sarkisian’s first year at the helm.
The offensive line has to improve
More than anything, this game served as a referendum on Kyle Flood’s unit. After refusing to dip into the portal to supplement an inexperienced offensive line, the unit stood pat and looked outmatched in its first conference game. Texas running backs rushed for just 11 yards on nine carries, for a 1.2 yards per carry. Texas had 33% of its runs stuffed and seemingly abandoned the run quickly. Perhaps even more embarrassing is the .07 yards per carry on first down.
It wasn’t just the ground game; quarterback Arch Manning was never able to get fully comfortable in the pocket, getting sacked three times and hurried on eight carries. His legs saved Texas from allowing even more sacks, bailing the line out when they missed assignments and got bullied. In addition to the struggles with their play, the offensive line was responsible for the Longhorns’ first six penalties of the game — four of which were pre-snap penalties.
Arch Manning has the tools, but can’t use them without help
We saw both the best and worst of Arch Manning in the game, finding open receivers for big plays, but also pressing and putting the ball in bad spots that led to turnovers. Manning had a run of 7-10 for 145 yards and two touchdowns, which was his best run of the game. He followed that with a string of bad balls, two of which Florida took the other way, letting them continue to bleed the clock.
He seemingly struggled with simulated pressures, with the Gators showing blitz and then bailing out, because of the Gators’ ability to generate pressure with minimal rushers. He failed to reach the six yards per dropback mark in the contest, and the Longhorns struggled to keep the ball moving in crucial situations.
The defense isn’t elite without good line play
Florida truly bullied Texas in the trenches, which put the defense at a disadvantage early and often. Florida averaged 5.7 yards per carry on first down, rushing the ball 15 times for 87 yards to set themselves up ahead of the chains early and often. Following that to its logical conclusion, five of Florida’s 13 third-down attempts came from four yards or closer, converting on four of those, rushing for an average of 4 yards per carry on third-down rushes.
Texas was held without a sack yet again, managed just three tackles for loss and hurried DJ Lagway just four times in the contest. They came up with a run stop in crunch time, getting Texas the ball back with a minute left to try and tie the game, but it was too little, too late.
