At this point in the season, it’s fair to say that the No. 11 Texas Longhorns are a team led by its defense, with an offense that can usually do enough to win them games. While it was the Mississippi State Bulldogs offense that was missing its starting quarterback and lost another during the game, it was still an impressive outing from Will Muschamp’s unit.
Texas defense: 187 total yards, 9 tackles for loss, 7 sacks
It was one of the best performances by a Texas defense in recent memory, but oddly enough it was the second-lowest total of the year as the Longhorns
once again proved their defense is championship-caliber. A season-low 68 rushing yards, with running back Fluff Bothwell leaving the game early, meant the Bulldogs, who ended up playing their third option at quarterback, had to put the ball in the air, which played into Muschamp’s plans.
Texas turned in nine tackles for loss and seven sacks, led by Rasheem Biles’ career-high three sacks and four tackles for loss. Heading into the game, he had just one sack and 5.5 tackles for loss before taking up the charge of creating disruption without Colin Simmons on the field. One of his sacks led to Maraad Watson becoming the first lineman to scoop-and-score since Hassan Ridgeway in 2015. That also marked the first pair of games with back-to-back forced turnovers since the start of conference play.
Arch Manning: 16-20, 220 yards, 3 TD
We give Arch enough grief when he plays poorly enough to lose Texas games; we have to give him credit when he plays what may be his best game of the season, with three touchdowns and just four incompletions. He wasn’t asked to do much, but in the second half, Manning was 9-of-10 passing for 13.1 yards per attempt with two touchdowns. Granted, that second half also included four of his five sacks, including his second strip-sack fumble in as many weeks, but at least this one didn’t result in a touchdown.
Manning layered the ball well in this contest, with 75 yards coming on routes between five and 14 yards, and 101 yards on patterns longer than 14. That includes the big 42-yard touchdown to Emmett Mosley V that served as an exclamation point on his day. He still struggled on third downs throwing the ball, but Texas was content to unleash his legs on third downs in the first half. He converted three with his legs – two called runs and a scramble – to set up the second score of the game.
Mac Chiumento: 6 punts, 38.2 average
This is really just an excuse to talk about how disappointing the special teams were yet again. In the first half, when Texas needed a spark, Ryan Niblett made several players miss and returned a Mississippi State punt 76 yards for a score. However, Rett Anderson blocked a player in the back at the same point where Niblett received the ball, resulting in a touchdown coming off the board and Texas playing from its own end zone. They nearly gave up a safety multiple times, gained just two net yards, and were forced to punt.
Then Chiumento took the field and punted off the side of his foot for just 36 yards, giving the Bulldogs the ball inside Texas territory and continuing the disturbing trend of the third phase making things more difficult for Texas. Thankfully for Texas, the ensuing drive was the Maraad Watson scoop-and-score, avoiding disaster and keeping Mississippi State off of the board. Chiumento also had a 23-yard put late in the third quarter that forced the defense to defend a short field. The transfer specialist had no punts longer than 50 yards and none inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, bringing his yearly average to No. 106 in the country.
