The No. 7 Texas Longhorns continue to improve late in the season and look closer to the team we expected them to be preseason for the first time this year. They played complementary football in Saturday’s 34-20 win over the No. 18 Missouri Tigers, led by an offense that played within itself, while the defense continued to stymie what opponents wanted to do. The Longhorns went on the road and played a great game against the Tigers, with room to improve ahead of their penultimate road test of the regular
season.
Texas offense: 373 total yards (76 rushing, 297 passing)
It wasn’t perfect, but the offense looked better than it has for most of the season, finding ways to compensate for their struggles in the trenches. The Texas rushing attack was once again abysmal, but they leaned on lateral passing and screens, with nearly 30 percent of their attempts coming at or behind the line of scrimmage. That includes their first touchdown of the game, the bootleg “Sark Screen” to Derrek Cooper, who made multiple defenders miss in space to find paydirt 25 yards later. That was one of many chunk plays for Texas, with 184 of their total yards coming on just nine explosive plays, including all three touchdown passes.
Texas took advantage of the speed advantage over the Missouri defense, finding space and running away from defenders,especially when they leaned into man coverage. Texas racked up 139 yards after the catch and hit Raleek Brown’s exclamation-point 23-yard wheel route touchdown when he was left one-on-one in man coverage against a linebacker. That is the second week in a row Brown has been the recipient of a touchdown strike as Arch Manning rounds into form.
Arch Manning: 24-38, 297 yards, 3 TDs
This was the much-maligned quarterback’s best game since the opener against Texas State, thanks to more decisive play and a game plan that better fits his skill set. The most frustrating part of watching Manning play this year has been the head-scratching throws that give the ball to the other team, and for the first time this year, Manning has avoided throwing an interception for consecutive games. He did a good job of layering the ball at different levels and keeping the defense on its toes, with an almost even split of attempts at or behind the line of scrimmage (11), between one and five yards (10), and between five and 14 yards (10). Perhaps the biggest improvement was avoiding his desire to take deep shots that weren’t there, throwing to routes longer than 15 yards just six times in the game.
With his accolades and hype, however, you need him to do more than just not lose games, which you can say about Manning’s performance as the calendar moved to November. Manning is 24-of-31 passing for 307 yards and four touchdowns in the second halves of the last two games, as Texas tries to learn how to put away opponents. That includes an 8.3 yards-per-attempt pace against the Tigers as the Longhorns finally found a way to close out an opponent.
Missouri offense: 373 total yards (297 passing, 76 rushing)
With the injuries on the defensive side of the ball, the questions continued to circle about whether Texas has the ability to play championship-level defense, and they continued to answer the call. Missouri has one of the nation’s best rushing attacks in the country and Texas shut it down, holding them to less than 100 yards for just the second time this year. Conversely, the Horns have accomplished that feat in six of its nine games this year, an elite all-around performance.
Jamal Roberts came into the game as one of the nation’s best rushers, averaging 125 yards per game before Saturday’s matchup. Texas held him to just 66 yards in the contest, the fourth time this year he’s had less than 100 yards, and just the third time since starting conference play Roberts has been held without a touchdown. Missouri is now 1-3 when he’s held to under 100 yards and 0-3 when he’s held without a touchdown.
