The No. 20 Texas Longhorns dominated this game for majority of the contest, but down the home stretch they got caught playing with their food and almost gave
the No. 9 Vanderbilt Commodores a chance to tie it late in the 34-31 win at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
At the end of the day, this goes down as a top-10 victory for the Longhorns and keeps their hopes for a College Football Playoff berth alive, but head coach Steve Sarkisian can’t feel good about how his team finished this game.
On the bright side, Sarkisian’s offense has plenty to be thrilled about, and we will get into that and more in this installment of my observations and takeaways from the Texas win over Vanderbilt in Austin.
The Texas offense was at its best on Saturday
Talk about starting the game off with a bang two weeks in a row. This was practically deja vu, with Ryan Wingo getting a quick-hitting pass to the perimeter and absolutely torching the defense, except this time he finished in the end zone on the 75-yard touchdown catch and run.
Wingo has been very good the past two weeks, but the man of the hour in this one was Arch Manning. Number 16 in burnt orange and white was cleared from concussion protocol and back in the starting lineup, and he was as sharp as we’ve ever seen him as a Longhorn.
Manning was absolutely fantastic, as was the offensive game plan and overall operation. Something clearly clicked for everyone involved in the fourth quarter of the Mississippi State game, because since then everything about the Texas offense has been clicking. The offensive line has been protecting better, the play calling and execution has been better, and of course the quarterback play has been better.
Manning finished this game 25-of-33 passing for 328 yards passing and three touchdowns, while not throwing any interceptions, the third time in the last four games that he’s avoided an interception. Not only looking, healthy, Manning was looking confident out there — it’s amazing how much better a quarterback can look when there is a functional offensive ecosystem around him.
Speaking of that ecosystem, the offensive line deserves a shoutout and a game ball for their performance on Saturday. They have protected their asses off the past five quarters of play and it has elevated the ceiling of the offense significantly. Cole Hutson was back in the starting lineup at left guard on Saturday, while Connor Robertson continued to man the center spot. I think that is what you have to roll with moving forward given the success you have had. This group kept Manning clean of sacks all game long and Vanderbilt’s defense was only credited with ONE negative play in the contest. That’s fantastic football from this group. I am not sure what light bulb went off, but Sarkisian and the offensive staff need to lean hard into down the home stretch.
Not to be left out, the Texas running game was at least functional this week. Tre Wisner toted the pill 18 times for 75 yards and a touchdown. It wasn’t earth shattering, but it was enough to keep things moving for the offense and the Texas offensive line was getting a good steady push throughout the game.
This was the good stuff from the Texas offense on Saturday — 10 different Longhorns caught passes from Manning on Saturday. I know some will say it’s Vanderbilt, but they are not a bad defensive football team and are very well coached with Clark Lea’s coaching background on that side of the ball. Texas flat-out dominated them on Saturday and it was very encouraging to see heading into the bye week.
Texas got dinged up injury wise in this one
Texas got positive injury news coming into this game getting guys like Manning, Hutson, and Landon Jackson off the injury report, but unfortunately they had several guys leave the game and not return in this one.
Ryan Wingo, Jelani McDonald, Xavier Filsaime, and Daylan McCutcheon all went down with injuries in this game, with Wingo and McDonald not returning to the game after they left the ball game and went to the locker room. The broadcast noted that McDonald was having to be held up by staffers on his way in and his helmet was taken from him, so the early indications are that he suffered a concussion.
Texas was lucky to be able to escape this matchup with a win and then get a bye week, so that they can get some of these guys healthy. Wingo and McDonald are both impact players for Texas on their respective sides of the ball and they will be needed down the home stretch of this season.
The Texas defense was able to get pressure on Diego Pavia
Coming into this game, Vanderbilt’s offensive line had only surrendered seven sacks of Diego Pavia. The Texas defense almost doubled that number on Saturday, and it was Colin Simmons getting the party started early in Austin.
Simmons didn’t register a sack last week, but he quickly made his presence felt in this one by notching what I call a TRIFECTA (sack, forced fumble, fumble recovery). The Longhorns defensive front was incredibly active in this one, as five different players got home to Pavia for a sack, with the defense notching six in the contest. On top of wrangling Pavia several times, the Texas defense inflicted 10 negative plays, with seven different defenders chipping in there.
Ethan Burke earned his own shoutout here, as he had a whale of a game against the Commodores on Saturday.
Burke might have had his best performance as a Longhorn on Saturday. Three tackles, two sacks, and three TFLs for the hometown kid. His name sometimes gets lost in among his other teammates, but this kid earned himself a game ball with how he went about his business on Saturday.
The Texas secondary absolutely fell apart down the stretch
Now to the gross and disgusting part of the observations. After keeping the clamps down on Pavia and the Vanderbilt offense for most of the game, the back end of the Texas defense absolutely came unglued in the fourth quarter. The Longhorns surrendered 10 points through three quarters of play, with the touchdown coming on a coverage bust on Eli Stowers just before the half.
The defense basically left Vanderbilt’s top receiving option wide-ass open here on a key sequence before the half and you can see that the coverage/alignment was busted from the pre-snap look. All Stowers had to do was run to green grass and space and it was a walk in score.
It got even worse in the final frame of the game. Vanderbilt was operating at a three-score deficit for most of this game, including in the fourth quarter. They proceeded to rattle off 21 points in the final frame and were a near onside kick recovery from having a chance to tie the game in regulation.
Another bust here and again it’s Vanderbilt’s best pass catcher running untouched through the secondary. This was incredibly frustrating to watch coming against an offense that is not known for explosive pass plays like this. They want to grind out drives and sit on the ball and limit possessions for the opposing offense. All Texas had to do was avoid busts like this and they likely win this game by multiple scores. With Michael Taaffe not suiting up for this one and then guys like McDonald getting knocked out of the game early, it became evident down the stretch that Texas was having to count on young players and the communication wasn’t there on the back end as a result.
The Texas defense is very fortunate that the offense spotted it 34 points on Saturday, because otherwise they could have been on the receiving end of a comeback like they pulled off last week in Starkville.
You could see the frustration on Sarkisian’s face at the end of this one. Nothing has come easy the last three weeks despite Texas being on a four-game winning streak heading into the bye. There will be plenty to coach up in the film room and on the practice field next week.
Hats off to Clark Lea and Vanderbilt
I am actually going to use this last spot to give some praise to the opposition. This ain’t the Vanderbilt teams of yesteryears. They are anything but a doormat like have been in years past and they have put together an identity that is sustainable and can win them games in a very tough conference.
When Clark Lea was hired in Nashville, I loved the story of him being an alum and coming home. I was rooting for him and his staff, but acknowledged that history wasn’t on their side and it was a very tough job to take on. Aside from the James Franklin years in Nashville, we just haven’t seen sustained success for this program and they constantly have looked miscast in the SEC as a regular get-right game for conference opponents.
It’s past time to put some respect on the name of the Commodores. They are a tough and gritty team with a tough and gritty quarterback who they rally behind each week. You don’t have to like Pavia or how he carries himself, but you absolutely have to respect the way he plays the game. They had every chance to fold up like a cheap lawn chair once Texas got up on them the way they did. But they didn’t. They stayed the course and kept chipping away and put themselves in a position to almost steal one late.
As good as Arch was today, Pavia was very good as well — 27-of-38 passing for 365 yards and three touchdowns to zero interceptions, though he did fumble the ball early in the game. Dude is a football player, and he is going to go down in the history books for this program and be beloved by fans for years.
I came out of this game with a ton of respect for them and I hope Coach Lea is able to continue to building up what they have out there in Nashville.
The bye week is here and it is sorely needed. Texas needs to nurse bumps and bruises and put their big boy britches on, because on the other side of the bye Georgia awaits them in Athens.
You have the opportunity to get healthy and you have an extra week of prep before you try to go get your first win over the Bulldogs since arriving in the SEC. It will be a tall task, but stranger things have happened this year in college football.
No 24-hour rule this week with the bye week on deck. Enjoy this win this week and then when the time comes, get your mind right for Athens.
