My apologies for not having a Sunday column for you folks over the weekend following the game. Had a little vacation time in a foreign country that was pre-planned, so I had to dust of the passport and catch a couple of flights to spend some time in the sun.
Being in a foreign land outside of Wifi and cell service forces your hand to unplug a bit, so I didn’t have all four of my eyes glued to the TV when Texas stumbled for the second week in a row against an unranked opponent. Probably
was for the best if I am being honest. With that said, I did manage to peek in at different points of the game and I certainly knew the result after making it back to my hotel room after an afternoon on a boat throwing back drinks in the Dominican sun.
A time was had, but once I got back to reality, I had to sober up in more ways than one and see what the hell happened on Saturday. After getting caught up in my Texas group chats and checking out the condensed game via Youtube, I share a lot of the same frustrations Texas fans had following the game. This team, who was viewed as a national title contender coming into the season is in a world of trouble.
My observations won’t be as elaborate all things considered, but I will give you the gist after what I was able to see on the replay.
The Texas offense looks DOA
I don’t what else can be added here that hasn’t already been said everywhere else. We’ve seen it throughout the season, but the Texas offense bottomed out on Saturday against a Florida defense that allowed 38 and 45 points to South Carolina and Mizzou the previous two weeks and boasts one of the worst passing defenses in the FBS.
The Texas offense mustered 173 passing yards and a whopping 24 points. How in God’s good name is that possible given the overall investment in this roster and with the team being pretty damn healthy at this point in the season?
The offense came out looking fine, which offered a glimmer of hope. An early touchdown drive capped off by a Raleek Brown touchdown run.
That’s how you expected to see this offense to look all year long. Except you wouldn’t see another touchdown drive from them until there were just over two minutes left in the game. Once again, once Steve Sarkisian’s offense gets off their script and into the flow of the game they sputter, struggle to sustain drives, and look downright putrid. The offense looks unimaginative, stale, and downright vanilla, which allows defenses to just put them in a box and attack them until they make a mistake.
4th and gotta have it, and this is the result… *SIGH* I don’t even know what to make of this anymore. I have been pro-Arch using his legs more, but the decision here to essentially run right into the arms of a defender is just frustrating. Manning was outperformed by a backup quarterback, who was making his first start on the road. That’s on Sarkisian, that’s on Arch, that’s on AJ Milwee, and that’s on Mike Bimonte. What is the point of having this many guys involved in the development of the quarterback if this is going to be the result in year four? Manning looking like this at this point in his career is a daming indictment for everyone involved here.
I saw the clip of the earlier 4th and 1, where the Texas offense comes out in a shotgun set and runs a slow-developing run play just to get blown up in the backfield. I couldn’t find it on Twitter, but it validated my thoughts that the Texas offensive braintrust has made the football way more complicated than it needs to be at times. Get your 6’4, 230-pound quarterback under center there and execute a damn quarterback sneak, or put the ball in the belly of your best short-yardage back when he is getting downhill with a head of steam. What are we even doing, man?
I am just going to place there here and ask this question: Why is he forcing that ball down the field and not just taking the open green field right in front of him?
2/10 on third downs, 1/3 on fourth downs, and held to under 300 yards of offense. Against one of the worst passing defenses in the country. Still allowing too much pressure, quarterback is still holding the ball too long, running game still is a net negative despite the upgrade in talent at running back.
Sarkisian’s ego might get him fired if he doesn’t take a long look in the mirror about what’s going on with his side of the ball. If this is the result of the investment many people made in this Texas offense and he can’t figure it out, then what kind of value-add is he on the offensive headsets? He has successfully painted himself into a corner, and he really can’t point the finger at anyone else but himself now.
There has been talk of KJ Lacey getting more reps with the ones this week, but honestly, if the coaches don’t put together a winning game plan around him, how much of an improvement will we realistically see if he gets put in the game?
Colin Simmons getting injured is as brutal as it gets
It’s a got damn shame that Simmons went down on Saturday. He has been an absolute pleasure to watch this year and was once again a dominant force for the Texas defense. Before getting hurt, he ran his season sack total up to 10.5, and he had a chance to lead the entire country in sacks and put himself in some extremely elite company as far as career numbers go. Now he is set to miss multiple weeks with a high ankle sprain, which can be an absolute b-word to recover from.
You can’t replace a guy like Simmons. Even with a guy like Lance Jackson playing well, you are going to take a step back, and offenses will not feel that same strain of having to try to block him from down to down. Simmons was not only a force in the passing game, he was also becoming one against the run as well. He may end up being a top five pick in 2027 once he declares for Sundays.
A glimmer of hope on special teams
It’s about damn time. Finally, we see something from Texas in the special teams return game, and Niblett shows that dynamic speed that he showed often last season. How Texas has been able to block worth a damn for him on a more consistent basis this year is beyond me.
Also, Ryan… please don’t fair catch balls at the five-yard line.
Also, Texas’ punting game is mediocre at best. Mac Chiumento was brought in from Florida State to be a lot better than has been this year. He averaged a little over 42 yards a punt on Saturday, and when you saw the way Florida’s punter Alec Clark was able to impact the game by constantly flipping the field position and pin Texas deep, it really magnified things.
If you aren’t going to have a huge leg then you better make sure your placement and hang time better at least be good, and we have not consistently seen that from Chiumento either. With Texas’ inability to move the ball consistently, Chiumento’s performance has only further compounded field position issues.
The Texas offense allows far too many negative plays
Ball security, ball security, ball security. Protect the football in the pocket.
As an offensive lineman, you just have to get on top of the ball there, Trevor. Damn, trying to pick it up. Get on it and live to fight another down.
The worst play of them all, considering what was happening, but there were plenty of negative plays to go around in this one once again.
Five sacks allowed, though not all of them were on the offensive line. Five sacks is still five sacks at the end of the day though. On top of that, Florida inflicted 11 tackles for a loss against the Texas offense. That’s not going to get it done and as I mentioned earlier, this was extremely disappointing considering that this Florida defense was outright whipped the past two weeks.
10+ negative plays, a brutal turnover at the end of the game, and just a lot of inconsistent play.
Yuck.
Texas finally slowed Jadan Baugh
Again, it doesn’t really matter due to the result of the game, but the Texas defense made arguably the best back in the country work as hard as he ever had against them in the three times he has faced them. Baugh was absolute hell on the Texas defense in the past two matchups, and he really did a number on them last year in Gainesville, when he went over 100 yards on the ground and was incredibly tough to get on the ground.
Baugh ended the game with 91 yards on 25 carries, and he did find the end zone for the third time in a row against Texas, but he really had to earn everything he got, as he averaged just 3.4 yards per tote on Saturday.
Baugh is a future Sunday player, and he was pursued by Texas with gusto over the offseason for a reason. Too bad the overall results were not more favorable for the team as a whole on Saturday.
Nothing left to be really be sad after the past two weeks. Your offene is in shambles, your best player (Simmons) is set to miss multiple weeks against some tough matchups, and you now have to be perfect if you want any shot at trying to play in the postseason. Oh, did I mention you have a quarterback problem on top of all that?
No biggee, Sark. I’m sure he will dial up a winning game plan for the Ole Miss game this week if the the past two weeks have been any indication. Oh wait…
Trinidad Chambliss is coming to town and they can score a lot of points. Their defense has also shown they will give up points in bunches too, but I can’t even feel optimistic about that given what we have all see lately.
No 24-hour rule this week since I am tardy to party. See y’all on Sunday for better or for worse.
