Georgia 22 Texas 19 (OT)

The Longhorns fell short of a SEC title, but bigger goals still attainable

We said in this space last week that the theme of the week wasn’t revenge, but redemption. Steve Sarkisian said multiple times last week that they respected Georgia but that the Bulldogs deserved Texas’s best shot.

The Horns played much better in Saturday’s SEC Championship game than they did in the October 19th matchup in Austin.

But it still wasn’t enough. And it was far from their best shot.

11 penalties for 94 yards.

31 yards rushing and a pitiful 1.1 yards per carry.

2 interceptions

2 missed field goals

6 dropped passes, including a touchdown

33% on third down

Passive defense when a backup quarterback had to come into the game.

We can talk about the discrepancy in holding calls or the differing amount of penalties in general but the penalties wiped a made field goal off the board, put the Longhorns behind the chains far too often and killed several first downs.

The missed field goals were a liability. The dropped passes were momentum killers.

But the most concerning to me is the Jekyll and Hyde nature of the Texas offensive line. Remember one week ago we were talking about a Texas offensive line that “physically annihilated” a Texas A&M defensive line full of future NFL draft picks.

This week that offensive line full of future NFL draft picks (albeit missing one huge one) again allowed a Georgia defensive line to dominate the line of scrimmage to the tune of 31 rushing yards from the Longhorns on 28 attempts.

If you are wondering, the Horns rushed for 29 yards on 27 carries in the first game.

Quintrevion Wisner, the star last week, was limited to 51 yards on 19 carries. Jaydon Blue had negative 6 total yards for the day.

As a cherry on top, they added six sacks. One interception was partially because Cam Williams was put on skates and the throw was hurried. Against a three-man rush.

The inability to run the football left the Longhorns once again behind the chains on third down (which was a huge problem in the first game as pointed out in this column last week), as the average yardage to gain was 11.6 yards.

You aren’t going to win many football games with that effort.

I’m a big fan of the mindset that you are what you are at this point of the season. The simple fact of the matter is that the Longhorns are a flawed team with some serious issues on offense. The whole is less than the sum of their parts.

The good news is that there is no dominant team, including the Georgia team that keeps getting in the way of Texas.

The playoff draw was favorable for the Longhorns — they will be a 10-point favorite against Clemson, will likely be favored against Arizona State back in Atlanta if they can advance past the Tigers, and, should they make it there, would have a home-field advantage over Oregon/Tennessee/Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl in Arlington.

And then a rematch with Georgia could loom.

But that is putting the cart way before the horse, as there is a lot more football to be played before then. The Longhorns are fortunate to be in the field, as some seriously talented teams are being relegated to the bowl system.

They have a whole slew of issues to iron out.

But so does the rest of the field.