A record crowd at DKR saw an inspired Texas Longhorn team fall to #1 ranked Alabama HEARTBREAKER20-19.
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by erIC nahlIn
Horns up for almost everything except the final score.
Horns Up, Horns Down |
Post Mortem |
Bryce Young leads #1 Alabama to comeback win over Texas.
Texas had solid gameplans and execution in all three phases.
Heartbreaking Last-Second Loss | Joe Cook
| by Ian
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Five
by SCIpIo Tex
Lots of positive signs from the Longhorns. Quick Thoughts boyd
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Texas vs Alabama | September 12, 2022
AUSTIN, TX -- Texas had a chance to prove that all the talk in the offseason about changing the culture, improving after a 5-7 2021 season, and turning the program into a conference title competitor was for real on Saturday when the Alabama Crimson Tide traveled to Austin.
HORNS
LOSE A HEARTBREAKER
HEARTBREAKER
Jaulan Ford
BY JOE COOK
His performance sent most of a stadium-record 105,213 home won dering what could have been after a 20-19 Longhorn defeat.
That is, until Ewers was forced to leave the contest. A hit on Ewers at the end of the first quarter from Dallas Turner that drew a roughing the passer flag knocked him out of the game and thrust Hudson Card into Card,action.wholooked
Young, the first reigning Heisman
A
His team’s record may disagree with the Longhorns now 1-1, but signs of progress were everywhere on Saturday.
winner to play at Darrell K Royal –Texas Memorial Stadium, surged in the fourth quarter. He piloted the Bama offense in two separate go-ahead scoring drives, including the one that set up Will Reichard’s game-winning 33-yard field goal with 10 seconds left.
“Asdirection.Itold the team, I don’t look at this as ‘we lost,’” Sarkisian said postgame. “We ran out of time.”
battled versus the reigning SEC champion as a step in the right
Save for Jase McClellan’s firstquarter 81-yard run, the Longhorns played stout defense in the game’s first three quarters. Young had only 77 yards through the air through 45 minutes. Take away McClellan’s mad dash, and Bama only tallied 103 total yards.
The Crimson Tide tried to help the Longhorns, too. Despite being known for his attention to detail, Saban’s team was penalized for the most times in one game since 2002.
Xavier Worthy
nd for most of the game, it seemed real. Steve Sarki sian’s offense moved the ball with success. Uncharacteristically, Nick Saban’s team showed little disci pline, committing a whopping 15 Petepenalties.Kwiatkowski’s much maligned UT defense stifled Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young and the Tide offense for much of the contest. With the game in question until the final minute, Texas showed con crete evidence of their offseason
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The fact that Young was forced to lead a game-winning drive was a sign of progress for the Longhorns. Sarkisian, with a little righteous indignation, called out local and national media for almost univer sally picking Alabama to win and win easily. He viewed how his team
dinged up in his own right, battled and kept Texas in contention, indicative of the rest of the team. While that was happen ing, the defense kept Young and
- TEXAS | ALABAMA -
Thenwork.
And maybe more impressive than anything else, Sarkisian’s offense with Quinn Ewers leading the way looked like it would be able to give the star-studded Crimson Tide defense all it could handle.
on top of all that, they had a chance to win. An upset victory was in grasp. Young took it away for the Tide to take home.
If it weren’t for Young, Texas would have shown all the effort put forth toward finishing in late game situa tions was REALLY real. But Young is the Heisman winner for a reason, and once he eluded Ryan Watts’ corner blitz to put the Tide in posi tion for the game-winning field goal, Texas’ hopes for victory were wiped “Bryceaway.
7September 12, 2022
fense, even without Ewers, held its own against Turner, Will Anderson, and Jordan Battle. His team battled to the end.
When the Longhorns trailed 17-16 late after Gibbs’ score, it presented Sarkisian’s team its best opportunity to show all the offseason talk and effort about finishing and overcom ing adversity wasn’t just talk. It was a chance to show progress in an area that in 2021 was filled with Texasfailure.had to make a fourth-down
All of those things were signs of true progress made in the offsea son, and evidence all the talk about being an improved team was more than just talk. But it wasn’t enough progress to result in a win. After all, the Tide are No. 1 for a reason.
“We believed in our locker room we could go win this game, and we played like a team that believed they could win this game,” Sarkisian said. “And we played like a team that thought they were going to win the game.”
Young, Houdini act getting out of the sack to scramble down the sideline and put them in field goal range,” Sarkisian said.
“I think we played Texas football today, but in the end it still stings,” Sarkisian said.
Was it a complete wash for Texas? Sarkisian didn’t believe so, and with good reason. His defense played its best game in over a year. His of
“I give our players a lot of credit for having belief and trust in their coaches to execute the plan and go out and do it at a really high level,” Sarkisian said of the defense. “I thought we played tough. I thought we played physical. I thought we played hard.”
- TEXAS | ALABAMA -
Jean Delance
Jordan Whittington
the rest of the Alabama offense in check. Between McClellan’s run and a touchdown pass to Jamhyr Gibbs in the fourth, the Longhorns forced Bama to punt on six con secutive drives.
stop in order to have a chance. They did with 3:55 left. Texas had to make a field goal to take a late lead. They did when Bert Auburn hit a 49-yard field goal, his third of the day, to make it 19-17.
Give him credit for a gritty performance.
#1:
Texas was the underdog but their gameplan appeared to be superior and they had a chance to take down Nick Saban’s mighty Alabama program if not for an early injury to the starting quarterback nearing the opposing goal line. The Longhorns inserted a highly touted back-up from Lake Travis high school who made some plays but ultimately came up short.
In retrospect it seems that Texas defensive effort paired with the explosiveness the Longhorn of fense showed early (and the lack of answers for Alabama defensive backs) might have lead to a big Obviouslywin.
Quinn Ewers vs
We’re all thinking it so I’ll put it out there. Quinn Ewers and the Texas gameplan looked like they had Alabama right where they wanted them early. Ewers was 9-12 for 134 yards at 11.2 ypa when he was taken down hard by Dallas Turner on the Alabama goal line and knocked out for the game.
fortune. They certainly seem to have zero luck when it comes to this interactions with this Nick Saban fellow.
They’re 1-1 heading into a real game with plucky UTSA but surely will have drawn some confidence from taking the Tide down to the wire.
some early action and missed a few plays down the stretch due to a lack of base to either escape pressure or drive the ball down the field.
By Ian Boyd
Now it just remains to be seen what the extent of the injury is, as well as the injury to Card. If Texas needs Card for another game it’d be very helpful if his ability to run and drive his throws was at least partially restored.
Ewers’ timing was terrific and he uncorked a few beautiful shots down the field which were obvi ously stressing Alabama’s secondary. The fade to Worthy 1-on-1 which preceded the play wherein Ewers was injured was exactly the kind of throw which could give Texas Big 12 Championship ceiling this season.
Again.
Nonetheless, it was a strong showing from the Horns and they were within a successful 3rd down sack on a corner blitz, or a better hold on an earlier field goal attempt, from executing the win.
That’s what happened last time too in the 2010 Rose Bowl and once again the Longhorns were unable to overcome the mis
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QUICK thoughts WHAT A START FOR QUINN EWARS
any win in this game would be a big win but Texas looked like they could have put a surprise beating on the Tide with healthier quarterback play. The shot to Ewers wasn’t the only issue Texas had with quarterback injuries either, Hudson Card was also left limping from
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Moro Ojomo
I actually got a 2009 Texas vibe from the Tide as well. They’re all in on their passing game and leaned on Young’s throw ing and scrambling to bail them out of a disaster today. The Tide don’t have a Jordan Shipley to pair with their Colt McCoy though. Jahmyr Gibbs is probably their best skill player and he lead the way in their passing game with nine catches for 74 yards and a score.
Bryce Young was 27-39 for 213 yards at 5.5 ypa with a touch down and zero picks. He also ran it seven times for 38 yards at 5.4 ypc,
More misfortune for Texas that the officials made an egregious targeting/roughing the passer call there (which was rightfully overturned) rather than a potential intentional grounding flag. In fact, had they reviewed for a safety it would have been two points for the Horns as Young’s shin was down.
Anthony Cook played terrific ball, as did the rest of the second ary, and had two tackles for loss including the 4th down stop which gave Texas the ball and a chance to go win the game late. The defensive line rotated through several pass-rushers and repeatedly hurried Young with their defensive tackles.
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T’Vondre Sweat and Moro Ojomo really flashed with their ef forts. After an inauspicious start on the long scoring run by Jace McClellan, Mike linebacker Jaylan Ford finished the day with a team-leading 10 tackles including a sack, two tackles for loss, and a quarterback hurry.
Young was under duress throughout the game, including on a near safety which also would have offered the winning margin in this contest.
Anyways, the Texas defense. They routinely forced Young to hold the ball past his first read, leading to two sacks by the defense (although the Jaylan Ford was more on Pete Kwi atkowski than the coverage) and seven quarterback hurries.
Texas’ improvements at executing match quarters cover age were apparent in open practices, but obviously everyone wanted to see it before believing this was a unit which could help Texas compete in big games.
#2: WHAT A GAME BY THE DEFENSE
Tom Herman’s year one Texas Longhorns set victory over a hyped quarterback and top the USC Trojans to overtime in 2017. They didn’t mean much.
The Longhorns have a tough UTSA team coming runners played a dangerous passing team and played a lot of deeper safety coverage stop the run. It worked out well until Houston them in the quarterback run game late.
Texas fans give it up for “Sideshow” Bert Auburn btw, he nailed a 49-yard field goal with the game on the line and his miss in cluded a bad snap and a partial block by Will Anderson. It was a winning effort by Auburn and punter Danny Trejo also had some brilliant moments.
#5 NOW PRESS THE ADVANTAGE
had a lot drawn up for Alabama but they really struggled to run the football which made life difficult in a com pressed field or when the quarterbacks were all dinged up. Bijan Robinson had 21 carries for 57 yards at 2.7 ypc. The last drive really stands out, obviously Texas has a better chance to win if
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#3: RED ZONE MARGIN
Texas had a jumbo package for this contest, featuring Byron Murphy as a fullback, which we should see again as the sea son progresses. It’s a tough set to defend, they ran it as a lead play outside and Murphy would just clobber the first defender he found. The first time Bijan Robinson tried to cut inside and tripped up short but the second time he properly bounced around Murphy’s block for a score, the only touchdown of the day for
Texas made it into the red zone five times and scored 19 points. Not ideal.
- 5 Q uick T hough T s | A l A b A m A -
The first trip should have resulted in points had the officials called defensive pass interference (or had Ewers noticed his slot receiver breaking free over the middle). The blown snap on the pre-halftime field goal was another tough blow to the effort.
Bert Auburn
they could have run for at least one more first down after Card’s strike down the field to Casey Cain which set up the final field goal.
SteveTexas.Sarkisian
#4: WHAT A GAME FOR THE TEXAS O-LINE
ADVANTAGE
However, it wasn’t the story everyone was ready to write about this game given the matchup of Will Anderson and Dallas Turner against true freshman left tackle Kelvin Banks and “hasn’t put it together” senior right tackle Christian Jones. Texas’ gameplan relied on on getting the ball out quickly to their weapons in space but there was also no shortage of play-action shots and the protections on those shots was generally very good.
The story after this game was supposed to be about how Bama’s legendary outside linebackers buried the Texas offense. Instead, they were overheated and getting flagged offsides or for needless late hits.
- 5 Q uick T hough T s | A l A b A m A -
Texas has a chance to blast some of these remaining teams on the schedule if they can maintain a deep passing threat with a healthy quarterback and then clean up with the run game against compromised defenses. Meanwhile, this Texas defense may be good enough to allow them to dominate some teams or have a chance every week.
Buckle up, the season starts now. The narrow, misfortune-filled Alabama loss won’t count for anything if they can’t maintain momentum.
Ja’Tavion Sanders
11September 12, 2022
The pieces for a special Texas season are in place and a lot of the fundamentals have been successfully installed. When the opponent isn’t fielding as many blue chip, NFL-caliber defenders across the defense and the Horn O-line has had more practices to continue to grow, this unit could end up dominating some teams.
Credit for this also goes to the pulling guards Hayden Conner and Cole Hutson who look very comfortable in those playaction protections off the threat of the power run.
nearly landed a season-defining up top ranked opponent when they took They came up just short and it ultimately coming to town next week. The Road in Week 1 in the Houston Cougars coverage while trusting their front to rally and Houston quarterback Clayton Tune burned
Texas didn’t dominate the Alabama defensive front by any stretch of the imagination. The Tide managed three sacks (although partly due to Card’s immobility), got important hits in on both Texan quarterbacks, and shut down the run (79 rushing yards for Texas).
Steve Sarkisian had a terrific offensive game plan dialed in for Pete Golding and the Alabama defense, but unfortunately the loss of starting quarterback Quinn Ewers depleted Longhorn upside and took a lot of potential points and passing yards off of the board.
In the preseason, I promised that this would be one of the most formationally diverse Texas offenses in some time and it was all there early Saturday, ranging from 12 to 21 to even a diamond formation.
Tackle Andrej Karic, sporting #92, drew significant snaps at tight end to help nullify Bama’s edge rushers. Still, Sark needs a vehicle to deliver on the matchups he creates. He lost the keys to the sports car at the end of the 1st quarter.
Sark hit Bama’s schemes hard with misdirection and routinely isolated Alabama defenders into disadvantage through simple manipulation by formation. He knew their rules intimately and used them against Nick Saban’s defenders. If there were any doubts about which 2020 Alabama assistant could exploit the
other’s tendencies better, Sark put that to rest in the first quarter.
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by Scipio
POSTTex-MORTEM | OFFENSE
BIJAN ROBINSON
Alabama’s best pass defender was pass in terference and its second best pass defender was uncalled pass interference. In a quarter of play, a red hot Quinn Ewers was 9 of 12 for 134 yards passing, but an unprotected landing courtesy of edge Dallas Turner in the red zone at the end of the first quarter put a damper on Longhorn pyrotechnics and forced Sark into a different game plan.
Card came in and Sark eased him in with a risk averse game plan throughout most of the 2nd quarter. While frustrating, it was the correct approach. Card deserves major plaudits for how he handled his ensuing ankle sprain, gutting through pain and immobility to keep answering the bell. That appreciation expressed, the differences between the two quarterbacks with respect to anticipation, recognition, and quick mindedness were
My favorites came back-to-back starting around the 1:10 mark in the 1st quarter. Facing strong pressure in his face, an off balance Ewers slid laterally in the pocket while throwing only with his arm for a 17 yard strike to Whittington who was running against the grain of his natural release point. NFL stuff. The next throw was a perfect anticipatory go route to Worthy for an easy 46-yard gain out of max protection.
There’s a lot of what-might-have-beens, rang ing from a healthy Ewers slicing up the Bama defense for 350+ yards to Texas getting proper pass interference and face mask calls, but I’ll leave the speculative Kool-Aid to Alabama and, unlike McKinstry, hope you won’t interfere with considering the post-Ewers immediate future.
Hudson Card came on and after a cautious start, he made a few throws and exhibited grit after he fell victim to his own injury, leaving him largely immobile for the remainder of the contest. Card put it on the line for Texas and he deserves our appreciation. Unfortunately, my preseason guarantee that both quarter backs would have to play due to injury came to fruition earlier than anticipated.
Quinn Ewers was dealing early and often and looked to be in total command. 9 of 12 for 134 yards, including a long dropped touchdown by Worthy and several outstanding throws that he made look ho-hum routine.
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affect suggested that he was throwing the ball around with some trainers before a 7 on 7 drill. Ewers looked like he was going to put it on Bama in a big way until he went down.
QUARTERBACK
The nerves revealed against ULM vanished and his emotionless
a good job of reading his keys and knows where the ball is going before the snap but at times throws a bit ahead or behind his receivers. These small differences in accuracy and timing are what separates average plays from explosive plays -- hit your guy in stride and he might go for 6.
Cardevident.does
QUINN EWARS
Casey Cain caught a wide open 29 yard Card pass late to set up the go ahead Texas field goal and also drew a PI near the end zone. Of course, what Texas pass catcher didn’t?
Bijan contributed a tough 130 total yards on 24 touches for a touchdown, but Bama bottled him up as runner with only 57 yards on 21 carries.
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Jordan Whittington was absolutely terrific, making several hard grabs to help his QB, both high and low. He finished with 7 balls for 64 yards. He had four catches from Ewers in the first quarter I’m pretty sure he catches 12 or more receptions if Ewers com pletes the game. Good blocking and you count on him to find the open spot in the defense and settle down.
I actually thought Card’s best throw of the game was a 3rd quar ter strike to Whittington in double coverage that was just barely broken up by a Tide defender.
Robinson’s major damage was done through the air. Bijan’s shoulder got dinged and it appeared to bother him a couple of times. Keep an eye on that.
RUNNING BACK
really good things as well, totaling 97 yards on 5 catches. Wor thy has to stop quitting and pulling up on routes that he
Sanders was good, drawing multiple PIs that belie his seemingly mundane 3 catch, 4 yard stat line. Karic drew the lion’s share of TE2 snaps and he and Sanders executed a very effective double team on the Bama edge, giving Ewars time to on the 46 yard Worthy completion.
WIDE RECEIVER/TIGHT END
Roschon chipped in some hard runs and was effective as a pass catcher, notching three receptions. Keilan Robinson should’ve drawn a late face mask in the Tide red zone, but the officials swallowed their whistles.
Xavier Worthy dropped a sure TD from Ewers, but he did some
CHRISTIAN JONES (70), COLE HUTSON (54), JAKE MAJORS (65), AND HAYDEN CONNOR (76)
Card finished 14 of 22 for 158 yards (30 on his final throw with Bama in prevent) and his timely and gimpy 19 yard scramble for a first down on a bad ankle was a testament to his competi tiveness. Texas can absolutely win games with Card…if he can play.
perceives as inaccurately thrown or when he loses sight of the ball in the air. He has to see the play through.
Unfortunately, no Texas edge blockers — tackle, running back, or tight end — could handle the Bama edge personnel in the run game and this was key to their ability to constrain Bijan and
In the first quarter, I saw the offense that was promised and hoped for. One that could propel the Longhorns to a victory over Alabama and to the Big 12 title game in Dallas.
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OFFENSIVE LINE
Once the diversity in the Longhorn running game was squashed, Bama’s interior defensive line could excel at their only core competency of run stopping and eating space. Don’t get me wrong, the offensive line competed hard and had a very
game performance, but they have deficits in strength and expe rience to surmount across the board.
keep the lid on run game diversity.
Just win, baby.
They did a good job in pass protection, aided by some excellent play calling and scheming, but the strength and experi ence deficit vis a vis the Alabama front was fairly evident over time.
CASEY CAIN
While Texas did a fine job holding down Turner and Anderson as pass rushers, the stats don’t show how dominant the duo were in setting the edge in the run ning game, turning Texas ball carriers back inside where the big Tide interior could squat on gaps and demand that Texas move ‘em out.
After the first quarter, I saw a Texas offense that will need to play a different way and find its own footing until a healthy Quinn Ewers can return.
The Texas offense we saw in the first quarter no longer exists. In the coming weeks, Texas will need to win some hard and dirty football games that go to the wire. Anyone fretting about style points over the next few games has lost the plot.
FINAL
Texas couldn’t. If you want to see Turner absolutely stone Kelvin Banks, watch the first Texas running play after the half. Turner gets the perfect amount of penetra tion against outside zone without overshooting, jacks the young freshman up, and allows the trailing unblocked Will Anderson to notch a 4 yard loss.
Saturday is over. Burn the tape and move on. What happened offensively in the first quarter against Bama is not very useful for projecting forward beyond the competitiveness we saw from the Longhorns and what a motivated Texas crowd can do to elevate their team.
Alabama also helped with a few timely drops and a receiving corps that, while still very fast, doesn’t have anything compa rable to the skill level of prior units.
The Texas secondary created some terrific combination cover
I was even more impressed with the Longhorn defense on the
That’s what it’s supposed to look like and good zone secondary play has as much to do with preparation, decisiveness, focus and communication than 40 times in shorts or your high school star rankings. Hey, why not both?
RYAN WATTS
ages out of quarters variants, keeping eyes on the quarterback and attacking patterns instead of stubbornly defending grass.
Texas held Alabama to 20 points and brought a level of physi cality that the Tide hadn’t seen since they faced Georgia in the national title game. The Longhorn defensive line won many more fights than it lost while the Texas secondary demonstrated a coordinated cohesiveness that I haven’t seen in Austin against a quality opponent since 2017.
The Texas defense clawed and fought for four quarters, even dominating for a good stretch of the game. Over a time span encompassing the entire 2nd and 3rd quarters, Alabama had 6 drives for a total of 23 yards on 25 plays.
POST-MORTEM | DEFENSE
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17September 12, 2022
teristic one contrasted to their 61 other plays from scrimmage. Oddly enough, Sorrell played this exact same play perfectly a few snaps before and notched a tackle for loss.
rewatch. Tackling was largely good and there were some seri ous licks being doled out.
I have to give a special mention to Alabama QB Bryce Young. He’s a resilient mental stud who endured a ton of physical pun ishment, receiver drops, penalties and covered targets only to persevere and pull out the win with excellent throws and timely scrambles. 95% of the QBs in college football would’ve wilted physically or mentally in Austin. He’s an absolute gamer and winner.
Well, we just saw what this unit can look like, even if against a less than classic Bama offensive line. The defensive staff kept up a relentless rotation inside while shortening the bench out side to pretty much just Ovie and Sorrell. They also employed creative twists and stunts while varying alignments, assignments and, yes, even let them pin back their ears and go from time to time.
DEFENSIVE LINE A personal source of irritation for me has been my stubborn notion that the Texas defensive line is actually talented and they were being held back by a number of factors, some outside of their control, which led to them playing with a dutiful listlessness instead of energized athletic joy. Not to mention some fairly awful fundamentals and occasionally questionable effort.
Vernon Broughton is a feast or famine guy. He’s taking a gapeven swim moving on a running play - and he’s trying for a tfl or a QB pressure or getting blown out. A good change up and he
This type of play was a commonplace occurrence last year, but Bama made Texas pay for one lapse and it was an uncharac
KEONDRE COBURN (99) AND ALFRED COLLINS (95)
The play that killed Texas early - the McClellan 81 yard touch down run - was one of the few fundamental lapses from the defense in the game. The outside zone run worked at every level for Alabama. Barryn Sorrell got blocked at the first level and was the beginning of the negative cascade - going from poor to very bad as Jaylan Ford blew his key with a bad angle. It got to dire 81 yard untouched touchdown territory when Jaylon Guilbeau got physically controlled by a TE and Anthony Cook got sealed off.
Byron Murphy continues to be Mr Hustle and had an amazing play running down Bryce Young on a scramble to prevent a first down in the 2nd half. I think he’s more 3 than a nose, but his energy anywhere on the field is a boon.
DEFENSIVE BACK Great total unit play despite losing their most experienced starter fairly early in the contest. Defen sive backs are not required to be a bunch of islands. They can link up and play team defense.
T’vondre Sweat showed why he has NFL potential with his devastating inside rush on the goal line, only to be robbed of a safety as the officials disgraced themselves fabricating and then picking up a targeting/roughing penalty.
Collins is still getting into the swing of things, but had a nice QB hit while dominating the Bama center on a pass rush in the 4th quarter.
Overshown had a ton of hustle plays, but he’s not a true edge rusher. In limited snaps there, he’s just not strong or skilled enough to mount an honest pass rush off of the edge. Gotta run him through gaps and bring him on delays. They got the lion’s share of LB snaps, though I saw a little of DTT and a Jett Bush appearance early.
Like OL, DBs who are all on the same page can operate at a level that is greater than the sum of their parts and it’s a pleasure to watch when it happens. Safeties Anthony Cook and Jerrin Thompson were the lynchpins to that effort. Whatever Cook’s deficiencies as a pure coverage dude, he is a good tackler, he sees what’s developing, and he commits. 9 tackles, 2 tackles for loss.
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DEMARVION OVERSHOWN
LINEBACKER
Kitan Crawford is a better athlete than both of the aforemen tioned, but knowing your job and doing it consistently always takes primacy at safety.
Moro Ojomo was everywhere in a way that the box score does not reflect and he played with his best leverage and pad level I’ve seen in years. Consequently, he’s no longer shooting his hands too high and drawing hands to the face penalties.
Coburn had some good moments, most notably holding firm against a double team on a 4th and short.
Well done by all. They notched six HARD hits on the QB and were consistently disruptive. You don’t have to just eat blocks to set up the safeties and linebackers. These guys got to taste some blood. No turning back.
D’shawn Jamison had a near INT that would have gone for six and then missed a good portion of the game with a foot injury. Texas filled in with Austin Jordan and Jamier Johnson who performed admirably, though Jamison’s absence was really felt late.
had two QB hits, including a big pop on Bryce Young that got his attention early.
Oghoufo earned a persistence coverage sack, fighting through a Bama tackle with dogged effort and made several solid edge sets. Sorrell had some good plays as well, despite getting reached on that fateful outside zone run.
Jaylan Ford rallied after the 81 yard TD run miscue and led the team in tackles with 10, including 2 tackles for loss and an untouched sack that was more on Bama blowing their blocking assignments than Ford going off, but we’ll take it.
I didn’t realize how many Bama guys Jerrin Thompson abso lutely popped until the rewatch. His weight gain has been good for him and he’s a much more decisive and effective football player than last year. 7 tackles, many of them from depth.
This game had to instill some much-needed confidence in Longhorn athletes and some sorely needed mutual belief between players and staff. A staff that trusts their athletes to let it go and athletes who trust that they’re be ing put in a position to succeed are an absolute virtuous circle. It’s how you eradicate underperformance and feed decisive aggression.
Will Stone had 4 touchbacks in 6 kickoffs. Return games were negligible for both teams.
Now do it again.
FINAL THOUGHTS The Texas staff created a terrific game plan and the Longhorn players battled for four quarters playing smart, fundamental football on 95% of their snaps.
just like that. Watts is probably just sick right now. He had a great hit on Young on the same blitz ear lier in the game.
On balance, Texas played well. Unfortunately, a missed chip shot field goal at the end of the 1st half haunted the Horns. More promisingly, Bert Auburn drilled four other kicks, including a pressure packed 49 yarder to put Texas up 19-17 deep in the 4th. If you were offered 80% from our field goal kicker before this game, you’d take it.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Danny Trejo punted really well, particularly in the second half,
The Texas D learned some things about itself against the Crimson Tide.
JERRIN THOMPSON
Ryan Watts played a very strong game as a tackler and zone presence until the 0:32 mark of the 4th quarter. An expertly timed Watts blitz had Young dead to rights, but Bryce got small and performed a Houdini escape, transforming a sack with Bama in big trouble having to squander their last timeout on a running clock to a 19 yard scramble first down and guaranteed field goal
notching a 61 yard booming effort then a gorgeous 50 yarder that pinned Bama on the 1 yard line. Trejo had dinner plates for eyes against ULM and though Bama didn’t try to pressure him, it was nice to see the young man step up.
19September 12, 2022
Gamesterritory.canturn
Jahdae Barron played really well and secured the primary role over Guilbeau at nickel. At least in my eyes. The fresh man played his hardest, but you saw the difference in athleticism on some missed tackles both early and late.
ANTHONY COOK
hat a gratifying day to cover the Texas Longhorns. Despite the loss, I hope the day reminded you of why you’re such a big UT fan. All you can ask is the coaches put their players in position to make plays the players play hard. Check and check.
W
EricBy Nahlin
That was one of the grittier efforts I’ve seen in a long time. Think about how far they are from one year ago. Well done by the coaches to earn the player’s buy-in and well done by the players to trust their coaches and each other.
The will the team played with is why many fans remained to give a standing ovation as the play ers left the field. They battled through so much adversity and bad luck. Adversity in football often stems from self-inflicted wounds, but that wasn’t always the case in this game, and they certainly played cleaner than Alabama for long portions of the game.
I mentioned to a source after the game “You know we can’t celebrate today. But you know we an be pleased with some data points.” You can’t celebrate it like it’s a win but you can celebrate and appreciate the effort.
20September 12, 2022
I felt pretty good about the D-line’s chances to hold up against the Alabama O-line but the Texas O-line exceeded
Bert Auburn, you stud. That 49-yarder was so close to mak ing him a legend forever. Still a legend in my book, Bert. That was a big kick and should be a confidence booster going forward.
BYRON MURPHY
Jaylan Ford personified the new mentality when he came back from the long touchdown run and started making plays. This team has a short memory. This team last year would have folded like a cheap suit given the adversity.
Anthony Cook reminds us of a few things: Don’t give up on players prematurely; they’re not all boom or bust, some times highly rated players become solid college players; coach ing and development matters; and, they need to be in their right
Team defense. I sat with @rodofdisaster and at one point in the third quarter (I think, might have been at the start of the third quarter) we looked up and Bama had six first downs. The previous week’s defensive effort was no mirage. They were telling us they were going to play hard, fast, and smart this year. The coaches deserve a ton of credit. In a year’s time they’ve replaced confusion with cohesion. Impressive.
HORNS UP
my expectations. They seemed oh-so-close to helping Bijan Robinson pop a long run. They were game from the start and actually got some movement at times. Horns up to both lines.
Horns up to the quarterbacks for different reasons. Quinn Ewers’ early game performance showed just how ready he was for the big moment. He was about to rip sh*t to use a technical @malaise term. Hudson Card played through a lot of pain and did well all things considered. He just has to see “it” a split second faster and be more decisive. Tough kid with terrible luck. This team didn’t flinch with the change in QBs.
That’s a joke because he’s a head coach plain and simple. What he’s done from a culture standpoint in such a short time is noth ing short of phenomenal. My lasting impression of this game will be the effort the players exhibited through intense heat and other external factors.
The injuries to Quinn Ewers and Hudson Card was bad luck. The negated safety was nonsensical.
Steve Sarkisian should have earned unwavering confi dence in his ability to game plan opponents and scheme his players for success. He nearly knocked off his other legend ary mentor as a large underdog. These guys are going to stop hiring him if he isn’t careful.
22September 12, 2022
STUDENT SECTION
Saturday gave me the same feeling. He has this program on the right path and he provided us with another glaring example of how bad of a dude he is when it comes to scheming opponents.
I felt Sark should have used his timeouts before the end of the first half. That would have allowed them to put Bama in more run/pass conflict. Overall a great game from the head man. More importantly, it looks like it really was a great offsea son.
It was miserably hot yet I didn’t see players cramping up. I also didn’t see players getting pushed around. This is just a mentally stronger and physically stronger group. Horns up to the S&C staff and also to Sark for having the awareness they needed to alter some things.
Every point mattered in that game. The safety being ne gated was downright egregious.
Horns down to the football gods. The external bad luck in that game is a hard pill to swallow. Texas played well enough to win. Many of us were just wanting it close in the fourth quarter but I left lamenting how they should have won. Bama had a narrow path to victory and they tight-roped it. Win ning has become muscle memory for them while it hasn’t for Texas….yet.
Horns all the way up for the fans in the stands. You’d be hard pressed to find a more raucous crowd for an 11:00 a.m.
fit. What a baller game from him. Jerrin Thompson too.
HORNS NUETRAL
The points we’re celebrating coupled with the tough loss leave me personally feeling neutral about the result.
HORNS DOWN
Last year after the breakdown in the RRS I wrote I felt fine about it because I believed that game showed Sark was the man for Texas despite the heartbreaking loss.
Hornskick.
up to Appalachian State.
Texas Spirit of The Week
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