Inside Texas October 17, 2022 | Texas vs Iowa State

Jaylan Ford was a huge factor against Iowa State with an interception and fumble recovery to key the Texas win.

Texas Outlasts Iowa State

Longhorns

Post Mortem

Joe Cook

by Paul WadlIngton

The Longhorn running game and the play of Jaylan Ford key victory over Iowa State.

by gerry HamIlton and JustIn Wells

by Paul WadlIngton

SURVIVING THE

Jordan Whittington

THE CYCLONES

BY JOE COOK

AUSTIN, TX -- After a quarter of play in its matchup with Iowa State, it was evident Texas was not playing at its best. The same applied at halftime, and even after three quarters. A week after a systematic destruction of a seemingly rudderless Oklahoma program, Texas wasn’t firing on anything close to all cylinders at home versus the Cyclones.

Receivers dropped open passes. At one point, Texas faced a 3rdand-40. Quinn Ewers returned back to earth. The Longhorns had a moderate amount of success on offense against the Cyclone defense, one of the best in the conference.

But an effective ISU passing attack uncharacteristically led by Hunter Dekkers had ISU in position to win its fourth straight over the Longhorns.

Texas was locked in a tight matchup and had to defend a second-half lead, a regular occurrence for this team. Keeping those leads aren’t as com mon. Plus, this game was the type of contest Texas head coach Steve

Sarkisian said they probably would have lost last year.

But that was last year. This time, the Longhorns relied on key playmakers to overcome a subpar showing and defeat Iowa State, 24-21.

Dekkers was uncharacteristically brilliant through the air, completing 25-of-36 passes for 329 yards and two touchdowns, even rushing for one. He helped Iowa State score a touchdown for the first time since October 1, and sliced the Longhorn defense on money downs.

ISU was 9-of-15 on third down despite an average distance to gain of 8.2

yards. Dekkers himself was 11-of-12 for 118 yards and a score on third down, with his rushing TD coming on a third-down play, too.

The pivotal play of the game? It came on first down.

Late in the fourth quarter after ISU’s ninth conversion of the game, Dekkers moved under center. He was trying to put his team in position to either tie or take the lead from the Longhorns, who were up 24-21 at the time. Dekkers took the ball, ran left, but was pum meled by Anthony Cook. The ball came loose, and Jaylan Ford jumped on it to stifle the threat.

Roschon Johnson

The Longhorns then rushed for a first down, and ended the game with pos session to seal Texas’ fifth win of the year.

Sarkisian relied on Ford and Cook, two of his defense’s most consistent playmakers, to help Texas’ winning ef fort. Ford had eight tackles and a firstquarter interception that stopped what looked like a scoring drive in its tracks. Cook had three tackles and forced the all-important fumble.

On offense, Sarkisian looked to his consistent players, Roschon Johnson and Bijan Robinson, to help lead his team to victory. That’s exactly what they did.

ISU held a 21-17 lead with 10:58 left in the game. The Longhorns needed to construct a drive against a style of defense that has given Sarkisian fits in recent years.

Texas went on a 75-yard scoring drive where Robinson and Johnson accounted for 72 of the yards. The Longhorn offensive line moved defend ers out of the way for Texas’ rushers to find yardage. The duo tallied runs of 14, 14, 16, and 13 yards to move into a first and goal situation.

It eventually became fourth and goal, and Texas needed only three more yards to retake the lead and give them selves a chance to overcome a poor performance. While they didn’t look to Robinson or Johnson, the Longhorns looked to their star receiver.

Ewers found Xavier Worthy 1-on-1 by the near pylon for his second touch

down of the day to make it 24-21.

Those were the plays Texas made. Just as important were some the Cyclones failed to make. Star wideout Xavier Hutchinson had a strong day for the Cyclones, catching 10 passes for 154 yards. It was the catch he didn’t haul in that helped Texas the most.

Texas’ defense was nowhere near a streaking Hutchinson on a first-down play near midfield while the Cyclones were on their final drive. Dekkers delivered an on-target pass to hit him in stride, but the normally sure-handed receiver dropped the ball upon hitting the ground.

Also important was the third-down run that sealed the game. Johnson was met by a handful of Cyclone defenders

near the line of scrimmage, but Jordan Whittington, who scored his first touchdown of the season earlier in the contest, boosted Johnson past the line to gain for the clinching first down.

Would last year’s team have won this game? Last year’s team wasn’t even competitive in this game.

This year’s team didn’t provide a consistent performance in all three phases, likely their worst in a win this year.

But thanks to the team’s playmakers on both sides of the ball, and a little luck Texas hasn’t been the fortunate recipient of in the past few years, the Longhorns were able to overcome a subpar performance and still earn that win.

Jean Delance

T’Vondre Sweat

QUICK thoughts

By Ian Boyd

Iowa State’s defense is designed to invite runs, only to spring a trap in the form of big, thick linebackers backed by big, downhill safeties all closing on what appeared to be running lanes. Yet the pass over the top is hard to come by because of their three-deep safety shell.

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Tom Herman’s Texas Longhorns always wanted to find a way to spread them out well enough to run the ball, only to repeatedly fail. Steve Sarkisian seems to have figured out the art.

Bijan Robinson had 28 carries for 135 yards at 4.8 ypc while Roschon

Jonson added 11 carries for 71 yards at 6.5 ypc, including the gamewinning yardage on the final 3rd-and-1 after being hit in the backfield (props also to Jordan Whittington for the Bush-push). All told? 43 car ries for 191 yards at 4.4 ypc and amusingly all the actual touchdowns came from Quinn Ewers flipping the ball in.

Texas’ ability to run the ball, particularly in the second half, was mas sive in this contest. The defense was struggling badly with Iowa State’s dropback passing game and avoiding another game where the Cyclones could repeatedly take the ball down the field was very help ful. More helpful still? A couple of game-winning turnovers forced by the defense to erase their misdeeds.

#1: TEXAS’ D SAVED THEIR OWN BACON WITH TURNOVERS

The Horns played hard and physical on defense in this game, which was extremely important because they didn’t play particularly smart. The Iowa State passing game was chewing them up for several parts of the game, especially on 3rd down (more on that later) but Texas killed two potential scoring drives with turnovers, both involving Mike linebacker Jaylan Ford.

First the Texas backer let Cyclone quarterback Hunter Dekkers‘ eyes take him to the ball on the goal line and he undercut a poor decision to force a slant into coverage at the goal line.

The game flipped here. Iowa State hadn’t been dominating, but they were up 7-0 with a chance to get to 10-0 or 14-0 and instead had a good drive end with zero points. Texas responded with a touchdown drive on offense and took over the game until late in

the 3rd quarter when the Cyclone passing game took over again.

Texas won the game on a Ford fumble recovery. Major credit goes to Anthony Cook who came down hill violently and launched his shoulder on the ball without incurring a targeting penalty to force a fumble on a Dekkers zone-read keeper around the edge. Matt Campbell was beyond furious with the lack of a targeting call and review showed the ball coming out in the nano-seconds before Dekkers’ knee hit. However, Cook lead with his elbow on the ball, it was a violent yet precise hit to save the game.

Texas missed Cook in the middle of the game when he was out for Kitan Crawford for some reason, more on that in the next section. He finished with three tackles. Ford lead the team, as customary, with eight tackles in addition to the two turnovers.

Jaylan Ford

vs

THIRD DOWN THRASHING

With a victory safe in the books, the big focus on this game is going to be around the atrocious defensive performance (again!) on 3rd down. Iowa State was 9-15 on 3rd down for the game, an outrageous 60%, and nearly had the game in hand as a result if not for their turnovers.

Success on 3rd down passes was even worse, with the Cyclones hitting on 11-12 conversions via the air. It can help set up 4th down though, where Iowa State was 1-1. There were a number of issues for Texas in this game in those “money down” situations.

Their coordination on coverages between players was often atrocious. Before the fumble the Cyclones erased the mistake of a near-touchdown to a wide open Xavier Hutchinson which was dropped by getting the receiver wide open on the following 3rd down. Texas’ nickel Jahdae Barron literally just traded him off on a crossing route to absolutely no one.

There were some confounding factors as well. Star boundary cornerback Ryan Watts left the game early with a shoulder injury and one of his back-ups (Austin Jordan) got beat on a RPO glance route for a 54-yard touchdown. Curiously there was no help inside from him. Cook may or may not have been responsible for the lack of help and was not seen again until the final drive where he atoned for any mistakes he’d made earlier with the forced fumble.

Cook’s back-up Crawford struggled mightily with his assignment in Texas’ bunch formation coverage checks, which routinely had Iowa State receivers running wide open.

It was a hideous game with Texas routinely springing leaks in coverage, usually at the worst times. Dekkers finished the game 25-36 for 329 yards at 9.1 ypa with two touchdowns and a rushing touchdown to boot.

Kitan Crawford

SARK’S UNBALANCED SETS

The other trick to attacking the Flyover defense, which Mike Gundy routinely employs, is to mix in a lot of unbalanced formations. Iowa State’s 3-3-5 has to distort itself to handle unbalanced sets in ways which can often eliminate the advantages it otherwise creates for its defenders in allowing them to outnumber the offense all over the field.

Texas used a ton of 4×0 sets, with every skill player except the running back, aligned to one side of the field and covering up a tight end to make him ineligible as a receiver. So you lose the ability to throw to someone, usually Gunnar Helm or Andrej Karic, and you gain some leverage on the Cyclone defense. For Texas that was a great trade to make.

The long drive to take the lead in which Texas ran the ball for 72 yards until Ewers punctuated the drive with a fourth down touch down toss to Xavier Worthy included repeated use of the 4×0 formations.

They made hay running counter or weak outside zone at the “zero” side where Iowa State would have a cornerback involved in defend ing the point of attack. They also hammered the Cyclones with “Duo” throughout the game from the double tight end sets. Great job by Sark to find and land on a gameplan which took pressure for winning the game off Ewers while helping the run game to get established.

Texas’ chances to run the table down the stretch in this league are going to involve the offensive line continuing to improve so they can hammer increasingly worn down opponents with the run game as the weather cools down.

We should see the “Ezekiel’s wheel” RPO play with a wheel and flat route out of the backfield come back in future weeks as well. Iowa State’s drop 8 coverages allowed them to defend it without overload ing their flat defender. Texas ran it unsuccessfully on the first two plays of the game and mostly shelved it for the rest of the game with a few exceptions.

#5 SURVIVE AND ADVANCE

This was an ugly win by Texas. Their 3rd down coverage weak ness has never looked worse, some of the defensive substitutions were confusing, and they blew a lot of opportunities overall to blow this game open and avoid a tight finish.

They’ve got probably the nastiest game of the year next week visiting Stillwater to play Oklahoma State and then they’ll get a bye week to rethink or shore up some things on defense. Winning this game was huge for giving them margin for error to potentially drop the road game in Stillwater and still be in contention for the Big 12 Championship Game.

Sark’s Horns still have a lot of untapped upside on offense and could potentially win out simply by out-scoring everyone left on

the schedule. They’d be well served though by rethinking their 3rd down game planning. I’d suggest they’re doing too much and would be better off trying to match the Gary Patterson TCU method of simply clamping down everything from tight, two-high coverage, perhaps with a safety subbed in at linebacker (not Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey, who lacks speed for those situations), while using line stunts to help the pass-rush.

A young team in a tough league was always likely to lose some games they shouldn’t. It was a bit of a moral victory for Texas not to blow this one and have a chance to shore up some weak spots to avoid another similar game.

Bijan Robinson

#4: TEXAS’ PASSING GAME

A really interesting and mixed day for the Longhorn passing game. Ewers avoided interceptions but also “fumbled” early when he tried to kill a busted screen play and then realized he’d thrown the ball backwards to do so and had to dive on the ball to avoid a turnover

On an early 4th-and-3 Texas cleverly dialed up a slot fade to Casey Cain. Those short-yardage plays on 3rd and 4th down are an IDEAL time to take a shot at the end zone. You’re never going to get an easier coverage to beat then in those moments when the defense is banking on you playing for the line to gain instead of the end zone. Sure enough, Cain broke wide open, but an errant pass (into the wind) fell incomplete and an opportunity was wasted. Cain would later be hit on a wide open route down the field and bobbled the ball while looking downfield to maximize.

Overall Ewers was 17-26 for 172 yards at 6.6 ypa with three

touchdowns and zero interceptions. It was noted in fall camp he was named starter after a strong performance on the goal line in a practice. Ewers definitely made good there in helping Texas punch the ball in, otherwise the passing game didn’t hit their ceiling in this game and it was the rushing attack which carried the day.

This is only the second game Ewers has quarterbacked for Texas where he didn’t get several extra weeks of prep like he did against Alabama and Oklahoma. It was a good performance but less than the superstar show we saw more glimpses of early against Alabama or in the Red River Shutout.

Props in this game to Whittington, who continues to block and excel underneath, and Worthy who demonstrated a greater range of skills with his speed than just running by people down the field.

Quinn Ewers

POST-MORTEM | OFFENSE

by Paul Wadlington

The Texas offense probably played better than the box score suggests against a quality Cyclone defensive unit. That’s de spite an ugly start and plenty of unforced errors.

The Texas offense was thoroughly outplayed and out-coached in the first quarter, notably failing to turn a blocked punt into any points, but as the game wore on, Texas won the game by stub bornly pounding the rock and by throwing it effectively inside the red zone.

There were a couple of big passing plays available in each

half that might have broken open the game, but Quinn Ewers couldn’t connect with a wide open Casey Cain for a touchdown on a crucial 4th and 3 in the 2nd quarter and a wide open Cain returned the favor in the 3rd quarter dropping a perfectly thrown ball with Texas up 17-14 that would have resulted in a 58 yard touchdown and a double digit lead.

After a miserable pair of opening drives where Texas netted -2 yards on 8 plays, it’s worth noting that the next four drives went as follows:

XAVIER WORTHY

If Casey and Ewers connect on the wide open 4th and 3 pass that ended in downs, Texas is up 24-7 in the early third quarter.

Texas sputtered on the next two third quarter drives as they got away from success and Iowa State made a few good plays, but the Horns got it together in the final pe riod for a game-winning 11 play, 75 yard touchdown drive that saddled Bijan, Roschon (they accounted for 72 of 75 yards) and the Long horn offensive line to dominate Iowa State until they reached the shadow of the goal line. After the Cyclones stiffened, Ewers and Worthy connected on a clutch 4th and goal jerk route for the eventual margin of victory.

Texas then iced the game hammering the running game and draining the remaing time on the clock.

One concern that I expressed in my preview was the Horns not getting enough drives to acclimatize to and wear down the Iowa State defense. Texas had only nine meaningful offensive pos sessions in the game.

After an atrocious pair of 1st quarter possessions, they scored on 4 of the next 7 drives, with two of those drives failing due to the QB or WR bungling wide open touchdowns. In a parallel world somewhere, Texas hits those plays and wins comfortably putting up 35-38 points and Texas fans are raving about their high octane offense instead of sweating the final plays of a nail biter.

That the Texas offense played stretches of C level football and still managed to control the game late against what is likely the best defense in the league is a positive if the team takes away the right message from it. I like that Sark found success in the

running game and stuck with it to win when so many other of fensive play callers would have tried to dial up the sporadically open balls that kept tantalizing Texas throughout the game.

QUARTERBACK

Weird game for Quinn. In the second half, he threw for only 50 yards on 12 passing attempts. He was largely terrific in the red zone throwing the ball, though he wasn’t patient enough on an open Whittington opportunity earlier in the game. He also com mitted no turnovers, despite his best attempt at manufacturing one early on an attempted turf “lateral” to Bijan.

He also threw the ball well to the intermediate sideline through out the game. Something he also showed against Oklahoma. He can certainly layer it.

The rest of it ranged from average to poor. He can play a lot better and he’ll need to if Texas wants to win in Stillwater and Manhattan. If 17 of 26 for 172 yards and 3 touchdowns passing with no interceptions and two long touchdown passes left out on the field is a falling-back-to-earth performance from a freshman signal caller, I suppose we’re recalibrating a lot about what good looks like.

QUINN EWERS

RUNNING BACK

Fantastic, tough effort. They put the offense on their backs and made it happen. I don’t think we realize how lucky we are to have Bijan and Roschon. They combined for 206 yards on 39 carries with Bijan adding another 36 yards on 4 catches.

They also did it the hard way, doling out more punishment than they got. Their longest run of the game went for only 25 yards and they repeatedly maximized runs to keep Texas ahead of the chains, eventually imposing their wills on the game-winning drive. Roschon also added another victim to his truck total by leveling ISU safety Anthony Johnson. Add it to the board.

WIDE RECEIVER/TIGHT END

Xavier Worthy played a strong game, coming up with two touch downs and demonstrating sure hands throughout. He also got PI’d a couple of times on what could have been really big plays.

Whittington finally scored, but was less of a focus as the Horns struggled to find him in the seams or on intermediate routes. Sanders chipped in with 37 yards on 3 catches but Iowa State completely shut down his verticals up the seam and also seemed take away his layered RPO game on the edge.

Andre Karic struggled early blocking, twice allowing Cyclone defensive ends to close down on interior runs. Casey Cain had an easy TD drop that you just can’t have. Effort wasn’t optimal on some other plays. We saw more Milton as the game went on, but no production to show for it.

OFFENSIVE LINE

A slow start until they settled in and got their legs against Iowa State’s movement and run support angles. After that halting start, I thought they largely won at the line of scrimmage.

Ewers had clean pockets, they controlled ISU’s excellent edge rushers and Texas surrendered zero sacks with only four tackles for loss. Add in the 4th quarter run game victories and this was a winning performance overall.

The first four runs on the game winning possession went 5, 14, 14, 16. That can’t happen without their effort. For a little context, consider that in 2021, the Iowa State defense had 7 tackles for loss, 4 sacks and 3 forced fumbles. In 2020, they had 6 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, a forced fumble. 2022? 4 tackles for loss, no sacks, no forced fumbles. The youngest offensive line in the Big 12 handled a complex scheme well. We’re now at three weeks in a row where the OL struggles early and then settles in and performs. This looks to be a trend.

FINAL

Iowa State now has the unenviable honor of being the best 0-4 conference record team in Big 12 history and Texas got a win against a very game opponent when the Horns brought some thing less than their best execution. Texas learned some things about itself on offense. What the Horns do with those lessons will play a huge role in how the season finishes.

CHRISTIAN JONES (70) AND COLE HUTSON (54)

POST-MORTEM | DEFENSE

Pete Kwiatkowski owes Anthony Cook an ice cream and a gift certificate to Massage Envy. Cook’s outstanding forced fumble hit on Hunter Dekkers with 2:09 left in the game on the Long horn 32 yard line with Texas tenuously holding on to a three point lead saved the game and the defensive coaching staff from possibly having to Uber home.

At that stage of the game, the Longhorn defense was crumbling and Iowa State had converted the chains into a new set of

downs six times in a row, including converting 3rd and 13, 3rd and 10, 3rd and 8 (twice). The others were 3rd and 5 and 4th and 2.

They also had their best player drop a wide open touchdown pass on a busted coverage where the closest Longhorn de fender, Jerrin Thompson, was in San Marcos. Without Dekkers getting cold Cooked, Iowa State would have methodically drained the clock and scored a game winning touchdown. Prob

ANTHONY COOK

ably on a 3rd and 10.

However, since Anthony Cook forced that fumble and Jaylan Ford caught an earlier Dekkers brain freeze interception in the end zone and Texas won, I probably should write some platitudes about the defense doing enough to win and go watch NFL games.

Nah.

There are three issues here: First, the seeming indifference of the game plan to the small handful of things that Iowa State can do on offense was odd. Shades of Lubbock. Solve ISU on Tuesday and you don’t need to worry much about Saturday. Texas isn’t dominant enough to just roll out the football and play.

Opponents with glaring weaknesses need to exploited, not endured. Further, Texas has high IQ starting safeties and a mas sive advantage on the interior. Doubling or shading a key wide receiver on 3rd and 10 is not football chess. It’s barely checkers. Further, if the pass rush isn’t getting home, add defenders to the pass defense and deny Dekkers his rhythm security blankets. When he turns to Page 2 and starts to improvise from the pocket, bad things happen to him. Make him demonstrate his shaky skills. Don’t allow him his demonstrated ones.

Surrendering 21 points seems eminently reason able in a modern football game, but that doesn’t adjust for the quality of the Cyclone offense, the number of possessions in the game, or the multiple unforced Cyclone errors that left points on the field.

Could Texas have scored 35 on offense with better

breaks? You bet. As could Iowa State. The Cyclones scored their first touchdown on a busted coverage where the Horns didn’t cover the motion man. The second touchdown was a simple RPO slant on Austin Jordan where the entire 2nd and 3rd level jumped the fake and left the middle of the field wide open. The backside safety also took a weird angle to cover a referee. What should be a twelve yard gain or a pass break up turned into a 54 yard score.

The third touchdown was an 11 yard Dekkers scramble up the middle on goal to go when Sweat lost his lane discipline and Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey watched and took a late angle that made Descartes roll over in his grave. Iowa State converted 3rd and 2, 3rd and 13, 3rd and 8 on that drive.

Texas could take away ISU’s entire running game simply by lining up in an honest box and letting the interior defensive line own the line of scrimmage while Ford cleaned up the trash. ISU was a one dimensional team from the opening kickoff and Texas showed little ability to parlay dominance in one facet of the game to stifle an Iowa State passing game that is near the league bottom in overall efficiency.

texas

Iowa State’s total dominance on key downs was perplexing given their inability to run the ball against the Texas interior line and given the frequency with which they found themselves in 3rd and long.

The Cyclones converted 10 of 16 on money downs (62.5%), a season high not seen since their season opener against the pride of the Ohio Valley conference, Southeast Missouri State. ISU converted those third and longs in two predictable ways: throwing to an open receiver from a trips bunch formation on smash or brush routes and/or finding Xavier Hutchinson in single coverage or drifting into open space between closely guarded grass in zone.

The Horns also gave them two new sets of downs with offsides penalties. Hunter Dekkers also operated from a pristine pocket, which he has not done all year save against…Southeast Mis souri State.

Finally, the Longhorns exhibited odd substitution patterns that predated Ryan Watts going out with a stinger. While Watts going out certainly hurt Texas (he already had 7 tackles), Iowa State was attacking the Longhorn coverage scheme and open space. Not individual players per se. The secondary is the offensive line of the defense. They thrive on cohesion, communication and reps. Mass substitutions of inexperienced or lesser players all

at once makes little sense. You stagger subs and I didn’t see any Longhorn defenders gasping for air after defend ing six Iowa State plays on their first two possessions. On the third and fourth mass sub possessions, ISU drove 84 yards for a TD and then 53 yards before the Ford INT.

Hunter Dekkers had a career day going 25 of 36 for 329 yards while adding three total touchdowns with two turnovers. He was sacked only once. He averaged 9.1 yards per attempt and 13.2 yards per completion. Interestingly, against three other Big 12 opponents – Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State – Dekkers averaged only 6.3 yards per attempt, just over 10 yards per completion, threw for only three touchdowns and three picks, and was sacked 11 times, including five against Kansas. Texas is the clear outlier against the Cyclone passing game.

RYAN WATTS

DEFENSIVE LINE

The edges got no pressure and allowed Dekkers to leave the pocket several times. The interior defensive line dominated on run downs but made little impact as pass rushers. If you’re not getting pressure, lane discipline becomes important – keep Dekkers in the pocket and play coverages that force him off his first read. That’s what Kansas State did and Dekkers averaged around 5 yards per attempt in that game while totaling 198 yards through the air.

LINEBACKER

Ford played really well inside against the run. The interception was a present, but plenty of linebackers can’t unwrap the gift. Overshown had some flashes early and pursued well but is becoming a surprisingly non-useful player on passing downs.

He stands and watches in his “drop”, delay blitzes into a blocker, or comes flying off of the edge too late to impact the play. Given

Overshown’s agility and length, it’s hard to imagine not finding him work on robber concepts or letting him shadow the QB while Texas runs line stunts to get pressure.

Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey played poorly. He sought blocking and is slow to react to open-ended situations. See the Dekkers touchdown scramble.

DEFENSIVE BACK

Several busted coverages, which is odd given that Iowa State’s passing offense isn’t brimming with options and 8th graders run smash route concepts. It looked like a secondary that wasn’t well prepared for the ISU Trips Bunch formation, brush routes, in/out cut combos, or Xavier Hutchinson as WR #1.

As the game progressed, confusion increased and performance worsened. Ryan Watts was playing well before his injury, but losing a cornerback should generally be an individual match up problem, not degrade the entire secondary’s recognition of how they’re being attacked.

D’shawn Jamison was OK. Kitan Crawford is Danger, Will Rob inson because he’s Lost in Space. Anthony Cook was not on the field for long stretches before coming back late and winning the game. I don’t know why.

Reliable Jerrin Thompson had his least impactful game to date. Jahdae Barron played well at nickel and then was later pressed into action at cornerback. Austin Jordan was put in a tough spot and his technique completely fell apart on the slant touchdown, but that was as much a team breakdown as individual fault.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Keilan Robinson blocked a punt (and a took a foot in the gut) while kick coverage was terrific with Roschon Johnson stopping an ISU player in hist tracks at the 15-yard line on a kickoff return with a perfect form tackle.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The defense didn’t perform all that well against a limited offense despite dominating the line of scrimmage. Texas will face an other offense with some real personnel limitations led by a feast or famine QB with a knack for making plays off schedule.

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RECRUITING TRAIL NEWS ARCH MANNING, OTHER TOP RECRUITS ATTEND IOWA STATE GAME

When Arch Manning comes to town, he rolls deep with Isidore Newman Greenie teammates.

The New Orleans (La.) product and Texas pledge brought several Newman teammates on FBS radars with him to the Texas-Iowa State game at Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium.

Included in the group was 2023 tight end and Texas commit Will Randle, 2025 offensive lineman and UT offer Brett Bordelon, and 2024 offensive lineman Heid Manning.

The Newman crew arrived on Saturday morning and spent the day in Austin watching the No. 20 Longhorns top Iowa State 24-21 before enjoying the scenes from Texas’ capitol city.

Inside Texas caught up with sources close to Manning and the staff. They said the Newman guys absolutely had a blast, with Manning and Randle further cementing their commitment status.

“The game was fun,” said Randle. “Good to be back in Austin. Game was a little nerve-racking, but a dub’s a dub. Offense took a little bit to get going, but started to click in the second half. Bijan (Robinson) looked great. Fun game and defense made big time stops when it mat tered.“

Randle suffered a knee injury earlier this year and will miss the remainder of the 2022 season. He recently started rehabbing from the injury and is making progress.

Bordelon, despite family ties to LSU, is keeping his op

by Gerry Hamilton and Justin Wells

ARCH MANNING

tions open during the early stages of his recruitment. His older brother, Bo Bordelon, is an offensive lineman for the LSU Tigers.

Brett, a 6-foot-4, 265-pound offensive tackle, holds offers from Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and LSU. The weekend trip was Bordelon’s second to Austin.

“It was really amazing,” said Bordelon. “The environment, the stadium, and the staff were all so great. I talked to Coach (Kyle) Flood for a while and he’s really great.

Their offensive line dominated today which helped their run game tremendously. It was great being there with friends and family as my parents came with me, as well as Arch and Will being there. It was a great experience.”

Bordelon tells Inside Texas he’s eager to return for an other game this season, and despite connections to the school in Baton Rouge, he’s open to leaving the state. Only a sophomore, the Longhorns have laid a solid foun dation in this recruitment.

Manning, the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning, son of Cooper Manning, and grandson of Archie Manning, took his of ficial visit to Texas on June 17.

Manning recently broke Isidore Newman records set by his uncles. His 326 passing yards and seven touchdowns against Pearl River (La.) in his most recent outing broke Peyton’s touchdown record of 93, and Eli’s passing yardage record of 7389.

RECRUITS REACT

We caught up with Horns’ recruiting targets and commits in attendance for No. 22

Texas’ 24-21 win over Iowa State in Big 12 play from Texas-DKR Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

Braylon Conley, CB Humble (Texas) Atascocita – 2024

New Texas offer

“Great game,” said Conley. “Offense, the quarterback (Quinn) Ewers and wide receiver Xavier Worthy (stood out). I like (Demarvion) Overshown. He’s a dog.”

On the new offer: “Feels AMAZING. My family and I loved it (the visit)! They make you feel like you’re a part of it. Every staff member went above and beyond to make sure you are comfortable and the energy was great the entire day!”

Dozie Ezukanma, WR

Keller (Texas) Timber Creek – 2024

“It was a great game all around, but I really like how the offense was operating effectively.“

Payton Kirkland, OL Orlando (Fla.) Dr. Phillips – #AllGas23

#AllGas23

“The atmosphere by far (stood out the most)! The offense line was churning today, coach (Kyle) Flood is doing an amazing job with them.”

Trevor Goosby, OL Melissa (Texas) – #AllGas23

#AllGas23

“Iowa State played our offense very well today, but de spite that, we still were able to overcome adversity and pull out the win.“

Jelani McDonald, ATH Waco (Texas) Connally – Oklahoma State commit “Everything like from the crowd, to how the coaches coached, everything stood out. Arch (Manning) is too cool.”

“It was cool actually was able to talk to them and I already knew some recruits so it was like ‘dang I want to come here more knowing some of my friends are there.’”

Derion Gullette, EDGE/LB

Teague (Texas) – #AllGas23

#AllGas23

“What stood out was the defense. They held it down in crunch time with a big-time fumble recovery and Jaylan Ford played amazing.”

PAYTON KIRKLAND

NEXT WEEK | PREVIEW

by Paul Wadlington

The 5-1 Cowboys are coming off of an overtime loss in Fort Worth in a game where they led by as many as 17 points. Their offense depleted along with Spencer Sanders‘ health and the Horned Frogs reeled off a 14-0 4th quarter to beat them in overtime, 43-40.

The Cowboys are a good team led by a very good coach, but they have uneven talent and some key injuries that can be exploited. The game will be determined by each team’s ability to protect their weaknesses and emphasize their strengths while maintaining composure when the game has its inevitable swings.

OFFENSE | PASSING GAME

QB Spencer Sanders is the Cowboy offense. It all flows from his arm and feet and they have no real Plan B. The experienced dual threat has been consistently inconsistent in his 38 career starts, but had clearly turned a page in that regard before inju ries degraded his performance over the last two weeks.

Over the last two games, he’s been a sub 50% passer, largely due to a shoulder injury and a variety of lower body dings and dents. He looks good early in games, particularly at tempo, and is always a dangerous runner (he had 2 first half touchdown

QUINN EWERS

runs against the Frogs and has 8 touchdown runs on the season overall) but degrades considerably as the contest wears on and he begins to absorb contact. Getting hits on Sanders early and often is key to the Texas game plan. If OSU chooses to play a game plan that protects him, they don’t really have the personnel to execute that without the willing consent of the Texas defense.

His injury-related inaccuracy is compounded by the fact that he has always been an unorthodox passer with a long release. Sanders can struggle to throw accurately outside the hashes, particularly as hits accumulate.

Combine that with his tendency to throw off his back foot when pressured and you’ve got a recipe for intrigue if the Longhorn defense attacks the ball in the air and Longhorn edges make him give ground rather than slide out of the pocket.

The Horned Frogs shut down the Cowboy offense late largely by overplaying inside releases (the Cowboy out side receivers combined for only 3 catches for 38 yards on 12 targets) and daring Sanders to hit intermediate throws outside the hash. Sanders responded by turning the turf into a bounce house in the 4th quarter.

The OSU receiving corps is pretty good in aggregate. There is no true #1, but they have multiple guys who are aver age to good. Five different Cowboy pass catchers have between 16-30 catches and they spread it around.

Slot Brennan Presley is their best chain mover and he will be a significant security blanket this Saturday. If Barron can shut him down, the Horns are in good shape. Jaden Bray is very talented and will be the guy there eventually, but he is still coming back from a hand injury.

Braydon Johnson and Bryson Green have been the best outside threats and they’re strong, big-bodied guys. John Paul Richard son is their sure-handed The Defense Forgot Me 3rd down guy. They like to use RB Dominic Richardson in the passing game and he had 79 yards receiving against the Frogs.

Unlike other Cowboy offenses of yore, they don’t have real

threats at tight end or H-back and there isn’t a ton of diversity Nor do they have their typical NFL caliber running back. This is a conventional tempo spread offense and everything flows from Sanders.

If Sanders can’t go or gets knocked out, the Cowboys will start inexperienced redshirt freshman Gunnar Gundy. It’s a scandal ous open secret that the head coach is sleeping with Gunnar’s mom..

RUNNING GAME

Maybe the Cowboys should just rely on their running game and use Sanders in a controlled play action passing game? Gundy has done that to Texas before. As recently as 2021. And also in 2017.

The problem is that they have little conventional running game. The only effective runs come when they involve Sanders either

SPENCER SANDERS

as the primary runner or as an option threat. The Cowboys start three poor to below average offensive linemen at center, right tackle, left guard (their starting center may return this week) and running back Dominic Richardson, though a tough and physical plugger, isn’t going to run his blocking better. He averages 4.0 yards per carry on the season (108-427-5 td).

They also struggle to pass block if Sanders can’t get rid of it quickly or buy time with his legs. Interesting side note: Alfred Collins gave the walk on right tackle Springfield a very hard time last year playing on the edge. Having Collins and Ojomo alternate terrorizing him might pay big dividends and be just the sort of wrinkle that can turn a big game.

Texas can probably dust off quite a bit of the OU game plan for Dillon Gabriel that they never got to employ, though the Cow boys don’t have OU’s conventional run game.

The rest remains the same. Contain the QB in the pocket, invite throws outside the hash, crush the conventional running game with the interior DL and Ford/Overshown, keep eyes on Sand ers on 3rd down, don’t let Sanders escape the pocket for easy window throws, make the Cowboys pay for involving Sanders in the running game, get bodies on their worst OL. Of course, 3rd down defense and red zone defense will be key..

DEFENSE

The Cowboys were gutted in the back 7 by the NFL draft and graduation, but this unit returns some outstanding defensive linemen and Swiss Army knife stud safety Jason Taylor, he of last year’s Casey Thompson Pick 6 fame.

Beyond those clear strengths, there are some target rich posi tions that the Cowboys hide by inflicting negative plays with their front and linebackers (they lead the Big 12 in tackles for loss).

They also tend to make good coverage adjustments over time (the Texas Tech game is a solid example of Derek Mason win nowing down passing options over the course of the game). That’s evident in their 3rd down efficiency, as they’ve held op ponents to <30% conversions on the year.

The Cowboys have a dangerous front with good depth and mul tiple options. Tyler Lacy has evolved from a giant run-stopping defensive end to a later round NFL level talent and the 285 pounder leads the team with 8.5 tackles for loss.

Edge Brock Martin is a high motor pass rusher who at his best against pocket quarterbacks. Nose tackle Sione Asi holds it down inside and Jake Majors will have his hands full with the penetrating run stopper. Edge Collin Oliver is their specialty pass rusher and the undersized speedster has 7 QB hits over his last four games. Trace Ford is yet another edge who gives them quality snaps off the bench. The Cowboys can come in waves up front.

The Cowboy linebackers are quick but inexperienced and Derek Mason likes to run blitz them and deploy them downhill to maximize havoc and exploit the opportunities his defensive front creates. The downside is that they can give up big runs when they guess wrong and it makes the Cowboys vulnerable to pass catching running backs and tight ends. This isn’t the game

JASON TAYLOR

for Bijan to squat in the hole looking for a second or third cut. Plant and go.

Jason Taylor is a big hard-hitting safety (215+) who can both cover (leads them in pass break ups) and support the run (2nd on the team in tackles). All conference level player. Thomas Harper is the coverage safety and Texas wants to make him make tackles in the open field.

The OSU corners are not without ability, but a step back from last year. If Texas can block OSU’s front, there’s plenty of yard

age available in both the running and passing game. Oklahoma State wants to inflict negative plays and put Texas behind the chains so they can run Derek Mason’s 3rd down defensive packages.

On offense favorable down and distance, the Cowboys are vulnerable. A Texas offense starting three true freshmen at key positions and eight underclassmen overall playing in a tough road environment will have some shaky moments, but if the Horns can block ’em up and scheme it up, Cowboy key losses of LB Malcolm Rodriguez, LB Devin Harper and CB Christian Holmes to the NFL will be evident.

Not to mention the loss of three other multi-year starters in the secondary (portal transfer Tanner McAllister starts for Ohio State now). Texas must avoid offensive penalties. The OSU defense behind the chains is very exploitable..

FINAL

Expect a great game in Stillwater. Texas has some potentially terrific matchups on both sides of the ball and a few adjustments could yield big dividends for the Burnt Orange. A big opportunity for the program to step up for a crucial road win.

D’SHAWN JAMISON