What a waste.
With the eyes of the nation upon them and a monumental opportunity at their fingertips, Steve Sarkisian and his Texas Longhorns picked a hell of a time to be wildly inept on offense for four quarters.
There's really no other way to get around it.
Everything about Sarkisian's famed offense was poor on Saturday against TCU in a 17-10 loss.
* Quinn Ewers finished with a 75.3 efficiency rating.
* Bijan Robinson was held to 29 yards rushing and had zero targets in the passing game.
* Xavier Worthy was held to four catches for 32 yards, which meant that the most memorable plays he was involved in were the one he didn't make.
* The Longhorns were 0 for 10 on its first 10 third downs. The first conversion was 4 minutes into the 4th quarter. The Longhorns were a comically poor 1 of 13 on the night.
* The Texas defense scored more points than the Texas offense.
Add those things up and you have a snapshot of what was happening on that side of the ball under Sarkisian's direction, while the Texas defense played one of its best games in a decade.
It doesn't really make any sense. How could the Texas offense play this poorly, while the defense was almost heroic at times?
The loss leaves the Longhorns in a position where it no longer controls its destiny in the Big 12 Championship game pursuit. With its dominating win in Waco, Kansas State is now in a prime position to play TCU in a re-match.
Two wins at West Virginia and at home against Kansas State will put the Wildcats in the Big 12 Championship. Period. Texas will need to win its final two games and hope that an unranked team can dislodge the Wildcats from the perch it now resides in.
Meanwhile, it was the exact opposite result that the Longhorns needed with one of the biggest set of elite recruits on hand to watch the game. Those inside and close to the program felt like a huge performance was needed to help close the deal with a number of recruits that were on hand tonight.
It was just a huge missed opportunity on every front. There's no way to get away from it.
(Other thoughts....)
* Sarkisian's offensive game-plan was pretty terrible. Other than throwing the ball deep a lot, I'm not sure what it was that he was trying to accomplish.
* In the biggest game of the season, Bijan Robinson had 12 touches.... none in the passing game.
* I don't even know how to discuss Quinn Ewers right now. He's just not a plus-player yet and that proved to be a big problem in a big game. There's no spinning 17 of 39 for 171 yards and an interception.
* Barryn Sorrell finished with 11 tackles, three tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and a pass break-up. Beqastly performance.
* TCU looks like a team that would get destroyed in a playoff game.
* That was a really, really bad time for Anthony Cook to make a major mental mistake.
* I hated going for the blocked punt down seven in the 4th quarter. The risk wasn't worth the reward.
* I thought Ovie Oghoufo played his best game of the season tonight... maybe even his best in a Texas uniform.
* Maybe Jordan Whittington should have touched the ball in the first 40 minutes of the game? He finished with 6 catches for 78 yards after he finally caught his first pass.
* It's kind of shocking that the Longhorns didn't try to get the ball to Bijan in the passing game.
* Kendre Miller was the best running back on the field tonight... words I never thought I would type.
* The Ryan Watts sack of Duggan was a corner blitz called from heaven. That's what it looks like when it comes off.
* Jahdae Barron has never been better in a Texas uniform than he was in the first half when he recorded nine tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and was just everywhere. D'Shawn who?
* I don't know what to even say about the first half. Three total points by both teams? 38 combined total rushing yards on 31 attempts? Bijan Robinson with 23 rushing yards? Ewers with 39 passing yards? When you consider that the Longhorns are typically such a great first half offense. it was more than a little bewildering that the offense was so poor.
* Ewers in the first half: 4 of 14 for 39 yards and an interception. That adds up to a 37.7 efficiency rating.
* Kitan Crawford has turned into a really good special teams player this season, as evidenced by his getting a hand on TCU's field goal attempt in the first quarter. That's a three-point play.
* Quinn Ewers completed zero passes in the first quarter, but it's hard to have success when your best two receivers are not catching the football.
* Texas had eight tackles for loss in TCU's first 18 offensive plays.
* The first 18 plays of the game netted both offenses a combined one-yard.
* The Texas defense had five tackles for loss in the first 8:32 of the game.
* Attaboy, Barryn Sorrell. His performance in the first quarter of this game was the most impactful he's been in two months. The fact that Pete Kwiatkowski was flipping him from the left to the right side on a regular basis seemed to get more out of him and Ovie Oghoufo.
* I'm sorry, dawg, but it's a no from me.
With the eyes of the nation upon them and a monumental opportunity at their fingertips, Steve Sarkisian and his Texas Longhorns picked a hell of a time to be wildly inept on offense for four quarters.
There's really no other way to get around it.
Everything about Sarkisian's famed offense was poor on Saturday against TCU in a 17-10 loss.
* Quinn Ewers finished with a 75.3 efficiency rating.
* Bijan Robinson was held to 29 yards rushing and had zero targets in the passing game.
* Xavier Worthy was held to four catches for 32 yards, which meant that the most memorable plays he was involved in were the one he didn't make.
* The Longhorns were 0 for 10 on its first 10 third downs. The first conversion was 4 minutes into the 4th quarter. The Longhorns were a comically poor 1 of 13 on the night.
* The Texas defense scored more points than the Texas offense.
Add those things up and you have a snapshot of what was happening on that side of the ball under Sarkisian's direction, while the Texas defense played one of its best games in a decade.
It doesn't really make any sense. How could the Texas offense play this poorly, while the defense was almost heroic at times?
The loss leaves the Longhorns in a position where it no longer controls its destiny in the Big 12 Championship game pursuit. With its dominating win in Waco, Kansas State is now in a prime position to play TCU in a re-match.
Two wins at West Virginia and at home against Kansas State will put the Wildcats in the Big 12 Championship. Period. Texas will need to win its final two games and hope that an unranked team can dislodge the Wildcats from the perch it now resides in.
Meanwhile, it was the exact opposite result that the Longhorns needed with one of the biggest set of elite recruits on hand to watch the game. Those inside and close to the program felt like a huge performance was needed to help close the deal with a number of recruits that were on hand tonight.
It was just a huge missed opportunity on every front. There's no way to get away from it.
(Other thoughts....)
* Sarkisian's offensive game-plan was pretty terrible. Other than throwing the ball deep a lot, I'm not sure what it was that he was trying to accomplish.
* In the biggest game of the season, Bijan Robinson had 12 touches.... none in the passing game.
* I don't even know how to discuss Quinn Ewers right now. He's just not a plus-player yet and that proved to be a big problem in a big game. There's no spinning 17 of 39 for 171 yards and an interception.
* Barryn Sorrell finished with 11 tackles, three tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and a pass break-up. Beqastly performance.
* TCU looks like a team that would get destroyed in a playoff game.
* That was a really, really bad time for Anthony Cook to make a major mental mistake.
* I hated going for the blocked punt down seven in the 4th quarter. The risk wasn't worth the reward.
* I thought Ovie Oghoufo played his best game of the season tonight... maybe even his best in a Texas uniform.
* Maybe Jordan Whittington should have touched the ball in the first 40 minutes of the game? He finished with 6 catches for 78 yards after he finally caught his first pass.
* It's kind of shocking that the Longhorns didn't try to get the ball to Bijan in the passing game.
* Kendre Miller was the best running back on the field tonight... words I never thought I would type.
* The Ryan Watts sack of Duggan was a corner blitz called from heaven. That's what it looks like when it comes off.
* Jahdae Barron has never been better in a Texas uniform than he was in the first half when he recorded nine tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and was just everywhere. D'Shawn who?
* I don't know what to even say about the first half. Three total points by both teams? 38 combined total rushing yards on 31 attempts? Bijan Robinson with 23 rushing yards? Ewers with 39 passing yards? When you consider that the Longhorns are typically such a great first half offense. it was more than a little bewildering that the offense was so poor.
* Ewers in the first half: 4 of 14 for 39 yards and an interception. That adds up to a 37.7 efficiency rating.
* Kitan Crawford has turned into a really good special teams player this season, as evidenced by his getting a hand on TCU's field goal attempt in the first quarter. That's a three-point play.
* Quinn Ewers completed zero passes in the first quarter, but it's hard to have success when your best two receivers are not catching the football.
* Texas had eight tackles for loss in TCU's first 18 offensive plays.
* The first 18 plays of the game netted both offenses a combined one-yard.
* The Texas defense had five tackles for loss in the first 8:32 of the game.
* Attaboy, Barryn Sorrell. His performance in the first quarter of this game was the most impactful he's been in two months. The fact that Pete Kwiatkowski was flipping him from the left to the right side on a regular basis seemed to get more out of him and Ovie Oghoufo.
* I'm sorry, dawg, but it's a no from me.
