Ok, let's talk about the defense.
With all due respect to all of the other things that occurred in this game that warrant discussion (see below), the elephant in the Texas coaching offices on Sunday is a Texas defense that was about as inadequate as it could possibly be on Saturday night.
In addition to giving up 45 points, 573 yards of total offense and one of the greatest quarterback performances a visiting quarterback has ever delivered at DKR, the following was also true of Todd Orlando's unit:
a. Allowed LSU to average 8.4 yards per play and a staggering 11.4 yards per play in the fourth quarter.
b. Allowed three different LSU receivers to total 100+ yards receiving, while averaging 18.8 yards per reception.
c. Allowed 5.33 yards per carry to LSU running backs.
d. Not including the drive that ended with LSU taking a knee to run the clock out, the Longhorns allowed points on seven of the final eight drives LSU had on offense, beginning with the Tigers’ first offensive possession in the second quarter.
You guys get the point.
With a schedule full of offenses that can do a lot of damage to opposing defenses, the question that must be asked of this Texas defense is whether it's in the kind of shape that can cost this team more than just a home game against a top 5-level opponent?
Let's take a look at the three biggest issues from Saturday night and make some conclusions based on a mere 120 minutes of sample-size.
a. The Texas defensive line
From my perspective, the personnel issues that exist with the defensive line represent the most pressing reasons for concern and it's the area that represented the most pressing concern coming into the season if you could allow yourself to be honest about the true state of the roster.
In trying to replace the Big 12's best defensive lineman (Charles Omenihu) from 2018 and two other senior starters, who were only solid players at best, the Texas defense has found itself unable to replace what has been lost.
Let's just take a quick roll call.
Malcolm Roach is a very solid defender against the run, but doesn't give you much in terms of pass rush. Keondre Coburn and Moro Ojomo have been steady in the middle at the point of attack. Taquan Graham has been a virtual no-show (one assisted tackle in two games). There's basically nothing behind them at this stage of the season. What you see is what you get. Shame on any of you that mentioned any of these players in the same breath as Omenihu.
When you hear folks like me sing about the dangers of missing on elite defensive line targets year after year, thus relying on too many players that arrive in Austin with a 75-80 percent likelihood failure with regards to developing into an NFL player, this is what we're warning against.
It's two games into the season and it's become completely clear that the Longhorns cannot generate a pass rush with their defensive line and it seems rare that the Longhorns can get to the quarterback unless they bring more than four. You can argue until you're blue in the face that linemen in a 3-man front aren't in a position to create a good pass rush, but that's not really an issue when you have NFL players in those roles (see Omenihu a year ago).
If we want to keep it completely real, the Longhorns don't have plus-personnel and a scheme (see below) that can't truly get the most out of what parts it does have.
b. The Texas secondary
As @Anwar Richardson wrote in his column earlier today, "This team showed weaknesses (in the secondary) that none of my sources believed existed prior to this game."
Considering volume of missed tackles, struggles in coverage and inability to make plays through the first two games of the season, this feels incredibly problematic.
It would be easy to merely point towards the young cornerbacks on the roster, but the truth of the matter is that the entire unit is still trying to find its way in the early point of the season, including star safeties Brandon Jones, Caden Sterns and BJ Foster.
The good news is that this isn't an area of the team that lacks talent. The likes of Jones, Sterns and Foster will likely find the light switch for an entire game. A player like Jalen Green will eventually find it, too.
The bad news is that it's pretty much impossible to know if future games will be lost while this group tries to figure things out, which includes finding someone to work the starting cornerback spot opposite Green.
This was supposed to be one of the team's greatest areas of strength, but when Oklahoma State comes to town in a couple of weeks, the expected performance level that everyone can count on is completely up in the air. Seriously, OSU quarterback Spencer Sanders has thrown six touchdowns, has a season rating higher than the one Joe Burrow posted on Saturday night ... oh ... and Tylan Wallace is catching passes from him.
Three weeks later, it's Lincoln Riley's offense.
c. Todd Orlando's scheme and play-calling
The current Texas defensive coordinator will forget more football than 100 of us combined will likely ever know, but with that acknowledgment out of the way, it's fair to ask a couple of questions
No. 1 - If we took every defensive lineman option on the roster and put them in a pile, is a three-man front the scheme that we'd immediately think to put them in? I'm just not sure. There just might be too much responsibility and not enough ability to pull off what Orlando wants to pull off on defense without NFL-level linemen at his disposal.
No. 2 - Given the state of both the front and back end of the defense, what should the new set of expectations be for this defense because elite-level standards seem like a foolish notion to suggest as things stand.
If you have to bring extra men to create pressure on opposing quarterbacks, where does that leave a defense that is struggling to cover AND tackle?
No. 3 - Does Orlando have a plan B? Is it possible to have a plan B, given the circumstances?
Wrapping it all up ...
It appears that Tom Herman has an offense that's capable of playing at an elite level in pretty much every game in which it plays, which means that the Longhorns are capable of putting almost any team they play to the sword.
None of this discussion likely impacts games against Rice, West Virginia, Kansas and probably Kansas State.
Yet, as things currently stand, it's not hard to envision games against Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, TCU, Iowa State, Baylor and Texas Tech turning into Big 12 track meets. I know some of you will want to jump in and suggest that it's not possible that six of the team's final 10 games have track meet potential, but when your defense ranks 127th (out of 130) in passing yards allowed, 124th in pass completion percentage allowed, 120th in total defense, 119th in passing touchdowns allowed, 114th in passer rating allowed, 93rd in third down defense and 90th in red zone defense .... you're not allowed to be emphatically overconfident.
No. 2 - Let's talk about Sam ...
Full confession: When the game ended on Saturday night, I did not think there would be a need to explain the greatness from Sam Ehlinger on a night when he threw for more than 400 yards, led the team in rushing, combined for five total touchdowns and didn't commit a single turnover.
I figured that part was self-explanatory, but I guess not.
Apparently, if you miss a throw or two in the first half or don't score on every single possession of the game on offense, the finger pointing will begin, which is quite rich when you consider that the Texas fan base has been waiting for nearly a decade for a quarterback capable of delivering half of what Ehlinger delivered on Saturday.
It's as ridiculous as suggesting that a running back with 250 yards rushing and four touchdowns was somewhat responsible for a loss on a night when his defense allowed 45 points because he only had 40 yards rushing after the first quarter.
If you're expectations for success for Ehlinger include him being perfect and completing every single throw, I suppose he's never going to satisfy you. However, consider the following ...
* Ehlinger's 401 yards passing were the 6th most for any quarterback in school history.
* Ehlinger's 401 yards passing represented only the third time in school history that a Texas quarterback threw for 400 yards or more (Colt McCoy vs. Central Florida in 2009 and Major Applewhite vs. Oklahoma State in 1998) at home.
* No Texas quarterback has ever thrown for 400 yards in a game twice in a season and no player in Texas history has more than two.
* Only Colt McCoy (twice - vs. Baylor in 2006 and 2008) has ever thrown for more touchdowns in a game at DKR and only four times in history has a quarterback thrown for more touchdowns than the four that Ehlinger had on Saturday night, not including the Keaontay Ingram drop.
* Not including the two plays that ended the first half, Texas scored on six of its final eight drives of the game against one of the nation's best defenses. If Keaontay Ingram catches the football in the first quarter, Ehlinger would have led the Longhorns to points on seven out of 11 drives.
How some of you missed two quarterback masterpieces taking place in front of your very eyes is beyond me, but it apparently happened.
You'll forgive me if I chuckle at your criticism because he wasn't perfect.
I forget that some of you guys play season-mode on Playstation and have normalized 500-yard/eight touchdown performances, complete with a 90-percent completion rate.
No. 3 - Humpty Dumpty has to be put back together again ...
One of the most important tasks in front of the offensive coaching staff this week is getting sophomore running back Keaontay Ingram back on track after a nightmare of a game against the Tigers.
While I know there is an instinct to wonder if Roschon Johnson is on his way to taking his job, the truth of the matter is that the coaches cannot allow that to happen to Ingram because he's too important to this offense over the course of this season.
Point blank - Texas can't win the Big 12 if Ingram isn't one of the Big 12's best backs.
Just a week ago, he was back to averaging 7.1 yards per carry. A week later, his confidence seemed to never completely recover from that dropped catch in the end zone.
Pick him up and dust him off, Stan Drayton. Go love on him, Tom Herman. Remind him that he's young and hard knocks are part of life, but how he responds from here matters much more than anything that happened on Saturday night. The best thing that can happen on Saturday against the Owls on the offensive side of the ball is for Ingram to rush for 100 yards and begin the confidence rebuilding process.
No. 4 - Five players I'm still thinking of ...
Let's do some pure positivity by giving some special Sunday night/Monday morning shout outs.
* Devin Duverney: Honestly, this dude probably deserves his own section. I just can't get over the fact that he went out and caught ELEVAN DAMN PASSES in the second half against the Tigers. That included him punking LSU star Grant Delpit a couple of times in the open field. He was one of the top five players in this game and none of those LSU defensive backs wanted any more smoke when the game was over.
* Brennan Eagles: The sophomore had some of his thunder stolen from him by Duvernay's second-half performance, but Eagles kept the Longhorns in the game in the first half and he's currently on a 12-game pace of 48 receptions for 1,050 yards and 18 touchdowns ... and I still don't think we've seen his best.
* Junior Angilau: I thought the Texas offensive line did a pretty damn good job in pass protection against the Tigers, even if the group did allow five sacks, but I don't remember ever seeing the redshirt freshman have a bust that proved to be costly. We're not talking about him enough.
* Roschon Johnson: That kid ain't moving back to quarterback and he's not redshirting. His playing time is only going to increase from here on out.
* Joseph Ossai: Todd Orlando can't put this kid enough positions to make plays. He's a future Sunday player who makes monster plays.
No. 5 - THIS is the kind of commitment the Longhorns can't get enough of ...
I absolutely love me some Ja'Tavion Sanders, the 2021 defensive end prospect from Denton Ryan whose commitment scoop was broken in the wee hours of the night by one of his high school coaches on social media.
How much?
While I've currently got him ranked No. 6 on the LSR Top 100, he's a guy that I believe has five-star upside. If he can avoid injuries and other pratfalls, this is a guy that projects as a likely NFL player down the road in my mind.
No. 6 - If I had a vote that mattered ...
1. Clemson
2. Alabama
3. LSU
4. Oklahoma
5. Georgia
6. Ohio State
7. Auburn
8. Wisconsin
9. Texas
10. Penn State
No. 7 – BUY or SELL …
(Buy) Without question. The Longhorns are in a better position today with every kid that visited last night.
(Buy) It can't hurt. This isn't the first time it's been pointed out that most of the Texas super analytic staff possess offensive backgrounds.
(Buy) I think there's some discussion to have about the defense right now, but it's hard to ignore the inexperience at cornerback. That being said, that doesn't explain the uneven play at the back end of the secondary.
(Buy) I think he was already there, but he's certainly rising.
(Buy) Oklahoma State is going to be a fight, but I'm still expecting a Texas win ... and last night might be the JV game of offensive fireworks on the Texas schedule this year.
(Buy) And it's not even close ...
(Sell) Nothing changed last night with regards to the way I view the Big 12 title race.
(Buy) That LSU loss will turn into a valuable resume piece in December if the Longhorns are battling other one-loss teams for that four spot, unless one of those teams is LSU.
(Sell) I'm not sure anyone is going to have that job on lock down at any point this season.
(Buy) They aren't playing at a high enough level.
No. 8 – Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
... Texas A&M was slightly better than "meh" on Saturday against Clemson. The good news is that it’ll have more chances to be better than "meh" against really good teams really soon.
... Jalen Hurts has a quarterback rating of 252.3 through two games with Oklahoma. Lol.
... J.K. Dobbins is back to averaging 6.1 yards per carry through two games after averaging only 4.6 yards per carry last year.
... Michigan deserved to lose, but college football ain't got nothing to do with deserves.
... Tip of the cap to USC quarterback Kedon Slovis. Wow!
... Only Nick Saban could win a game by 52 points and end up in a Twitter search as "Saban Rant".
... How does one even put into words a complete set of thoughts on the Antonio Brown situation? The frozen feet? The helmet? Calling his boss a "cracker" or "white devil" or both? Secretly recording his head coach and posting the audio on YouTube? Asking for his release? Celebrating his release by running into his back yard like a 10-year old that got a new bike for Christmas? Signing with the Patriots for $15 million, including nine million in a signing bonus? I can't help but think of Don King ... only in America.
... I'm enjoyed that ass-kicking of the Giants so much that I'm not even gonna talk bad about Red-Ball today. I don't know that I will ever believe the Cowboys have a Super Bowl in them, but this is a very, very talented team.
... Dak is about to get p-a-i-d.
... After all of the off-season hype, Baker Mayfield and the Browns got beat by 30 at home by Tennessee. Lulz.
... How good must it have felt for Lamar Jackson to go home to Florida on Sunday and drop a 59-10 bomb on the Dolphins? So much for Jackson's arm being a hindrance.
... Former Texas running back Malcolm Brown rushed for 53 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday against the Panthers.
... Tweet of the Weekend
... The best thing that happened this weekend in sports was the Rafa Nadal/Daniil Medvedev final in the US Open on Sunday. Both men pushed each other to the bring in a near five-hour, five-set match, but Nadal had just enough to grab major No.19 and now he's only one major behind Roger Federer. What a decade for tennis.
... Serena Williams keeps knocking on the door of her 24th major and she keeps running into precocious young players who keep denying her at the doorstep. Full credit to Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu. She was simply better than Serena on Saturday.
... I don't know if Khabib Nurmagomedov is the best pound-for-pound fighter in UFC history, but the conversation might just be between him and Jon Jones.
... The Yankees took 12 of 17 games from the Red Sox going into Sunday night and my first reaction is, "Why did those teams play against each other 18 times?” That feels extreme.
... The current state of the USMNT in pretty pathetic. After missing out on the World Cup in 2018, the state of things aren't much better in 2019. Gregg Burkhalter seems completely in over his head as manager and the team is right there with him, in over its head.
No. 9 - The List: Top 10 Visiting Quarterback Performances of All-Time ...
One of the questions I asked myself after watching Joe Burrow on Saturday night was whether we had just witnessed the best visiting quarterback performance at DKR in the history of Texas football. It turns out that in terms of quarterback rating, he was very close to posting the best rating of the last 40 years of Longhorns games played at DKR.
This turned out to be quite a fascinating list to compile.
(minimum 15 passes per game)
10. 160.6 rating - Jared Goff (California 2015) - 27 of 37 for 268 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions.
9. 173.5 rating - Geno Smith (West Virginia 2012) - 25 of 35 for 268 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions
8. 177.7 rating - Troy Smith (Ohio State 2006) - 17 of 26 for 269 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions.
7. 178.4 rating - Donovan Woods (Oklahoma State 2004) - 12 of 18 for 224 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
6. 183.7 rating - Jamie Gill (Texas Tech 1989) - 15 of 22 for 224 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions.
5. 186.4 rating - Tony Lindsay (Oklahoma State 1998) - 9 of 19 for 236 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions.
4. 186.8 rating - Graham Harrell (Texas Tech 2007) - 36 of 48 for 466 yards, five touchdowns and one interception.
3. 206.5 rating - DeShone Kizer (Notre Dame 2016) - 15 of 24 for 215 yards, five touchdowns and zero interceptions.
2. 209.7 rating - Joe Burrow (LSU 2019) - 31 of 39 for 471 yards, four touchdowns and one interception
1. 210.7 rating - Cade McNown (UCLA 1997) - 15 of 23 for 202 yards, five touchdowns and zero interceptions.
No. 10 – And Finally ...
Let's end this week's column with a dog because dogs are the best.
Brilliant, brilliant write up. Great perspective and on point on all relevant issues. Exactly why I pay good dinero to be part of this. Thank you.
