Survive and advance, I guess. We’re at a point in the season, as Sark has mentioned a few times, where every week is essentially a championship game and you just have to power through each week and keep stacking wins. This was no beauty pageant, but the Longhorns did just enough to get a fairly ugly road win in a rivalry game. The game was sometimes frustrating to watch, but getting the win is all that really matters in the end and Texas’ championship hopes remain alive. Make no mistake though, this team is going to need to play much better moving forward, especially on offense, if the title talk is going to continue.
Going into this game, Texas looked like the much better team on paper, but I had a feeling this one would play out much closer than the match-ups would seemed to have indicated. It certainly did, thanks in large part to a pretty dreadful performance by the Texas offense. The defense played well for most of the game but did seem to wear down a bit in the second half, which is understandable when you factor in how much that unit was on the field and the momentum Arkansas was able to generate in the second half. Sark always talks about complementary football and the offense did very little to help the defense in this game.
Interesting decision by Sark to go on offense to start the game after winning the toss. You don’t see that very often. It didn’t work out with Texas having to punt, but I didn’t hate the call and the aggressive mindset on the road.
Jahdae Barron is so good. Looking back, what a huge flip from Baylor that was for Texas back in 2020. Incredible career for Barron, who just might be Texas’ best defensive player. One series after getting an interception, Barron makes a beautiful read on a third-down screen to get Arkansas off the field. Running a WR screen to his side of the field never seems to work.
That fake screen to Wingo seems to work every single time. Texas used it again in the first quarter and Arkansas bit big-time, leaving Matthew Golden open for a wide-open touchdown reception for the first score of the game.
Hudson Card plays defense for Arkansas now? Who knew?
Alfred Collins has really made himself some money in recent weeks.
At first, I was thinking Texas needs Michael Kern to be better. His first two punts in this game were terrible. Then I saw Arkansas’ punter and it got me thinking Texas should be thankful for Kern.
How in the hell was that not interference on Matthew Golden in the end zone on that second-quarter ball that was underthrown? That non-call cost Texas four points after the Longhorns had to settle for a field goal.
Silas Bolden has never seen a punt that he’s not going to try to field.
Quinn Ewers downfield throwing … not great.
What a terrible series by Texas towards the end the first half. Driving and looking to go up possibly by three scores and consecutive negative plays in the passing game killed the drive and forced a punt. Can’t remember the last time I’ve seen two consecutive negative-yardage completions lose a combined 12 yards. The next series to end the half wasn’t much better with Ewers taking a sack to end the drive.
I swear, on half of Quinn Ewers’ sacks this year it looks like he actually stepped into the tackle. Saw more of that today on a couple of occasions in the first half.
First half stats of notes … Quinn Ewers, 15-23 for 100 yards and 1 touchdown; Texas 58 rushing yards on 19 carries; Texas 158 total yards, Arkansas 74 total yards; Arkansas 16 yards rushing; Texas 2-9 on third downs; Texas 7 points off of turnovers; Texas 4 sacks, Arkansas 2 sacks; Jahdae Barron 4 tackles, 3 solo, 2 TFL, 1 sack, 1 INT; Anthony Hill 0 tackles;
What’s better than eating some bad beat bacon at TCH Social while watching the Longhorns beat the piggies from Arkansas?
Colin Simmons had a quiet stretch mid-season but he’s really starting to come on again and flashed his pass-rushing talent in this one.
I’ll wait to make a final judgment after the game, but through three quarters, Quinn Ewers simply has not been good enough. Not even close. If Texas wants to win a championship this year – conference or national – Ewers has to be able to eliminate these types of games. A 111 passer rating and 130 yards through the third quarter is not getting it done.
Arkansas saw Kobe Black enter the game and went right after him on two consecutive plays for good yardage. It wasn’t necessarily terrible coverage by Black, but the Razorbacks capitalized when he was in the game with a couple of nice passes.
There have been some national pundits lately who have questioned what Texas has done to deserve its lofty ranking, and this game is going to give the doubters more ammunition to use against the Longhorns.
Texas in the third quarter … 39 yards of offense, 3 points scored, 3:31 time of possession, 1 first down, 1-4 passing. Arkansas third quarter … 98 yards of offense, 7 points scored, 11:25 time of possession, 8 first downs, 6-8 passing.
Jaydon Blue, heart attack avoided on that fumble in the fourth quarter. You could see that play coming from a mile away but Blue was fortunate that the ball bounced out of bounds.
Great response and a great drive by Texas after Arkansas had cut the lead to three points in the fourth quarter. For all the struggles Ewers had leading up to that drive, he was great in that sequence including an absolute perfectly placed ball to Matthew Golden for the touchdown. That was also one hell of a catch by Golden. That drive might have been a season-saver.
On the next drive, just when it looked like Arkansas was going to cut the deficit to one score, Alfred Collins again comes up huge with a forced fumble from behind that Michael Taaffe recovered. Huge swing on that play.
Like I said at the top, it wasn't exactly the most beautiful win against a pretty mediocre Arkansas team, but knocking off the Razorbacks on their one home field always makes for a good day, no matter how things unfold.
