This game never really felt like a contest that Texas was in jeopardy of losing, but it was not the SEC-opening performance that Steve Sarkisian was looking for. After such impressive and clean performances in their first four games, the Longhorns were sloppy in just about every phase of this game, against a team that they should have blown out. The result was a one-score game late in the third quarter.
Man, when Anthony Hill hits you, you’re going down and going down hard. Hill is just what I call a heavy hitter.
What an efficient first drive for the offense and Arch Manning. Manning was 4-of-4 for 56 yards on that first drive with a rating of 217.6.
Pretty uneventful first quarter other than that one drive by Texas. A Jaydon Blue fumble didn’t help but MSU held the ball for 11:06 of the quarter.
This is not Texas playing to their standard. Bad running game, turnover, penalties, blocked punt … Sark couldn’t have been happy with the start to this one.
Wow, what else can go wrong for Texas? Johntay Cook gets behind the defense and Arch drops it in for what should have been a long touchdown and Cook drops it. On third down no less, so Texas had to punt. Brutal.
That injury to Ryan Wingo didn’t look good but he returned to action in the fourth quarter so that was obviously a good sign.
David Gbenda is playing his way into an NFL conversation. Good to see his patience paying off.
What a beautiful ball by Manning to DeAndre Moore for the touchdown with 29 seconds left in the first half. MSU blitzed off the edge and the defender had a free run at Manning but Manning stood in the pocket and delivered a perfect ball to Moore downfield. Texas really needed that.
DeAndre Moore … have yourself a day. That young man was one step away from a hat trick of touchdowns.
Manning’s final stat line … 26 of 31 for 324 yards with 2 TDs and 0 INTs; 6 carries for 33 yards and 1 TD. My grade for Manning: A.
First half stats of note … Arch Manning 15-19 for 202 yards and 1 TD, 185.6 rating; Texas 10 rushing yards, 1.4 ypc; MSU 115 rushing yards; Isaiah Bond 4 catches 73 yards; DeAndre Moore 2 catches 69 yards and 1 TD; MSU 40 plays, Texas 26 plays; MSU time of possession 21:03, Texas time of possession 8:57; Texas 5 total offensive drives; David Gbenda 6 tackles.
Jaydon Blue, hold onto the football. I doubt it matters, but maybe start with fastening your gloves. I think Blue was stuck to the bench in this game after that second fumble.
Worth noting that Tre Wisner runs tough. Good on him for his effort, including an incredible effort on a TD run that was called back on a hold.
Vernon Broughton bailed Blue out a couple of plays later with a nice strip sack and fumble recovery.
That was a pretty weak holding call on Gunnar Helm IMO. Pretty big swing on that third-quarter drive.
I didn’t exactly love the decision by Sark to take the three points off the board after Texas had made it a two-score game. I didn’t HATE the decision, but I would have taken the field goal. I wasn’t crazy about the fourth-down call either.
The ONLY thing I’ve said you can really be critical of this team is in its run defense and it reared its ugly head again in this game. That doesn’t bode well for when Texas faces better SEC competition.
Holy crap Colin Simmons. His first step has to be as quick as any player I’ve watched in a long time. He looked TJ Watt-like in shooting off the edge for a huge third-down sack in the third quarter.
Man, Texas HAS TO clean up the offensive line penalties. Those are going to be costly at some point if they keep making mental errors that put Texas behind the chains.
Arch … slide, my man! Or maybe the big hit pissed him off because on the next play Manning raced for a 26-yard run that sure looked like a touchdown to me. They called him out after a review and Texas would eventually punch it in to stretch the lead to 21-6.
Mississippi State time of death … 5:45 p.m. When Manning scored on the QB sneak to put Texas up by 15 points, that was enough. MSU doesn’t have the offensive firepower to score 15 points, much less do it while holding Texas scoreless.
You know Texas would have loved to have kept MSU out of the end zone for a number of reasons, including pride. That fourth-quarter touchdown was disappointing.
The above being said, Texas scoring a late touchdown to push the final score to 35-13 made things look a little better.
This wasn’t pretty, but it’s conference play and Texas is officially in survive and advance mode. Hopefully for the Longhorns’ sake, they got their sloppy game out of their system and they’ll play a better brand of football against their upcoming opponents. Enjoy the off week.
