Sometimes you just to survive a game, get the win and move on to the next contest. On one hand, you can celebrate the fact that Texas improved to 3-0 with a hard-fought win. On the other hand, this was an uninspiring performance for most of the game against a team that was 30-point underdogs and it showed that the Longhorns still have a lot of areas for improvement. Carrying an undefeated record into conference play is all that will matter when everyone wakes up on Sunday morning, but this team will have to play much better in the coming weeks if it wants to run through the Big 12.
I expected Texas to have a bit of an emotional letdown after the big win over Alabama, but never did I imagine that this game would be tied up going into the fourth quarter. This is still a good Texas team but elite teams don’t let a non-Power 5 opponent like Wyoming stay in contention, on the road, for most of the game. Improvements need to be made rather quickly if Texas if we’re going to continue to talk about Texas possibly making the CFP.
I think we can probably all agree that we’re going to have to tolerate some ups and downs from Quinn Ewers over the course of this season. As good as Ewers was last week, he was pretty bad in this one and missed a lot of pretty easy throws. There were some tosses in the first half where guys were wide open and Ewers just couldn’t connect. Maybe it’s time to dial back the Heisman talk that bubbled up after the Alabama game.
On a positive note, it does appear to this naked eye that Ewers continues to make really good decisions with the football, so that’s a big plus. The accuracy has been hit or miss, but he’s finding the open guy quickly and not putting the ball in dangerous spots with forced passes.
I’m not sure any Texas defender got a finger on Harrison Waylee on his 62-yard touchdown run on the opening drive of the game. How the hell does that happen? It looked like Anthony Hill made a freshman mistake and made a bad read to get caught up in traffic, but somebody else has to be there to clean that play up and get Waylee on the ground.
We saw the Texas defensive front dominate against Rice and Alabama. That group was decent tonight for the most part but it wasn’t nearly as disruptive as it was in the first two weeks. Texas didn’t record its first sack until Barryn Sorrell made a key play late in the third quarter.
This game started like a complete flip from what we saw from Texas last week … bad defense, pre-snap penalties, inaccurate throws. Just a horrible start for the Longhorns for the second time in three weeks.
Ewers was not sharp early on. He was throwing behind receivers and throwing off his back foot yet again. Also, I know that rainbow ball worked against Bama on the TD to Xavier Worthy but it almost felt like Ewers was actively trying to lob the ball in there early on a couple of those tosses to JT Sanders. A little more heat on those throws would have been better, including the one that gave the safety time to nearly make an INT.
Loved the play action pass to Byron Murphy. Sure, it helps that it went for a touchdown but it’s always fun to see a big guy catch a touchdown pass like that.
Texas to clean up the dropped passes. It’s getting to be ridiculous how many we’re seeing each week.
Did Texas’s win over Alabama lose some of its luster after seeing the Crimson Tide struggle to beat South Florida? Yikes. That is not a very good Alabama football team.
Who am I to criticize Nick Saban, but benching Jalen Milroe was a dumb kneejerk reaction and not going back to Milroe in-game felt like it should have been an easy decision.
Why didn’t Sark call a time out with about 50 seconds left and they had forced Wyoming into a fourth-and-two? The Longhorns could have got the ball back with one time out and a chance to get into field goal range, but instead Wyoming was able to run the clock out on the punt (speaking of, why didn’t the Cowboys take a no-risk Hail Mary shot on the last play of the half?).
Jahdae Barron was very good in the first half (7 tackles, 5 solo, 1 PBU). Jaylan Ford was solid. The rest of the defensive roster was pretty meh despite giving up only one big play to Wyoming. Nobody else really made any memorable plays.
Barron is an absolute stud. That tackle on a WR screen on third down in the fourth quarter was an NFL-level play.
Let’s hope the recruits stayed for the whole game and didn’t leave before the fourth quarter. Those first three quarters weren’t exactly the performance Texas needed to put on in front of some key prospects.
It was a workmanlike performance from Jonathon Brooks for most of the game before he busted a big one in the fourth quarter to help put the game away. Brooks ran tough all night and finished the game with 164 yards on 21 carries.
To be fair to Texas, it was one of those weird weeks in college football, including in the top 10. Alabama looked like dog crap. Georgia struggled for much of its game. Tennessee looked outclassed by Florida. Florida State was lucky to win. Notre Dame was sluggish for about three quarters.
Some first half stats … Texas 120 total yards, Wyoming 163. Quinn Ewers 8-17 for 57 yards and 1 TD with a 94.6 QBR. Texas 0-6 on third downs. Wyoming 18:15 time of possession, 11:45 for Texas.
@Travis Galey … it’s time to adjust those rankings.
I don’t want to overreact to one game, but if we’re factoring in the performance against Rice (who did win big tonight), a mediocre Alabama team and tonight’s showing against Wyoming, Texas doesn’t deserve it’s No. 4 ranking. Not yet, and not even close to that ranking.
I’ll give Wyoming credit. That is a tough, hard-hitting and well-coached football team. Texas should have played better, but some of the credit for UT’s sloppiness has to go to the effort Wyoming put in.
DJ Campbell … wooof. He wasn’t playing well to begin with but that was a killer sack he gave up in the third quarter to knock Texas out of field goal range and basically take points off the board.
That back-up Wyoming quarterback, when allowed to throw in rhythm, has a pretty nice arm. Not bad for a guy nobody expected to play coming into the game.
Through three quarters … Xavier Worthy 3 catches, 12 yards.
I literally posted that above thinking how dumb it was to not force the ball to Worthy … three plays later, a simple toss to him and he races up the field for a 44-yard touchdown.
Thanks LHN as usual for missing several plays.
Jerrin Thompson house call on his second INT in two games. That was game over at that point.
The was a pretty meh performance overall aside from about a 6-minute span in the fourth quarter, but a win is a win is a win … for now. Texas will need to be much better in Big 12 play.
