What a night. Texas goes on the road and takes down mighty Alabama and Nick Saban. And let’s be clear, this was no fluke. In fact, if these two teams play this game 10 times, I’m not sure Texas doesn’t win seven or eight of them. The final score of 34-24 was much closer than it could have been. Both teams made some mistakes and left some points on the board, but it feels to these eyes that Texas was the much better team and really could have blown this sucker open if not for a couple miscues. What a huge, potentially program-changing win for Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns.
Before I get into thoughts on the actual game, how cool is it to just be in this type of game, this type of atmosphere? We haven’t had enough of these type of highly anticipated games with national interest and national importance in recent years.
What a night by Quinn Ewers. You had people during and after last week’s game claiming he needed to be benched and Maalik Murphy should be given a chance as the starter. All Ewers did was respond with 349 yards and 3 touchdowns without a single turnover with an efficiency rating of 166.4. Extremely impressive stuff for Ewers on the biggest of stages.
The confidence from CJ Baxter early on is impressive. This game and this moment is not too big for him. That dude has future team captain written all over him.
We heard so much AD Mitchell hype in the pre-season that I found myself expecting much more from the Georgia transfer. Other than drawing a pass interference penalty, Mitchell was a complete non-factor in the first half. Until … literally a couple minutes after I typed that he needed to do more, he makes a big grab downfield to make me eat my words. He’d later draw another pass interference and then catch a go-ahead touchdown and then break things open on a nice catch in the fourth quarter for a long touchdown.
What a ballsy call to go for it on fourth and 2 inside the 10 in the first quarter. I honestly thought before the play that Sark should have taken the points, but he rolled the dice and it paid off with a first down, but Texas couldn’t convert and had to settle for the field goal anyway. Huge missed opportunity there on a ball that Xavier Worthy should have caught for a touchdown.
After all the talk about Ewers’ inability to hit a deep one he connects with Xavier Worthy on an absolute rainbow that drops right into the bucket for a 44-yard touchdown. Ewers wasn’t really able to step into it but he delivered that ball perfectly.
Incredible stat ESPN showed … that strike to Worthy was Ewers’ first career TD pass of more than 20 years for Quinn Ewers. He’d wind up with two long TDs in this one.
Jalen Catalon. after being shut out of the stat sheet in week one, was very active tonight. Four tackles through a little more than one quarter and six tackles in the first half. He’d finish the game with 7 tackles.
Great effort by David Gbenda to get that sack after he got cut down on the blitz. He was able to bounce up quickly and run down Milroe for a huge third-down sack. Loved that play.
I'm usually the last one to complain about holding non-calls because holding can pretty much be called on every single play if you're really looking for it, but some of these non-calls against Alabama were awful.
Ewers really should have had three touchdown passes in the first half and Texas should have had a 21-6 lead at the half. Instead, with two dropped touchdown passes, the Horns held a 13-3 lead after some missed opportunities.
The offensive line took some heat for its performance in week one but that group was really good tonight. It was tough sledding in the run game but that was to be expected. Alabama didn’t record a single sack or even a QB hurry in the first half.
What a huge punt by Ryan Sanborn late in the first half with Texas backed up deep on its own side of the field. A holding penalty on Texas helped Bama’s field position but Sanborn sure did his job when he was needed.
Poor Aggies.
I love seeing Anthony Hill used as a spy on Milroe. I thought Texas would try to spy him, but didn’t think it would be with Hill. The true freshman LB made a huge drive-killing stop on one play when Milroe looked like he might be able to scramble for a first down. Hill would later come up with a couple of big sack on third downs. This feels a coming out party for the true freshman.
This feels like it might have been a coming out party for Ethan Burke as well. The former Westlake standout was causing pressure in the backfield all night.
Holy crap, Jonathon Brooks was Johnny On The Spot on that muffed snap to Ewers. What a break by Texas, after some nervous moments due to the officiating. Then how about on the very next play, Ewers catches his own batted pass and advances it for a few yards? Wacky sequence of plays.
For the second straight week, this defensive line came to play. They showed tonight that the week one performance against Rice was no fluke.
After giving up a go-ahead touchdown, Jerrin Thompson bounced back with a HUGE interception in the fourth quarter. To be honest, it was a terrible throw by Milroe but Thompson still did what he needed to do. One play later, Jonathon Brooks punches it in to push the lead to 27-16.
Texas was absolutely the better team in this game tonight. There’s still work to be done this year and this team has to stay focused from week to week, but when the Longhorns are on, this is a championship-caliber football team. Let’s settle in for what should be a fun ride through the rest of the season.
