A sleepwalking Saturday: Our takeaways from Texas' Big 12 loss to No. 4 TCU
Remember that feeling of optimism, that feeling of hope, that feeling that Texas was starting to get there after the loss at home to No. 1 Alabama in September? There's no way Saturday night's loss to No. 4 TCU is going to elicit any kind of similar goodwill over these final two games of the regular season.
On a night when the Longhorns could have made a major move toward playing for a Big 12 championship, they instead lost to a top-five team that they were favored to beat by a touchdown. The irony is that Texas was favored by a touchdown and ended up losing by a touchdown. And it wasn't just that the Longhorns lost, it was the way they lost.
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The defense played perhaps its best game of the season, or second-best after the Oklahoma shutout. But the defense needed to produce points on a night like this, got tired in the fourth quarter and the offense never looked interested in getting back into this game.
Our takeaways from Texas' 17-10 loss:
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What this loss means for Texas
Also today: Kansas State blew out Baylor, Texas Tech beat Kansas, West Virginia beat Oklahoma and Oklahoma State beat Iowa State.
The conference race, as we see it:
TCU (7-0) has secured a spot in the Big 12 title game.
Kansas State is now 5-2. Texas and Baylor are now 4-3.
Texas closes with a trip to Kansas and ends at home against Baylor; Baylor hosts TCU and then travels to Austin; Kansas State is at West Virginia and then closes at home with Kansas. So, to get to Arlington, Texas needs to beat the Jayhawks and hope for Kansas State to trip either on the road against the Mountaineers or at home against the Jayhawks. Texas owns the tiebreaker over Kansas State.
What this loss reeeally means for Texas
What went wrong? Steve Sarkisian's opening game script fell flat. The whole offense fell flat, surprisingly in the first half as well, after the Texas offense has owned the first half of games this year. It was a real sleepwalker, one that 2023 hotshot recruit Arch Manning was there to watch live, and it took real teamwork to be so bad. The Horns couldn't punch it in from first-and-goal from the 2. And again from first-and-goal from the 5. Quinn Ewers was picked off twice, took a quarter-and-a-half to complete a pass (to a Longhorn, anyway) and looked sloppy back there. Bijan Robinson went from one of his best performances last week to one of his most forgettable this week.
The defense was great. The special teams were great. That's only two-thirds of the equation. This won't be a fun tape session.
A defensive gem ruined by an offensive dud
It's too bad Texas lost. The Longhorns' impressive defensive performance was ruined by the offense's ineptitude. The Longhorns had five sacks, held TCU to 283 yards and had 14 tackles for loss. Jahdae Barron scooped up a Max Duggan fumble and returned it 48 yards to shock Texas back into the game late in the fourth quarter. Barryn Sorrell had three tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks, DeMarvion Overshown was all over the place (good and bad) and Barron added 3.5 tackles for loss and half a sack.
Three really big plays from Texas vs. TCU
DeMarvion Overshown's roughing the punter: Agent Zero's costly 15-yarder gave TCU new life on its own side of the 50, and the Frogs cashed that in with a touchdown to go up 17-3 early in the fourth quarter.
Anthony Cook's blown coverage touchdown: At the end of that same drive with the Overshown penalty, Quentin Johnston found himself all alone in the end zone for an easy 31-yard touchdown pass when Cook found himself wrongfooted in coverage. It turned a worrisome 10-3 deficit into a daunting 17-3 one.
Johnston strikes again: Quentin Johnston's last catch of the night went for only six yards, but it was his second-most important grab of the game after his 31-yard score. Max Duggan found Johnston for the catch on a critical third-and-4 play on TCU's final drive, allowing the Horned Frogs to run out the clock. Texas was out of timeouts.
Texcetera
Texas was only 1-of-13 on third-down conversions. ... In the Bijan Robinson-Kendre Miller showdown between the Big 12's top two rushers, Saturday night went to Miller (21 carries for 138 yards and a touchdown). Robinson had 12 carries for 29 yards, no scores, and averaged 2.4 yards per carry. Robinson still leads the race for the rushing crown, but it's a close one: 1,158 yards to 1,147 yards, only an 11-yard difference. Too close to call. ... Ja'Tavion Sanders was targeted 12 times, Xavier Worthy was targeted 12 times and Jordan Whittington was targeted 11 times. ... Steve Sarkisian is back to a .500 coach. He's now 11-11 at Texas, 57-46 overall as a head coach. ... Texas dropped to 34-16-1 against TCU in Austin.
Up next for Texas: at Kansas, next Saturday in Lawrence, time and TV to be announced
Gulp. The Jayhawks are dangerous this year, heck, they have been dangerous to Texas just about every season recently, and this road trip is going to be at the tail end of a week of heavy clouds over the program. This loss to TCU leaves that bad of a taste.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas suffers a costly conference loss to TCU: Top takeaways
