Report Card: Texas Longhorns Vs Ole Miss Rebels
Sept 15, 2012; Oxford, MS, USA; Texas Longhorns punter Alex King (15) leads the team out of the tunnel before the game against the Mississippi Rebels at Vaught Hemingway Stadium. Texas Longhorns defeat the Mississippi Rebels 66-31. Mandatory Credit: Spruce Derden-US PRESSWIRE
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In this week’s Report Card, we go position by position and grade how the Texas Longhorns did in their 66-31 victory of the Ole Miss Rebels.
Quarterbacks
David Ash had a career day throwing for 326 yards completing 19 of his 23 pass attempts. The criticism of David Ash’s play this year was that he didn’t air out the ball and his completions were “easy”. Well 9 of his completed passes went for 10 or more yards and completed 4 long passes of more than 40 yards. It’s time to give Harsin credit for his development of Ash this past offseason. Ash looks confident and he knows his role in this offense. No he isn’t Brett Favre slinging the ball downfield for big gains, but he knows the offense and he is relying on his playmakers to make the plays and he is okay with being the facilitator. Now a bigger test will be coming in the next few weeks, but 1 position we don’t have to worry about is Quarterback.
Grade: A
Running Backs:
Malcolm Brown finally gets carries in this game after getting nothing in the New Mexico game. Joe Bergeron did get injured and didn’t finish the game. But total rushing yards for the game was 350 yards. That is domination. They ran the ball at will on a smaller defensive line. That is good news heading into Big 12 play that the Longhorns were able to do that.
Grade: A-
Wide Receivers
The wide receivers stepped up big time in this game and not only did they make plays but got themselves open by stopping short and coming back to the ball. Mike Davis and Marquis Goodwin did great in this game and Jaxon Shipley was very quiet in the Ole Miss game and it wasn’t that noticeable. If the Longhorns can consistently have 2 or 3 playmakers at the wide receiver position, it’s going to be scary what this Longhorns team can do. I wanted to see more from the receivers before this game began and I finally got it.
Grade: A
Tight Ends
They didn’t do too much in the receiving department but DJ Grant had a touchdown reception and they did very well in run blocking. No mistakes, no obvious problems that I could pick out. Solid effort.
Grade: B
Offensive Line
The offensive line just manhandled the Ole Miss defense. Ole Miss had a defensive line that was undersized but when you gain 350 yards on the ground, 326 yards threw the air and zero sacks given up, you did a damn good job as an offensive lineman. This position unit was the most improved from the last week to this week.
Grade: A
Defense
I will give two grades, one for the first half and another for the second half. The first half, the Longhorns were dominant on defense. They got to the quarterback for 5 sacks and two interceptions. Then in the second half, they became complacent and it looked like they didn’t care at some points. Missed tackles once again plagued this defense and at some point this has to be addressed. Manny Diaz needs to light a fire under them and get them to focus on the fundamentals of the game. It would be one thing if the Longhorns were out of position on some of those attempted tackles, but they were in position, they just didn’t wrap up the runner. Quandre Diggs got a pick in the 3rd quarter and that was the only bright spot in the second half.
Grade: 1st Half: B+ 2nd half: D
Special teams
An average night. Nick Jordan went 1-2 on field goals but made all 9 PATs. Nick Jordan is the future but the Longhorns need Anthony Fera back pronto. Kickoff coverage was really good until they gave up the kickoff return for a touchdown. The 1 punt was very good so in all, an above average night for Special Teams.
Grade: B-
Coaching
I think the coaching was excellent in this game. On offense, the Longhorns were dominant and knew exactly the right play to call at the right time. On defense, outside of the poor tackling, the blitzes were at the right time and created havoc for the Rebels offensive line. With a week off, the coaches of defense need to work on fundamentals before working on a gameplan for Oklahoma State. But the coaching staff were prepared and they knew how to handle the Rebels.
Grade: A-
Overall
A statement win for the Longhorns. Last year, a statement win early in the season against UCLA proved to be not as big of a statement as the 55-17 loss to the Sooners. Last year, it was all about getting back to a bowl game, now the goal is BCS bowl contention and with this win, the Longhorns are moving in that direction. Ole Miss was a bad team, but that was last year. They already have as many wins as they did last year. The Rebels will be in contention for a bowl game. Even with the atmosphere the way it was, the Longhorns came out and dominated like a Longhorn team should. Great win by the Longhorns and a great way to go into a bye week.
Grade: A
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