Texas Football: Offense costs Longhorns game vs. TCU
The Texas Longhorns offense was unacceptable Saturday night against TCU.
With a chance to climb into the top of the Big 12 standings, the Texas Football team dropped a 24-7 road contest against TCU.
It was the same story on offense that has plagued Texas in losses this season: inconsistent playcalling, lack of running game, inability to run or pass block, penalties at the worst time, and failed third and short plays.
Texas’ only TD of the game was the product of a two-play drive. Shane Buechele threw a jump ball to Lil’Jordan Humphrey for 37 yards, then Collin Johnson hauled in a jump ball 33-yard TD pass. It was the only time in the game that Texas successfully took advantage of the WR group’s height advantage over smaller TCU corners.
Every other drive during the game resulted in a punt, turnover on downs, or missed field goal. “Lethal weapon” Michael Dickson was amazing yet again with his mastery of punting. Meanwhile, transfer kicker Joshua Rowland could not even reach the goalpost on a 47-yard field goal attempt in the first half.
The missed field goal was so demoralizing that TCU quickly drove down the field for a TD to make the game 17-0 early in the second quarter.
Texas immediately responded with the two-play TD drive to make the score 17-7 with 8:32 left in the second quarter.
Neither team scored in the rest of the second quarter, the entire third quarter, and deep into the fourth quarter.
Then, with 4:30 left in the game, the Texas defense crowded the line to try to stop a 4th down play, but TCU’s Darius Anderson zig-zagged through the defense for a dagger 31-yard TD run.
Texas Offense Had No Identity or Purpose
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In the second half, the Texas Longhorns (4-5, 3-3 in Big 12) only crossed midfield once. Then, Shane Buechele threw four straight incomplete passes to turn the ball over on downs.
That highlights the biggest concern for Texas’ offense this season: the lack of running attack.
The Longhorns were downright awful running the ball against TCU. That meant the Horned Frogs could just pin their ears back and rush the passer since Texas was so one-dimensional on offense.
In total, Tom Herman’s team rushed for 9 yards in this game. Granted, Buechele brought the total down because he was sacked so many times that he ended up with -23 yards.
Here is how the actual running backs fared:
- Chris Warren: 1 rush for 3 yards
- Daniel Young: 12 carries for 31 yards
And, throw in Jerrod Heard for -2 yards on a wildcat play that failed.
The rushing attack was just bad. This put it on Shane Buechele, who completed less than 50 percent of his passes.
Crazily, though, he outgained TCU QB Kenny Hill, who only threw for 146 yards and did not have a single passing or rushing TD in the game.
The issue is that TCU was able to rush for 177 yards to Texas’ mere 9 yards. Neither team turned the ball over in this game, so it came down to which offense could put together more drives to score points.
That category was owned by TCU with their three TDs and a field goal.
Texas Defense Plays Hard for Naught
It’s unfortunate that the game turned out this way because the defense had another terrific outing.
Granted, the defense gave up a TD on the first possession of the game thanks in part to two 15-yard personal fouls. But, the defense still had an opportunity to get off the field on 4th down. On 4th and 2 from the Texas 21 yardline, TCU called a trick play that Texas actually read perfectly, but RB KaVontae Turpin threw a sideline-to-sideline pass that just barely made it to Sewo Olonilua before it was intercepted. That led to a TD.
That near-miss INT would have changed the entire complexion of the game. Instead, it represented the closest that Texas got to a turnover in the game.
It became clear mid-way through the third quarter that the only way Texas was going to win this game was if the defense could take the ball away, perhaps even score on defense. But, Kenny Hill and the TCU RBs made sure they did not give the Longhorns life with a turnover.
Now, Texas has to regroup, figure out some semblance of offensive identity, and get revenge on Kansas next week in Austin.
Next: Top 15 Texas QBs all-time
The Longhorns need to win two-out-of-three remaining games to become bowl eligible, leaving Kansas, a road trip to West Virginia, and Texas Tech to close the regular season.