Texas Football: 10 things that went wrong for the Longhorns so far in 2018

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AUSTIN, TX – SEPTEMBER 08: Akayleb Evans #26 of the Tulsa Golden Hurricane breaks up a pass in the endzone intended for Devin Duvernay #6 of the Texas Longhorns at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on September 8, 2018 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) /

7. Tulsa’s close call

Possibly the worst loss that could’ve happened for the Horns in the past decade would be a Tulsa Golden Hurricane team that still only has won win in eight tries this fall. Tulsa played Texas close to the final minutes of the fourth quarter. This theme emerged to be an issue nearly week in and week out in 2018.

While Ehlinger and the Horns survived Tulsa by a very close margin, the entire performance brought about some very worrying signs. The lead that Texas football held going into halftime led many to believe that it was going to be a route in the second half. It even looked like there might be a chance to get some backups into play on offense.

There’s no question how much better the Horns are than the Golden Hurricane at pretty much every position on both sides of the ball. Quarters three and four saw the Golden Hurricane outscore the Horns 21-7. If not for an important fourth quarter touchdown and some real special teams miscues from Tulsa, this game could’ve gone into overtime or even worse.

Another theme that continued against Tulsa was the secondary getting beat deep. Allowing big plays is an issue that the Horns had on a regular basis under defensive coordinator Todd Orlando, but this was a huge problem to come from a bad team out of the American Athletic Conference. Tulsa skill position players like running back Shamari Brooks found some room to run against the Texas defense in a near major upset.

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