Texas Football: 5 overreactions after the crippling last-second Iowa St loss
1. Special teams and pass defense will be the death of this team
Special teams nearly cost Texas football in last week’s win over Kansas State. A 98-yard kick return for a touchdown drew Kansas State back even after the Longhorns took a one-score lead at home. It took a late game-winning field goal from sophomore kicker Cameron Dicker to let the Longhorns escape with a close 27-24 victory over Kansas State.
A season-ending injury to sophomore punter Ryan Bujcevski and poor play from the coverage teams throughout won’t make anything easier for Texas moving forward. But there wasn’t any fault that should be placed on backup punter Chris Naggar. He actually played pretty well with the punting duties on him against the Cyclones.
This offside play from the Longhorns is going to haunt them for a long time. ESPN’s Win Probability indicator actually favored the Longhorns to come away with the victory until that penalty gave Iowa State advantageous control of the clock in the final minute and a much closer field goal try.
Herman obviously didn’t feel great about that offside play either.
Next. What now after the loss to Iowa State. dark
Texas moved to a record of 6-4 (4-3 Big 12) after the loss to Iowa State. A lot of the fault for those four losses so far have to be placed on the special teams and the pass defense. Defensive coordinator Todd Orlando saw his pass defense allow well over 350 passing yards and more than seven yards per pass in this game.
At least they had one pick.