Texas Football: 3 takeaways from near upset loss to West Virginia

3) Takeaways from Texas football’s win over WVU: Defense keeps improving

While it is true that there were some spotty performances so far this season from the Longhorns defense, you cannot fault the way this side of the ball played in the last three games. First-year defensive coordinator/safeties coach Chris Ash appears to be making a big difference, at least of late, for his side of the ball.

Texas allowed just 13 points, and really limited the West Virginia ground game, in this four point victory. This came one week after the Longhorns defense held strong against (at the time at least) a very talented and potent Oklahoma State offense. Despite the offense putting them in a lot of tough spots last weekend, Texas let up no points in the last 15 minutes of the game.

This time around, the Longhorns defense responded well with no points allowed in the second and fourth quarters. Junior linebacker DeMarvion Overshown had a tremendous day for the Longhorns front seven, with a team-leading two tackles for loss, one sack, eight combined tackles, and one pass deflection. This was the best game we’ve seen from Overshown so far this season.

Texas did their best job in this game while limiting the potency of breakout junior standout running back Leddie Brown. Coming into this game, Brown was averaging more than 120 total yards per game, and 5.5 yards per carry. The Longhorns front seven limited Brown to just 47 rushing yards on 15 attempts (good for 3.1 yards per carry), and with one rushing touchdown.