Texas Football: 3 takeaways from excruciating 3-point loss to Iowa St

3) Texas football takeaways from Iowa St loss

Ground game didn’t help at all

This was mainly a problem with the Texas running backs, but the ground game didn’t do much of anything to help their case to beat Iowa State on Black Friday. Texas did average just over four yards per carry in this game, but it was mostly thanks to 65 rushing yards on 15 attempts by Ehlinger when he used his legs as a weapon.

Most of the struggles went the way of true freshman running back and former five-star recruit Bijan Robinson. In yet another week where Robinson didn’t get in the end zone himself, he also wasn’t very efficient in the ground game or the receiving game. In the absence of the junior injured running back Keaontay Ingram in this game, Robinson took 16 rushing attempts for 54 yards (3.4 yards per carry) and no rushing scores.

Robinson also added three receiving yards on just one catch.

Actually the most efficient running back for the Longhorns was the sophomore former converted quarterback Roschon Johnson. There were only four carries that Johnson got on the day, good for 26 rushing yards and no rushing scores. Johnson was solid in the blocking game, and had two catches for 22 receiving yards.

Part of the blame here should go on the running backs, and part on the offensive line for not getting great pushes in the trenches. We shouldn’t discount just how good this Iowa State front seven is, and they showed that in their three-point triumph on the Forty Acres on Black Friday.