Texas Football: 3 reasons the Longhorns can dominate Arkansas

Offensive line should only be able to provide a better push than in Week 1

There is just no way to spin the play of the offensive line in Week 1 against Louisiana as a positive for Texas. This offensive line actually posted its lowest pass blocking grade in a decade, and its lowest run blocking grade in the last seven years last weekend.

Texas put sophomore quarterback Hudson Card under pressure on half of his dropbacks in the regular season opener. But a lot of that was due to the fact that Card was not always diagnosing blitz plays well from the Cajuns’ defense and held the ball for a long time in the pocket. Among Power Five quarterbacks in Week 1, only two held the ball for longer on sack plays than Card.

That is a clear area of improvement for the still-young starting quarterback. But that faction of his game should only improve from here on out.

The combination of Card getting a better feel for the game when he’s put under pressure, along with progressions from the offensive line play, should be enough to see this Texas offense make big strides in the coming weeks.

On the other hand, Texas has an elite set of skill position players that Card effectively got the ball to last week when he was kept clean. He was also exceptional on non-play action passing plays, where he registered the best QBR and number of adjusted yards per passing attempt in the Power Five in Week 1.

Texas has a roadmap for success with this offense. Get better protection for Card against an Arkansas defensive line that isn’t as strong as Louisiana’s. And let Card simply get the ball to his top playmakers out at the skill positions in redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jordan Whittington and star sophomore running back Bijan Robinson.

Offensive line play will be the key cog here, though. If the offensive line play markedly improves, which it should, against Arkansas then Texas could have a nice win on its hands this weekend.