Texas Football: 5 takeaways from the crippling collapse vs. OU
Defense is a huge problem
There are so many ways to break down the performance of the Longhorns defense in this 55-48 loss to the Sooners on Oct. 9. But a good way to sum it up is that new co-defensive coordinators/linebackers coaches Pete Kwiatkowski and Jeff Choate have a long way to go before this side of the ball is anything close to one that can be relied upon on a consistent basis.
Between the losses to Oklahoma and Arkansas, the Texas defense gave up nearly 100 points. And the defense went off the rails once again in stopping the run. Texas actually did pretty well holding standout Oklahoma running back Kennedy Brooks in check in the first half.
Yet, by the end of the game, the Longhorns had given up nearly 220 rushing yards, nine yards per carry, and two rushing scores to Brooks. Missed tackles were a huge issue once again. And while a lot of Texas fans go immediately to blaming someone like senior safety B.J. Foster or redshirt senior defensive back Brenden Schooler, among others, there are other players to blame.
You have to put some level of blame to the defensive line in this game. Texas couldn’t get much of any solid push in the trenches in the second half. And when they did, freshman quarterback Caleb Williams was able to escape and still make big plays.
Yet, the main issue here for the Longhorns was the pass defense in the second half. The secondary was constantly getting beat deep, and gashed for multiple yards. Williams only took around half of the snaps in this game for the Sooners. But that was good enough for him to register more than 210 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, no interceptions, and nearly 100 rushing yards with one rushing score.
All levels of the defense were at fault in this game. The defensive front was gashed on the ground by Brooks and the Sooners. And the pass defense looked like Swiss cheese down the stretch.
Foster himself made some big plays, but also had some poor ones too. He was beat bad on two critical deep passes that really cost the Longhorns in the second half. Foster also came up with the only pick in this game for Texas. This type of inconsistency is a problem that must be fixed, though.