5 takeaways from Texas football’s backbreaking OT loss to Texas Tech

A tough result for head coach Steve Sarkisian and No. 22 ranked Texas football against new head coach Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech Red Raiders on the road in the Big 12 opener in Lubbock on Sep. 24 will be a difficult game to swallow for the fans on the Forty Acres. Texas wound up falling short to Texas Tech at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock in overtime on Sep. 24 by the final score of 37-34.

The final few minutes of this game got pretty wild, but it seemed like the Longhorns couldn’t do much of anything right in the second half. That was the case at least outside of the final drive of regulation, where Texas drove the field to put kicker Bert Auburn in a position to hit a 48-yard field goal to tie it at 34.

The field goal that Auburn hit in the dying seconds of the fourth quarter gave Texas a jolt of momentum. But they fell flat immediately when star junior running back Bijan Robinson fumbled the ball away to Texas Tech on the first play of overtime.

Texas Tech would go on to get another field goal by Trey Wolff to give them the upset win.

Hudson Card, Bijan Robinson, and No. 22 Texas football fall short to Texas Tech in the Big 12 opener

Here’s a look at five takeaways from the crushing overtime loss for Texas to Texas Tech on the road in the first game of the Big 12 slate.

Fourth down defense horrific in the second half

This had to be the worst showing for the Longhorns in terms of fourth-down defense of any game thus far under the direction of co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Pete Kwiatkowski. Texas Tech managed to get a whopping six fourth-down conversions on eight attempts in this game.

That wound up being a program record for the Red Raiders during their time in the Big 12, which goes back to the 1996 season.

So many of these fourth downs presented opportunities for the Longhorns to get some much-needed stops and finally get off the field in the second half. Instead, Texas wound up giving the Red Raider offense chance after chance. And eventually, they were able to take full advantage of that and win this game.

A big reason for the Longhorns losing the time of possession battle by such a big margin in this game (nearly 35-25 in favor of Texas Tech) was the lack of ability to get off the field on third and fourth down. Texas allowed the Red Raiders to get a whopping 31 first downs in this game. That is the highest number of first downs allowed in a single game for the Texas defense so far this season.

This Texas defense has to be better in clutch situations on third and fourth downs if this team is going to trend up in Big 12 play this fall. Texas kept Texas Tech in the game by not getting off the field when they needed to, which could be a real backbreaker if it isn’t fixed for the rest of the season.