4 overreactions from Texas football’s bewildering loss to Texas Tech

Texas football and head coach Steve Sarkisian took a major step back this weekend on what originally looked to be a path to this program making some major strides this fall. After holding a double-digit lead in the second half on Sep. 24 in the Big 12 opener on the road against new head coach Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech Red Raiders, Texas experienced yet another collapse under Sark and his staff against a conference foe.

Sark and the Longhorns held a 24-14 lead over Texas Tech heading into the locker room at halftime. And at one point in the second half, Texas held a 31-17 lead over the Red Raiders after a 40-yard touchdown run from star junior running back Bijan Robinson.

Texas Tech rallied in the second half to score 17-straight points. That put Texas down three points with less than 30 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Junior quarterback Hudson Card led the Texas offense down the field in less than 20 seconds to give kicker Bert Auburn a chance to tie the game. And he did exactly that.

But Bijan fumbled the ball away on the first play of overtime. That gave the ball back to the Red Raiders, which would seal the win for McGuire and his squad in the end by the final score of 37-34.

Hyperbolic takes following Texas football’s bad three-point loss to Texas Tech

Here’s a look at four overreactions from the dizzying and bewildering overtime loss to Texas Tech on Sep. 24.

Hudson Card is not this team’s problem

This is the most measured take of all on this list. To say that Card was not the major issue for the Longhorns in this loss to Texas Tech does not tell the whole story. But it also avoids getting involved in the lazy and unfair blame that some fans placed on Card when Texas was struggling on both sides of the ball against Texas Tech this weekend.

Card finished up this game with 20 completions on 30 passing attempts, good for a career-high 277 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, and one interception, along with 24 rushing yards and no rushing scores.

There were two Big 12 quarterbacks that graded out worse than Card in Week 4 but still came up with wins over quality opponents in the end. Baylor’s Blake Shapen and TCU’s Max Duggan both had lower offensive grades this weekend than Card. But Baylor was able to come out with the big road win over the Iowa State Cyclones, and TCU downed the SMU Mustangs in Dallas on Sep. 24.

I will admit that there were some overthrows from Card and some poorly timed plays from the junior quarterback. The throw that Card was late on to redshirt junior wide receiver Jordan Whittington in the second half where Texas was called out of bounds on a key third-down play was a good example of a missed opportunity for him.

We also continued to see Card struggle throwing the deep ball in this game. He completed just two of seven deep passing attempts against Tech, good for 67 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. And none of the five incompletions on deep balls in this game for Card were dropped.

Some of the misreads and inaccurate deep balls are what could separate this Texas offense from becoming more effective when Card is leading the way compared to redshirt freshman Quinn Ewers.