4 overreactions from Texas football’s bewildering loss to Texas Tech
https://twitter.com/FTBeard7/status/1573803929258708992
Texas’ defense will face the same issues in Big 12 play as last season
Some of the aforementioned issues we talked about that PK and the Longhorns faced in this game were similar to those that we saw from this unit in some of the key games in Big 12 play last season. Texas was unable to make the necessary in-game adjustments to slow this methodical Texas Tech offense in ways that you would figure PK has the personnel to get the job done with.
By no means was this Texas defense overmatched by Smith and the Red Raiders in terms of talent, depth, or schematics. But Texas Tech did manage to outcoach and wear down this Texas defense as the second half progressed.
Texas Tech got the job done largely thanks to their success on third and fourth down plays in the second half. PK and the Longhorns were unable to prevent Texas Tech from converting on a program-best (at least since joining the Big 12 in 1996) six fourth-down plays, which is just mind-boggling when you think more about it.
Many of these fourth-down plays saw the Longhorns still playing pretty conservative on defense with the corners playing at least a few yards off the receivers and PK refusing to send five or six players on chaotic blitzes.
Texas also was on the field for way too many plays in this game. Texas Tech got off roughly 100 plays in this game, which obviously isn’t a winning formula on any day for the Longhorns.
A lot of that goes back to Texas being able to get off the field on third and fourth down plays late in games. Instead, PK was seemingly playing bend but don’t break defense in this one. The problem with that was the fact that Texas didn’t force a single turnover out of an otherwise turnover-prone quarterback in Smith. Texas wound up losing the turnover battle by a margin of 2-0.
Next. 3 biggest questions Sarkisian must answer after losing to Tech. dark
We now find ourselves talking about many issues this season that are similar in nature to what we saw from the Texas defense last year. The lack of an effective pass rush, poor third and fourth down second-half defense, and the inability to find the right coverages to match up are at least a few of the issues the defense faced last season. Those were also major problems that caused Texas to fall short of Texas Tech this weekend.
These issues must be addressed and resolved if Texas is to find more success in Big 12 play this year than they did last season.