4 overreactions from Texas football’s impotent loss to TCU

The most disappointing offensive performance to date for head coach Steve Sarkisian during his time with the Texas football program showed up on the night of Nov. 12 in a key Big 12 battle against the No. 4 ranked TCU Horned Frogs. Texas completely flatlined on offense, putting up just three points, despite multiple scoring chances on the plus side of the field, especially in the second half.

The offense for Sark and the Longhorns managed just three points in this game. Texas would put up 10 points, thanks to a scoop and score in the fourth quarter from junior defensive back Jahdae Barron. The scoop and score from Barron put Texas back in the game at the time.

Yet, the defense couldn’t get the stop that was needed to put the game back in the hands of the Texas offense to potentially tie it up late in the fourth quarter.

TCU would run out the clock on one final drive late in the fourth quarter to seal the win over the Longhorns by the final score of 17-10. The loss to TCU means that Texas is effectively eliminated from the running for a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game this season.

It also adds even more importance to Texas winning its next two games to round out the regular season.

Overreactions after Quinn Ewers and Texas football fall short 17-10 to TCU

Here’s a look at four overreactions following the loss for the Longhorns in Week 11 to the Horned Frogs.

Jahdae Barron is the most valuable player in the secondary

I want to give a ton of props to the Texas defense coming out of the weekend. The defense definitely did more than what was needed for Texas to win this game.

But we’ll talk more about the play of the defense later in this piece.

Let’s look specifically at the players that stood out for this defense against TCU. Two of the very best defenders in this game for the Longhorns were Barron and sophomore edge rusher Barryn Sorrell.

Barron and Sorrell combined for a whopping 22 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, more than a dozen stops, one pass breakup, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery (which Barron took for a touchdown), and just one missed tackle.

These two were all-around incredible for Texas in every phase of the game. The fact that they combined for nearly two-dozen tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, while only missing one tackle on the night, is nothing short of incredible.

A lot of Texas fans were waiting to see Sorrell come into his own for this defensive front the way he has in the last few games, especially defending the run. Sorrell is doing a tremendous job setting the edge, and he’s finally getting home for more sacks in the last few weeks.

In fact, since the Oct. 1 win over the West Virginia Mountaineers, Sorrell has a half dozen tackles for loss and four sacks.

But I also want to note how valuable Barron was to the secondary in this game. With senior cornerback D’Shawn Jamison out due to injury, Barron stepped up and had a fantastic night leading the back end of the defense. He was solid in pass coverage, allowing just one receiving yard on nine targets. And he didn’t make any notable mistakes that I can remember in any phase of this game defensively.