Texas Football: 4 overreactions after the underwhelming Alamo Bowl loss

Texas needs to find another answer for a deep ball target than Xavier Worthy

This is probably the least controversial overreaction on this list.

Saying that sophomore wide receiver Xavier Worthy isn’t the answer for the Longhorns in terms of the primary deep ball threat for this offense seems to be stating the obvious coming out of the Alamo Bowl loss to Washington.

Two bad drops from Worthy on perfect deep balls from Ewers were the biggest frustration of the night for the Longhorns in the Alamo Bowl. Those two drops in the second half could’ve made the difference in Texas tying this game up late, at a bare minimum.

Instead, Texas was thrown off-schedule by wasting two of the prettiest deep throws of the season from Ewers.

And the weirdest part about the whole night for Worthy was that he was actually very effective in the short and intermediate passing game. Despite not having any chemistry and timing at all between them on deep targets, Ewers and Worthy looked to be on point on any throws less than 20 yards in front of the line of scrimmage.

Worthy was a formidable weapon for Texas in the short and intermediate passing game. He actually is the Power Five leader among wide receivers so far this postseason on receiving yards in the short passing game, with 64.

Worthy essentially did all his damage to the Washington defense in the Alamo Bowl in the short and intermediate passing game. And that’s largely been the case for much of the season. No Power Five wide receiver has a lower reception percentage when getting targeted more than 30 times this season on the deep ball than Worthy.

In my estimation, if Worthy does decide to return to Texas in 2023, Sark should think about utilizing him more as a technical route runner that can be lethal in space in the short and intermediate passing game. He proved throughout the entire regular season that a lot of the effort and effectiveness he had on deep targets in the passing game last year is gone.