Texas Football: 5 overreactions from Longhorns’ escape vs. Houston

Injuries will squash Texas’ Big 12 title hopes

While the Ewers injury is obviously the most notable among the bevy of bumps and bruises the Longhorns are dealing with coming out of the Houston game this weekend, the defense is also in a troubled state at the moment. Texas suffered the five aforementioned injuries to key defensive backs on the two-deep, some of which were hurt in the Houston game.

That’s not to mention the injuries to freshman edge rusher Ethan Burke, senior defensive lineman Alfred Collins, and senior outside linebacker Jett Bush. And that’s just on defense.

Pete Kwiatkowski and the Longhorns were forced to play much younger and more inexperienced players on defense, including sophomore DB Jaylon Guilbeau and defensive tackle Aaron Bryant, after dealing with so many injuries to this side of the ball against Houston. Throwing these younger players into key live-game action in Big 12 play worked out better in some instances than other.

For example, Texas got good pressure along the interior defensive line from junior Vernon Broughton and redshirt freshman Jaray Bledsoe. But Texas also lost some key pieces in the pass rush, namely Collins and Burke, that hampered their ability to make Smith uncomfortable in the pocket in the second half.

PK and the Longhorns also had to play guys that were injured down the stretch, namely Barron, since there were so many other injuries on defense.

Texas is also dealing with injuries to key players on the two-deep on offense, including Majors, sophomore interior offensive lineman Cole Hutson, and junior tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders. Majors and Sanders played through their injuries against Houston.

I already talked about Majors being unable to get the same push on the line of scrimmage, especially in run blocking, due to the ankle injury.

But Texas also didn’t attack the seems against Houston in ways they normally could to exploit the open space against a three-high safety defense since Sanders was still hobbled on that ankle.

I guess the good news regarding the injuries on the Texas offense is that Sanders looked much better while playing through the ankle sprain against Houston than he did two weeks ago in Red River against Oklahoma.

Texas does have solid depth on the roster this year. And that will be put to the test in some tough matchups down the stretch in Big 12 play this season against the likes of Kansas State, TCU, and Iowa State.

Jeff Howe of Horns247 said it well when he wrote that the win over Houston “was not enough to give this team the benefit of the doubt from here on out”. Texas will have to earn their stripes down the stretch.