3 big overreactions after Texas's resilient win vs. Arkansas

Many expected the Arkansas Razorbacks to put up a good fight in a tough road environment in a rivalry game in Fayetteville for No. 3 Texas football this weekend. And that's exactly what happened, as Arkansas really pushed Texas, including the game on the scoreboard coming down to just a three-point margin for UT's lead at one point early in the fourth quarter.

Late-game offensive drives, solid defense leads No. 3 Texas football to an important rivalry road game win over Arkansas

What head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns were able to prove this weekend was that this team has enough talent and experience to overcome issues with tough rival opponents on the road in these types of hostile SEC environments.

What was important for the Longhorns was that quarterback Quinn Ewers, despite some major inconsistencies for his performance for most of the game on offense, is they slipped past Arkansas with a double-digit victory. We've seen time after time this season that top 10 teams in College Football Playoff contention get knocked down a peg against unranked opponents, especially in difficult road environments in conference play.

Here are three big overreactions after Texas's 20-10 win in Week 12 in Fayetteville over rival Arkansas.

Texas's offensive line isn't the problem

Something that made a huge difference for the Longhorns in this win over Arkansas was the fact that Texas didn't commit all that many costly penalties and it didn't turn the ball over. Texas had a season-low two penalties for a net of just 15 yards against Arkansas yesterday.

For all of Ewers' faults, he also didn't turn the ball over. The fact that the Longhorns didn't give Arkansas the ball in advantageous field territory on Texas's side of the 50 helped keep their defense in a good spot to limit Taylen Green and the Hogs offense.

One of the major contributing factors for Texas avoiding many costly mistakes on offense was the effectiveness of the offensive line play, especially in pass pro. Texas only allowed four quarterback pressures in the win over Arkansas, tied for the second-most of any offensive line in the SEC in Week 12 (per PFF).

The two sacks Texas allowed on the day arguably came on plays that gave Ewers the necessary time to get through at least a couple of reads in the pocket and throw the ball away before going down to the ground.

Texas's offensive line blocked well for the ground game to make plays on key money down conversions, including on Ewers' fourth-down run and a key third-down pickup by junior running back Jaydon Blue.

Quinn Ewers has been a better game manager than an elite QB in SEC play

Ewers' box score stats weren't particularly impressive for this game against Arkansas, completing 62.5 percent of his passing attempts for a season-low 176 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, and no interceptions. What the box score stats fail to illustrate is how much meat Ewers left on the bone for the offense with some key missed passes to his targets downfield in the passing game yesterday.

What really seemed to give Ewers so much trouble against Arkansas' defense yesterday was the three-high safety defense that the Hogs utilized against Texas's offense. Arkansas limited the options that the Texas passing game had on intermediate and curl routes on the outside.

Texas also had trouble finding the crossing routes and deep passes that Ewers had so much success targeting in the dominant win over the Florida Gators last weekend, 49-17.

All told Ewers had seven intermediate and deep passes that weren't counted as "catchable balls" against Arkansas' defense (per SIS Data Hub). Many of these missed passes would've resulted in key first downs and money down conversions that could've got Texas closer to putting up more points on the scoreboard that wuold've put this game out of reach much sooner than the fourth quarter.

The lack of a true vertical passing threat also hurt the Longhorns' offense in this game. Ewers only completed 1-of-6 deep passing attempts against the Hogs, with the one completion coming on the 20-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Matthew Golden in the first quarter.

Ewers missed pretty badly on at least three of those incompletions in the deep passing game. He wasn't able to get in a good rhythm the way he did when he passed for over 300 yards and five touchdowns in the Florida win against Arkansas in the first half.

"I just don't think we started the way that we wanted to. That's always frustrating whenever you put a good plan together and you think you're going to go start fast and it doesn't work out that way. I think that's just a little frustrating for everybody."

Quinn Ewers

Texas's ground game produced enough for the Longhorns to emerge from this rivalry game against Arkansas victorious. Mostly thanks to Blue and sophomore running back Quintrevion Wisner, Texas rushed for nearly 150 yards and over four yards per carry.

Alfred Collins has been the best player on Texas's defense for the past five games

Texas's two MVPs of the game in the win over Arkansas this weekend are both defenders for the Longhorns, senior cornerback Jahdae Barron and senior defensive tackle Alfred Collins.

Barron and Collins forced the two turnovers for the Longhorns, which ultimately led to two of the most critical offensive drives that secured the victory over the Hogs yesterday.

Barron's first-quarter interception was a nice play he made on the ball, and it led to the Longhorns scoring their first touchdown of the game against Arkansas. The senior DB and Jim Thorpe Award contender, Barron, played a tremendous all-around game for Texas's defense.

He finished up the game with a season-high seven total tackles, two tackles for loss, three defensive stops, three quarterback pressures, one sack, one interception, and one pass breakup. Barron's ability to not only hold his own in one-on-one man coverage and make plays on the football, but also to get pressure on the Arkansas quarterback on key downs in the second half, helped Texas's defense stifle the Hogs offense.

Regarding big second half players, nobody was more important for Texas's defense than Collins. Collins, the SEC's highest graded defensive tackle this season (per PFF), was all over the field for the Longhorns on defense to come up with big plays throughout the game against Arkansas.

In the past five games, Collins has really seen his game make leaps and bounds to a whole new level. Since Week 7, Collins leads all SEC defensive tackles in defensive grade, defensive stops, and quarterback pressures.

Every week, it feels like I'm saying that Collins played the best game of his collegiate career at Texas. But you could easily argue that Week 12 against Arkansas was Collins' most impactful and complete performance of his entire career in college.

Collins not only posted the best defensive grade of the season in the win over Arkansas, but he also registered a season-high in defensive stops (four), combined tackles (seven), tackles for loss (two), and he got his first sack.

The most important play Collins made against Arkansas was forcing a fumble on a late-game drive that gave Texas's offense the ball back with good field position. Ewers and the Longhorns ultimately got the chains moving enough to drain the clock and secure the double-digit win over the Hogs on the road.

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