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4 takeaways from Texas's messy win over Vanderbilt

Surviving some bad mistakes on both sides of the ball, No. 5 Texas overcame some troubles late to stave off No. 25 Vanderbilt's upset bid on the road with a 27-24 victory on the road in Nashville.

By Andrew Miller

DeAndre Moore Jr., Texas football
DeAndre Moore Jr., Texas football / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images
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Michael Taaffe, Texas football
Michael Taaffe, Texas football / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

Michael Taaffe steps up at safety

Texas came into this game shorthanded at the safety position due to a couple of injuries to key starters from the previous few weeks. Sophomore Derek Williams Jr. and senior Andrew Mukuba were both out for this game for Texas at safety due to a couple of lower-body injuries.

Any concerns regarding Texas's safety position were put to rest quickly in this game, with sophomore Jelani McDonald and redshirt junior Michael Taaffe stepping up in a big way from the outset of the first half. In the first half, Taaffe helped keep the Vanderbilt offense at bay early with his first interception of the season.

McDonald also came up with a few nice defensive stops in this game in the open field against Vanderbilt's elusive skill players.

Taaffe did a little bit of everything in this game for the Longhorns. Not only did he get his first pick of the season, but he also forced a fumble and broke up a pass. He was arguably the defensive MVP of this game for the Longhorns, and came up huge when the secondary needed him to with a couple of key contributors out at the position due to lower-body injuries.

Coming into this game, Pavia had only thrown one interception. Taaffe had one of two interceptions for the Longhorns against Pavia and the Commodores. Sophomore linebacker Liona Lefau had the other pick, on a fourth down play for Vandy in the fourth quarter.

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