4 overreactions after Texas's sluggish win vs. Miss State

Texas football overcame a slow start to the first half of its first-ever SEC game in Week 5 to hand the Mississippi State Bulldogs a closer-than-expected 35-13 defeat on Sep. 28. Redshirt freshman quarterback Arch Manning was tremendous in his second-ever start for Texas's offense.

No. 1 Texas football stays undefeated after defeating Mississippi State in the SEC opener

Manning threw for over 300 yards, with three total touchdowns and no interceptions in Texas's three-score win over the Bulldogs this weekend. He is an undefeated 2-0 as Texas's starting quarterback, including the dominant 51-3 win over the UL-Monroe Warhawks at DKR last weekend.

Texas also had to overcome a slow start defending the Mississippi State run game yesterday to clamp down and pull out the double-digit victory in the second half. The Longhorns have some sizable issues on both sides of the ball to clean up entering the bye week with an undefeated 5-0 (1-0 SEC) record after the conference opener win over Mississippi State.

Here are four big overreactions after Texas's 35-13 win over Mississippi State at home in Week 5.

Tre Wisner and Jerrick Gibson should be the lead backs

Texas's rushing attack struggled to get any semblance of a rhythm in the first half yesterday against Mississippi State's well-prepared defensive front. Mississippi State actually outrushed Texas by a margin of over 100 yards in the first half.

The Longhorns did run the ball much more effectively in the second half, rushing for nearly 200 yards and almost eight yards per carry in the game's final 30 minutes. More second-half production on the ground from Manning using his legs as a weapon, along with sophomore running back Tre Wisner and true freshman Jerrick Gibson getting going lifted Texas's rushing attack to close out the win.

Wisner was Texas's most productive rusher in the win over the Bulldogs yesterday. Wisner had a breakout game, rushing for a career-high 88 rushing yards on 13 carries (6.8 yards per carry), along with one catch for a dozen yards and a first-down pickup.

Gibson also picked up a couple of key first downs with tough runs between the tackles in the second half for the Longhorns against Mississippi State on the ground.

Junior running back Jaydon Blue had some miscues that cost the Longhorns' offense in the first half. Blue had a couple of fumbles and didn't really get going on the ground until the third quarter. Blue struggled with ball security yesterday, and Texas was lucky that Mississippi State was unable to turn some of those turnovers into points for their offense.

After the season's first five weeks, Blue has struggled with ball security and drops in the receiving game. Cleaning up these issues in the receiving game with dropping the ball and ball security must be improved for Texas's ground game during the bye week.