Everything Steve Sarkisian said after Texas' loss to Georgia

Here’s everything Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said in his press conference following the Texas Longhorns’ 35-10 loss to Georgia.

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Steve Sarkisian: “That was a really good game until the start of the 4th quarter. It was 14-10, they get the ball, they convert two fourth downs, they score, they onside kick, they score again, they pop a kickoff down there and we get pinned inside the 10, we shank a punt, they score again. It was 21-0 in the fourth quarter. Great job by Georgia. I thought they did a nice job. I wish we could have taken advantage of a few things earlier in the game offensively, especially in the first half, that we just weren’t able to. By that point, it was unfortunate because we thought we could have had a more balanced attack and we didn’t because we got behind in the fourth quarter and we had to start throwing it at that point. Disappointing. It was a pretty good game for three quarters and it was not a great game in the fourth quarter, at least not for us. I think the challenge for us now is we’ve got a two week season in front of us. We’ve got to get up off the mat, we’ve got to go compete, and we’ve got to find a way to go win the next two ballgames and see what happens.”

Your offense has become very pass-happy over the past few weeks. Over the past few games with Georgia and even this season, your team hasn’t been able to run the ball…

Steve Sarkisian: “I thought we actually ran it pretty good. We just didn’t get enough opportunities.”

In the fourth quarter, do you think it was lost composure? What do you attribute it to?

Steve Sarkisian: “I don’t know. The first fourth down, they snuck the tailback out of the backfield out the backdoor. We didn’t defend the play very well. It’s unfortunate because we actually practiced that play. The second fourth down, we jumped offsides. That’s just mental intensity and focus. We jump offsides, they score. On the onside kick, we didn’t break on the ball. That’s on us as coaches. We’ve got to do a better job of getting our players understanding situational football. Go attack the ball. We have an opportunity to get great field position in that situation. We didn’t take advantage of it. I don’t know if we necessarily lost composure. I think we lost some focus. We lost some mental intensity in the fourth quarter for sure.”

After Georgia scored touchdowns in the first few drives, your defense had them go punt, punt, punt, punt and you had the INT from Anthony Hill. How crucial is it for your offense to accomplish thing when the defense is giving you those chances?

Steve Sarkisian: “I think you’re spot on. We had a pretty good first drive. We had another pretty good drive and we get the interception in the red area. We dropped some passes. We missed a couple of throws. We get some holding penalties. We had some self inflicted wounds in there where I feel like we had a pretty good plan, but we weren’t able to stack it all together to make it all work. To your point, you’ve got to play complementary football in games like this. Our inability to do that in the first half was pretty glaring. I thought in the third quarter when we cut it to a 14-10 game, it was like ‘okay, let’s go play.’ We just couldn’t put it all together. We couldn’t tie offense, defense, special teams all together tonight.”

As far as CFP chances, do you still feel like you’ve got that character to get in?

Steve Sarkisian: “We’ve got a two-week season in front of us. We’ve got to go play. We’ve got two games. It’s two weeks. Let’s go play. Let’s put our best foot forward and see what happens.”

I know you haven’t had a chance to look at the tape but defense over the last three games has been kind of uncharacteristic as far as the leaks are concerened. Have you seen any common threads? Do you know what’s going on over there?

Steve Sarkisian: “No. To tie it all together from the last game to this game, I’m not exactly sure. I know we got hurt some on some perimeter throws and on some easier completions. I thought we started to tighten up coverage wise there, but too many free completions. Obviously, a lot of the bootleg type plays hurt us tonight with people leaking out the backdoor whether it was the tight ends, receivers, running backs at different times. Our eye control and our eye discipline, I think, needs to improve there. Probably the biggest thing where we’ve got to get back to playing is the red area on defense. We’re not forcing field goals and we’re not creating turnovers. We’ve got to get back to playing better red zone defense. I think that’s probably the biggest thing.”

You had a bunch of explosive plays in the first half. How frustrating is it to not be able to finish on some of those drives. Then, is this a humbling loss?

Steve Sarkisian: “It’s a frustrating loss. I would say that it’s frustrating because you feel like you’re prepared to play. I really did feel like our players were really engaged and ready to go. I thought our staff was. Everybody was. Like I said, it’s a 14-10 game against a really good team on the road. Let’s go play the 4th quarter, and us just not playing the fourth quarter anywhere close to what the standard is around here is very disappointing and frustrating. To your point on that like I was saying earlier, there were so many self-inflicted thing offensively for us where that was the most frustrating part for me. I don’t think it was like ‘man, we couldn’t block them.’ I felt like we were blocking them okay. I felt like we were getting open. I felt like when we wanted to run it, it was effective. When we wanted to throw it, it was effective. Stubbing our own toe was the frustrating part to me. Stacking plays on top of plays, that’s what we need to do against quality opponents.”

What do you say to your guys when the fourth quarter starts to go downhill like it did, and how do you keep that from carrying over?

Steve Sarkisian: “I don’t think it’ll carry over. We have too much character in the locker room. We’ve got too good of a culture. I know the leadership in that locker room. We’ve got a ton of fighters. I’ve got other concerns, that’s not one of my bigger ones right now.”

Is there something about Georgia and their style of play that’s made them a rough matchup for your Texas team?

Steve Sarkisian: “They’re a good team. The first time around, we played a really poor first half and fought our tails off in the second half. Very similar. It was a 23-15 game. They went on a 90-yard drive and made it a 30-15 game, then you’re playing catch-up in the fourth quarter. SEC Championship Game, we played really well. We didn’t put the ball in the end zone. We missed some field goals. We go to overtime and lose. Tonight, it’s 14-10 going into the fourth quarter. I don’t think it’s necessarily a style of play. I do think we’ve got to find a way when you’re playing these types of teams and these quality opponent teams, you’ve got to play all sixty minutes. You’ve got to tie it all together from the front end to the back end. You need all three phases. We weren’t able to do that tonight.”

On the onside kick, had you seen anything about them doing anything like that. That seemed like a little bit of a backbreaker at that point.

Steve Sarkisian: “Not that onside kick in particular. We knew where we might be vulnerable to one. We actually practiced that kick in practice with anticipation that it might occur. We didn’t field the ball. It was a risk they were willing to take because it’s a 21-10 game. We field that ball, we’re getting the ball on the plus-45 and with the offense with some momentum to go score. They took the risk and they recovered it. Inevitably, those are momentum changing plays for sure in games. Any game in particular, but in games like this those are momentum changing plays. They took the risk, they made the play, and it was a heck of a kick and a nice recovery by them.”

Are there a couple of areas you really liked about this game and the way they played that goes to the standard?

Steve Sarkisian: “I know our guys came ready to play. I know we played hard. I know we competed. Obviously, a very frustrating fourth quarter for everybody. I don’t want the fourth quarter to be the overriding ‘that’s all that happened in the game.’ That was one quarter of the game. I thought we played pretty good for three quarters. Now we need to play better. We played hard, but the fourth quarter, was for the lack of better terms a disaster. We got beat 21-0 in the fourth quarter.”

How would you assess Arch Manning‘s play in this game?

Steve Sarkisian: “I thought he competed well. I wish we could have made a couple more plays for him, especially early in the game in the first half. I thought there were a couple throws there that he was on high on. I thought on the interception, he was a little high. I thought he competed. Thought he made some throws again. I wish we could have maybe been a little better around him, especially in the first half.”

Can you speak to the challenge of facing a Kirby Smart coached team in his preparation and in his gameday decision making?

Steve Sarkisian: “They’re a great team. He’s a good coach. They’ve got good schemes in all three phases. They’ve got really good players. To their credit, that’s why they’ve been the standard of college football for the last 10 years. I’ve always loved the challenge of playing him. I’m going to love the challenge the next time we get an opportunity to play them.”