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Film Room: What to takeaway from Texas' final four drives against Mississippi State

by: Evan Vieth4 hours ago
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Emmett Mosley V (Petre Thomas-Imagn Images)

Paul Wadlington put it best: Texas played two games last Saturday.

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The first game was an uninspiring three quarters of 14-point football, where Mississippi State’s wide splits ran laps around Texas’ defense and outpaced Texas’ offense.

The second game came in the 4th quarter and overtime in Starkville. Texas’ offense scored 24 points on four drives, with the Longhorns gaining over 200 yards at more than seven yards per play.

Texas’ offense called 29 plays during that span, and a few key takeaways can be drawn from that sample.

Man-beating wide receivers

Texas has something in its WRs against man coverage. Specifically, in that fourth quarter, Parker Livingstone and Emmett Mosley found themselves open often against man coverage, resulting in two important scores.

It’s a good play call from Sark. The motion overloads the strong side and keeps the Bulldogs’ defense ready for a left-sided run. Instead, Manning rolls right, and Livingstone has an egregious amount of separation given this was man coverage on the goal line. His hop-step release shook MS State’s best CB, and his hands and feet finished the route.

Mosley had three receptions in this span—all three one-on-one against a cornerback in a very important game. Two of them were touchdowns. He’s Texas’s best man-beater. I think he’s their best receiver.

Tempo in place of explosives

One of the biggest problems in the comeback attempt against Florida was that Texas either found an explosive play, or they found nothing.

Against the Bulldogs, Texas did have a big play—that beautiful bomb from Manning to Wingo near the start of the fourth—but that was pretty much it. Texas did a great job of managing the clock and driving rather than exploding.

This is less than a minute of game time. It’s impressive stuff from Texas’ non-explosive playmakers! Jack Endries needs to be used a lot more as a safety blanket underneath. Every game should show him getting five catches for 40 yards, minimum.

Moore’s slot corner routes have been Texas’ go-to this year. They beat both man and Cover 3.

You can also see that tempo allowed Texas to cheat a run in and gain a freebie nine yards. The Longhorns have been making it too easy for defenses to stop their runs. Imagine if they had a drive like this in the second quarter this Saturday. Imagine what that would do for Wisner or Baxter’s rhythm throughout the rest of the game.

Tempo is going to allow Texas to add a few more possessions in a game where Vanderbilt wants each team to have the ball fewer than 10 times.

Tre Wisner

Another small Wisner note: he’s clutch. He and Manning have that same dawg gene when it matters most.

He caught two crucial—and I mean game-extending—third-and-short passes in the flat against a blitz. Both times he made a man miss and got Texas an additional nine yards. He’s learned how to fall forward as the year progresses. He was also responsible for the biggest block of the game against Kentucky and shouldered the winning load against Oklahoma. 3-0 with big Wisner contributions.

I’m cautiously optimistic for a good game from him and Baxter on Saturday.

Spread offense

As we’ve touched on ad nauseam in the past few weeks, Texas really does need to get away from this musical-chairs 12-personnel style for 80% of the game.

Texas has a clear top five pass catchers. They should be on the field over 80% of the game. That means not forcing a true freshman TE to make the most important blocks in the run game, or allowing defenses to cheat up knowing the play-action game won’t beat them over the top.

This doesn’t mean 12 needs to be completely abandoned—it scored them both TDs in this portion of the game! But this spread-tempo offense is clearly better between the 20s.

Complementary football

This tape really isn’t all that complicated. It’s a lot of easy pitches and catches, few true mistakes from Manning (though there were a few), and some really impressive plays from pass catchers and the play caller. It’s important that Texas had all six of its top skill players producing in this moment.

But the biggest key to Texas’ win was complementary football.

That starts with the OL. They weren’t committing penalties. They had one—a snap infraction in OT. Mosley won the game on the next play.

They also blocked well enough. That is all you can ask from these guys. If they block well enough, the offense can move the ball and score.

But everything else was also complementary. After MS State’s explosive TD on a dump-off in the early fourth, Texas’ defense allowed 20 more yards in regulation, two total first downs, and completely shut down the Bulldogs in overtime.

Ryan Niblett and Mason Shipley also added 10 points on special teams. That’s Texas’ best unit this year, go figure.

Texas had all three phases playing their best football in that quarter. That’s the best 7.5 drives of the year for Texas. That was winning football.

Texas must find ways to use tempo, spread passing, and their best playmakers to find success going forward—but it starts and ends with the rest of the team doing their part. If the OL, defense, and Niblett can play the way they did to end the game in Starkville, it probably won’t matter who’s starting at QB for Texas. They’ll probably beat Vanderbilt.

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