Five quick thoughts: Shutdown by TCU
Like many TCU games of yesteryear, the Texas Longhorn offense found themselves against an opponent who’d scouted and prepared them remarkably well. This lead to a mostly impotent day on offense which doomed them, despite a strong defensive effort.
[Get a FREE 7-day trial of Inside Texas Plus!]
Except this time their own strong defensive effort was clearly aided by Gary Patterson while it was a new Horned Frog staff which schemed up a way to put Steve Sarkisian’s offense on lockdown.
Quinn Ewers was in a nightmare, back in the Oklahoma State where he felt the weight of trying to win the game for Texas and went 17-39 for 171 yards at 4.4 ypa with zero touchdowns and one bad interception.
Those numbers are one easy way to sum up what went terribly in this game. Another way is Bijan Robinson‘s line.
12 carries for 29 yards at 2.4 ypc.
Cancel the flights to New York and don’t fill up the bus to Arlington with gas just yet.
Quick thought no. 1: TCU’s winning defensive plan
I was very bearish on TCU’s chances of playing winning football this season, primarily because I figured the tatters of a defense left behind by Gary Patterson would NOT easily convert into a 3-down flyover in a single offseason. However they added a few transfers which have helped them a good deal, freshman nose tackle Damonic Williams gave them a (literally) huge missing piece, and their coaching staff has done a terrific job.
Because they’ve been much better inside than expected, they’ve been able to double down on it because of their cornerbacks. ULM transfer Josh Newton and Tre’vius Hodges-Tomlinson played a lot of man coverage and freed up the Horned Frog safeties to sit in the middle of the field close behind the linebackers.
Nothing wild, but what TCU did with their linebackers and D-line gave Texas fits. Defensive end Dylan Horton slipped inside into the B-gaps and gave Cole Hutson fits. Linebacker Johnny Hodges had 11 tackles and sniffed out a lot of Texas’ plays. Safeties Mark Perry and Nook Bradford combined for 10 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.
Hodges-Tomlinson finished the day with three pass break-ups and an interception matched with Xavier Worthy much of the night, who in turn was targeted 12 times and caught four balls for 32 yards to finish with a dismal 2.7 yards per target.
Texas wanted to keep up their hammering process from previous, successful outings against this defense. It wasn’t working though. Getting Andrej Karic and the tight ends on the field didn’t help them block the bunched bodies, TCU’s angles and aggressive run throughs at linebacker gave them fits. The answer of throwing the ball outside to 1-on-1 matchups, which is what the Ewers-Worthy connection is supposed to grant for Texas, yielded nothing.
Sarkisian adjusted in the 4th quarter or so and Texas manufactured a couple of drives into the red zone only to bog down in the red zone and translate three trips into three points.
Quick thought no. 2: The Texas defensive gameplan
Unsurprisingly, Gary Patterson and Texas had an outstanding gameplan for TCU’s offense as well.
The Frogs have lived off power-option football from the spread this season, mixing downhill inside zone and GT counter plays with the threat of Max Duggan keepers off the edge or quick flips out into space.
Unfortunately for the Frogs, there were some major tendencies to their approach. The Longhorns feasted early with nickel and boundary corner blitzes off the edge when they saw certain motions which indicated runs were coming and TCU was living all night with plays in which one of two things happened.
- Texas played base defense, the Edge would play contain, and Duggan would have to hand off for an inside run into the tackles and teeth of the Longhorn defense.
- Texas brought a defensive back blitz off the edge and crashed the Edge player after the run, leading to a lot of tackles for loss.
Between the modest gains running on Texas’ run fronts and the frequent negative plays from the blitzes (or from the perimeter screen game which Jahdae Barron and Texas were abusing mercilessly), TCU couldn’t come out ahead.
Duggan kept his head though, TCU dramatically won the field position game thanks to Texas offensive impotence, and eventually Texas made a mistake on one of those spread zone runs and Kendre Miller broke free for a 75-yard scoring run.
On the day, Miller had 21 carries for 138 yards at 6.6 ypc with one score. Aside from the long run, he had 20 carries for 63 yards at 3.2 ypc. The long run was almost the difference in the game save for a snafu by Duggan late in the game when he tried to pull the ball late on a tight zone play (no quarterback keep read), fumbled, and Barron returned it for a 48-yard score.
So ultimately, Texas broke even against the TCU run game.
However they had one bad coverage bust on a Quentin Johnston post route which allowed him to break wide open for a 31-yard touchdown. That was the game.
Unless I’m mistaken in regards to this blitz version of quarters, the safety has to go cover the slot vertical but freshman Terrance Brooks is trying to pass off the post route to Anthony Cook and no one takes it. Perhaps a review of the other occasions Texas used this coverage will reveal the freshman had the right idea but it looks doubtful.
Such things happen. Brooks’ opening night as a starter was otherwise pretty clean and promising. Count on the older quarterback/receiver tandem making the play and taking advantage in a big moment in the game.
Quick thought no. 3: It was a good thing Jahdae Barron played
Rumors were floating heading into the game about D’Shawn Jamison missing and perhaps Barron as well. Jamison was indeed out, hence Brooks’ presence, but Barron was very much a factor in this game.
11 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and a defensive touchdown is a nice day. His disguises and constant shifting were a thorn in TCU’s side as he mixed blitzes with coverage drops and confused TCU’s receivers on blocking angles for their perimeter screen game, which he devoured hungrily.
He did get isolated on Quentin Johnston and came up short in a crucial 3rd-and-4 after his fumble return. Texas had a chance to get a stop and get the ball back with three minutes to tie the game. They faced 12 personnel from TCU in what looked like an obvious attempt to just run the ball and shrug and punt if it was stopped. Texas played the 3-4 personnel with DeMarvion Overshown at outside linebacker and blitzed him off the edge. With DMO’s hands in his face, Duggan fired off a slant outside to Johnston (same combo Sam Ehlinger and Collin Johnson used to connect with on 3rd down) and they brought it in to effectively win the game.
Barryn Sorrell also had a terrific game with 11 tackles, 1.5 sacks, three tackles for loss, and a pass break-up. Going into the game it was known TCU’s offensive tackles were a little heavy-footed in protection if Texas could force them into passing situations but it wasn’t known whether they had an Edge who could make much of the situation. Sorrell has had several big home games this season and figures to have a great year in 2023 as he continues to grow and learn how to use his hands to create a pass-rush.
Overshown also had a nice day with 11 tackles, a .5 sack share, and several plays where his speed erased the spread stress of the Frog offensive design. As for his punt block “roughing the kicker” penalty, it was a bad beat.
TCU was inviting the edge rush all night, Texas nearly got home several times and every single time their punter would take a dive like a Premier League star striker and hunt a call. I’ve actually wondered why we haven’t seen as many kickers doing that these days, Oklahoma used to crank out some amazing actors, but it appears TCU has the art down pretty well.
Quick thought no. 4: Quinn Ewers’ performance
Terrible game from Ewers.
He continues to look for Worthy down the field but he can never seem to find him. On many of these throws it’s hard to believe the error lies with Worthy when Ewers can rarely seem to find his line. The interception in the first half was a disastrous play, fresh off the heels of some initial success they took their shot and Ewers didn’t seem to see the weak safety sitting on the post. Or if he did see him, his reaction was to throw it behind Worthy to keep it away from the safety and thus into the hands of the trailing Hodges-Tomlinson.
Ewers’ timing was routinely off. He was early in the red zone, such as on the open glance to Jordan Whittington where he rifled the ball in hard just as Whitt was finishing his move to get open (nearly precise, but too early). He was late on the first throw of the game to Worthy on a deep out pattern which was wide open. There were some amazing throws mixed in, such as the seamer to Ja’Tavion Sanders which took Texas down to the goal line. Then there was the fumbled snap, the self sack where he tripped the pocket, and countless other “he looks rattled” freshman moments.
There’s a lot of talent evident but these throws down the field from bigger sets require extra precision because the windows down the field are narrower and the timing is so difficult.
Sark did him no favors with the gameplan, which was much too hesitant to accept that neither the power runs in the box nor the deep throws outside were winning against TCU’s defenders. Finally they accepted the need to get into spread sets to get TCU defenders out of the box and hit some screens to Whittington who finished with six catches for 78 yards.
They needed considerably more there though, and sooner, or else a better plan for blocking TCU’s loaded boxes. The Longhorn O-line seemed to struggle with the angles and speed TCU’s deep alignments at linebacker created and the run game came up empty. The dropback spread passing game they brought out was okay at times but that style requires a lot of precision as well with protections and quarterback progressions and this unit ain’t there yet, to say the least.
The missed wheel to Bijan Robinson running free into the end zone was agonizing for Texas and juxtaposed well with Duggan making Texas pay when they busted coverage on Quentin Johnston.
Texas’ identity this season is mostly “line up in big formations, run the ball, and hit enough throws to keep em honest.” TCU had answers and the Longhorns didn’t have enough counters they were comfortable turning to in order to adjust.
If there’s a bright side it’s that Ewers’ jittery play in some of these losses is likely to stick with him as he approaches this coming offseason.
Quick thought no. 5: So what happens next?
Texas fans will be inclined to see this as a total disaster. The program brought in all of those recruits and Arch Manning only to drop that stinker of an offensive performance and lose their best shot at the Big 12 Championship?
However bringing in Arch to hang out with nearly every top player the program is targeting in front of a record crowd (104k fans) will likely yield dividends in recruiting even if a win would have been better. With Texas A&M and Oklahoma also losing (both may even miss bowl season, A&M at least will), recruiting is going to go well for Texas.
As for the Big 12 title hunt, the Longhorns are now back in a tie for third place at 4-3. TCU is a lock to make it into the Big 12 title game. They could lose the final two games and be no worse off than tied with Kansas State, over whom they’d hold a tiebreaker. Kansas State whipped Baylor 31-3 tonight and are 5-2 in conference play with a road trip to West Virginia and home date with Kansas remaining. Texas needs to beat Kansas on the road and then take down Baylor at home then they need for K-State to lose one of those games. If all that happened, and Oklahoma State also lost one more game, Texas would hold the tiebreaker over K-State and be in. If they got in a three-way tie with OSU and K-State, I’m not sure how things would break out.
Suffice to say Texas had control of their own destiny, their young quarterback slipped, and they lost it. They might still sneak in but a best case scenario is more likely to be 8-4, a productive set of bowl practices and monster recruiting class, big bowl win, and then to nail down this passing game in the following spring.
