Five quick thoughts: Vengeance upon Lawrence
Texas played this final road game against Kansas like they’d have been embarrassed to come home without a win. The Longhorn offensive line was eager to administer punishment and Bijan Robinson ran wild in the holes that resulted as a result of their efforts.
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It was a very run-heavy day. Kansas didn’t completely sell out to stop the run and their defensive front wasn’t up for this.
Robinson had 25 carries for 243 yards at 9.7 ypc with four touchdowns.
Complete domination and that was more or less the ball game.
Texas’ chances of making the Big 12 Championship are slim. They need the Kansas State Wildcats to lose at home to this same Kansas team next Saturday. Pretty doubtful prognosis there. Nevertheless, another win next week against the Baylor Bears could cap an 8-4 season a year after going 5-7 and set up a better bowl bid. This was a good win for the program.
Quick thought no. 1: Easy gameplan for Texas on offense
Texas very clearly wanted to come in and run the football and Kansas didn’t offer a ton of resistance. The Jayhawks played single-high defense of the sort the Longhorns had already taken apart in other games this year, conceding some of the deeper crossers Quinn Ewers has hit all year and trusting a formidable but reasonable run-stopping alignment from their defense.
It wasn’t anywhere near enough. The Jayhawk D-line was really pushed around and Texas was able to line up and run Duo pretty regularly for substantial gains.
Jordan Whittington as an extra blocker on the edge is pretty impactful and Kansas had no answers for Texas’ “Big 12 personnel” packages with Andrej Karic playing tight end.
Ewers got a lot of RPO bubble screens to throw and was effectively shielded from anything particularly difficult. He finished 12-21 for 107 yards at 5.1 ypa with a touchdown and no interceptions.
Jonathan Brooks got some nice opportunities late in the game with the outcome no longer in question and both the first and second team O-line in front of him. He also made hay, turning 11 carries into 108 yards at 9.8 ypc with two touchdowns.
Here was his second score:
The offensive line here goes:
- Left tackle: Neto Umeozulu
- Left guard: Malk Agbo
- Center: Logan Parr
- Right guard: DJ Campbell
- Right tackle: Cameron Williams
It appears the future Texas run game should also be solid.
Quick thought no. 2: A dominant game for Kelvin Banks
I haven’t done a good job this season of repeatedly reinforcing how effective Banks has been this season, whether in pass protection or run blocking. Bijan knows though.
Observe Kelvin Banks and Gunnar Helm “Hammerhand” on this Duo run. Banks hits the Edge and drives him off the ball while lining him up for Helm to pick him up and take him to the next station. Banks then picks up the linebacker and finishes that block into the ground.
Banks’ effort on this touchdown is pretty solid as well, against a Kansas defense that clearly ain’t about it any more.
All season long he’s been terrific on inside zone and duo blocks. They’ve even installed GT counter, which wasn’t previously part of the playbook, and I wonder if it was in part to include more plays which get him on the move.
He might already be the best left tackle in the Big 12 and Texas has two more years with him.
Quick thought no. 3: A strong day on defense
Kansas welcomed Jalon Daniels back to the field today but the old Jayhawks who were scoring 30+ every week with him at the helm were nowhere to be seen. The Longhorns stuffed Kansas’ run game and out-rushed their opponent on the day by a margin of 427 to 104.
Kansas’ play-action game had a tough time against Texas’ flat-footed safeties and their run game to set it up couldn’t do much of anything. This game really demonstrated Texas’ improvement over 2021 in setting the edge on defense. Kansas got some freebies a year ago just running lead outside zone at the perimeter and hooking the Texas Edges while adding a lead blocker for whomever arrived first to try and rectify the error.
This year they hit a few creases on cutbacks but everything was boxed in effectively and there was no foundation for Kansas to build on offensively. If not for some late throws with the game no longer in question, the overall stats would have been even better.
Texas was able to mix in some youth. Justice Finkley played early and often, Terrance Brooks got the start over D’Shawn Jamison (who also rotated in), and late in the game they emptied the bench of X’Avion Brice and some others.
Jaylan Ford also continued his ball-hawking season with an interception off an ill-advised Daniels attempt while he was being chased by the pass-rush. He now has three picks on the year.
Quick thought no. 4: Texas embraced their true identity
The Longhorns won this game with the run game, special teams, and defense. The missing ingredient which might have taken this team to the Big 12 Championship Game if present, Ewers throwing deep to Xavier Worthy, was downplayed in the gameplan.
Kansas did keep a safety deep and Ewers attempted one double move to Worthy, which fell incomplete, but mostly the Longhorns focused on running the ball and mixing in underneath constraints like bubble screens. The deep throw to Worthy included a double move by the receiver which put him behind the defender with only grass behind him but Ewers threw him back on a back shoulder fade. The ball did hit Worthy, who then bobbled it for an incompletion.
This missing dynamic has been a remarkably frustrating component to the season, but today the Longhorns didn’t let it define their offensive effort.
Jordan Whittington was the main “play-action” constraint, usually on RPOs rather than actual play-action, catching six balls for 56 yards on nine targets while mixing in his routinely good blocking. Keilan Robinson had a terrific score on a swing screen thrown on 3rd and goal from the 15.
That play was a great microcosm of the game. Steve Sarkisian drew up a safe play which asked very little of Ewers and the rest of the team picked it up with good blocking and team speed. Next week they’ll face a stronger defensive front but a vulnerable secondary. It’ll be interesting to see how they approach it.
Quick thought no. 5: Bittersweet symphony for Bijan Robinson
Texas will probably only get one more game from Bijan before his Longhorn career concludes and may not get another this dominant before he’s done on the 40 Acres.
His 243 rushing yards and four scores were a fun watch and he eclipsed 3,000 career rushing yards and climbed higher up the all-time list at Texas.
It seems as though his era will be remembered for being a blip in Austin in between quarterbacks. He didn’t get a chance to play with Sam Ehlinger much, who could have badly used the firepower in 2019 or early 2020, and none of the quarterbacks since have been able to reliably keep the box clear for him to run on disadvantaged fronts.
In fact it’s been the opposite. This week it was a major bonus for Bijan to be facing just a plus one box and to have time to find some cutbacks. Bijan Robinson should have had a more winning career, dominating games and controlling the clock while paired with a more effective passing game.
Nevertheless, he’ll go down a true Longhorn great and has one more chance to put on a show in DKR.
For the people of Kansas who have seen him live, he’ll go down as an absolute legend without compare. In three games played in the state he’s had:
64 carries for 624 yards at 9.8 ypc with eight rushing touchdowns.
