Horns Up, Horns Down, Horns Neutral: Offense Struggles Beyond Growing Pains

Texas is playing some incredibly uneven football at this point. It’s hard to believe the offense and defense coexist within the same ecosystem. One side is a cohesive machine; the other is something the A-Team put together with spare parts from the junk yard. I take it back, some of those “builds” were pretty freaking cool.

Further, the defensive side of the ball is far more physical than the offensive side. That’s extremely hard to explain given the time under tension the offensive line has had in the program. Even if they don’t all have game experience, they do have time within the same S&C program.

This is all very hard to explain.

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Horns Up

• The defense overall played its third strong game. We saw players at all three levels consistently affect the game.
• To my eyes, Jelani McDonald was the star of the first half. He was everywhere and gathered a pick. Three-year player?
• Zina Umeozulu flashed again at Edge, creating a sack thanks to his length. The Edges look really well-coached to me. Notre Dame lost the game last night because Edges lost contain on two key downs. We’re not seeing that from Texas. They were good in this regard last year as well. Colin Simmons looked incredibly explosive. He’s due for a breakout. Lance Jackson had the unfortunate penalty that negated a sack.
• Texas probably has the best linebacker room in the country. Each week someone different looks like an All-American. Yesterday I noticed Liona Lefau the most.
• You could say the same about the defensive tackles. Hero Kanu was playing on the other side of the LOS. Maraad Watson had another good game.
• Ethan Burke is having a very strong year thus far. Good motor, good against the run, plays up and down the line. He’s going to be a “stock up” NFL Draft prospect.
• Nice that Graceson Littleton got the pick. Let’s not get stupid penalties in celebration, though.
• The young player that flashed the most on defense was Jordan Johnson-Rubell. He was tracking and smacking with a PBU, another play with great coverage, and a big hit in the red zone. Most encouragingly, he looked fast and was hard to miss when he was out there.
• Ryan Niblett looked more comfortable in the return game. He still let one hit the carpet and roll, but he looked primed to find the end zone. Good speed and ran strong.
• James Simon had a strong debut at running back—stronger than the box score indicates. He looked pretty quick and showed the ability to break a tackle or move the pile.

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Horns Down

• That was much worse than I thought Arch was capable of. He wasn’t even close on a number of throws. He threw another brain-dead pick—one you’re more inclined to understand if he’s making strides along the way. His arm slot didn’t bother me, especially on the early miss with a linebacker in his window, but his footwork looked rough. Again. No, Arch was not this bad in August. That should be obvious. It’s one thing to have nerves in Columbus in your first road start; it’s something entirely different to struggle like that at home against UTEP.
• Offensive discombobulation. There isn’t much for the offense to hang its hat on. The O-line pass blocks pretty well, but it doesn’t matter if Arch can’t find his receivers. The run blocking was abysmal, especially early in the game. The interior O-line was getting owned. Basically, the pass can’t set up the run, and the run can’t set up the pass. UTEP averaged more yards per play than Texas. How?
• Seven penalties are still too many. DJ Campbell had two. He’s having a disappointing senior season thus far. Warren Roberson had another special teams penalty.
• Money downs were terrible. Third down, in particular, has been bad all season long. That’s tied to the discombobulation. Having five fourth-down attempts against UTEP…

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Horns Neutral

• We talked all offseason about them running Arch. It was believed that would be the salve for the offense—the thing that would get the overall run game going. He is good at it—both nifty and tough. What we didn’t expect is them having to run Arch because they struggle to do anything else.
• Ryan Wingo had a fine day. I mean that literally—it wasn’t good or bad. The misses that I saw were on Manning. I liked that he got a touchdown and a couple of other confidence-inducing receptions.
• Mason Shipley’s kicks all looked sketchy, including a PAT. I would not feel confident at all with Texas lining up a game-winner with seconds to go and him kicking beyond 40 yards.

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Every Manning has had struggles in his career, even in college. But you don’t expect to see them against this level of competition. In two of three games, the offense was listless because it couldn’t get passable QB play. Something has to change—and in a hurry.

It’s not fair to say “Texas is struggling” or worse, but it is fair to say the Texas offense is struggling. Or worse.