Three-count: Hudson Card and the last drive, run blocking, and Bert Auburn

It wasn’t a banner day for the Texas Longhorns in Lubbock. The offensive play-calling hit a wall. The defensive play-calling resulted in death by 100 cuts plays. Special teams had its ups and downs. All in all, Texas left West Texas with a loss to Joey McGuire’s program.

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There is plenty to fix on both sides of the ball for coaches and players alike, but here are three things on my mind as I sit in the passenger seat on US 84 heading back to Austin.

Hudson Card battled, and those last 21 seconds shouldn’t be ignored

Do the Texas Longhorns need Quinn Ewers at quarterback in order to reach whatever their 2022 ceiling is? Absolutely, but that shouldn’t lead to ignoring how valuable Hudson Card has been in Ewers’ absence due to injury.

Card almost led Texas to victory versus Alabama. He capably led the Longhorn offense to a win over UTSA. Aside from one interception, he turned in a good performance in Lubbock.

He even hit a deep pass to Xavier Worthy as one of his two touchdown tosses. But once Worthy went out, Texas’ options in the passing game were nowhere near as explosive. Texas tried to work the run game and take pressure off of Card, but that run game couldn’t get going in the second half.

“A receiver like Xavier is going to help our offense, but it’s next man up when it goes down,” Card said postgame. “The guys who came in for him did a great job. Obviously, it hurts to lose a talented receiver like him.”

That loss cost Texas its best deep threat, and the results on offense reflected it. However, despite seeing a go-ahead field goal split the uprights with 21 seconds left, Card led a game effort on offense that pushed the game to overtime.

For all the second half problems that afflicted the offense, the Longhorns kept competing in those last 21 seconds. Card found Tarique Milton and Ja’Tavion Sanders and put Bert Auburn in a position to tie the game. He did it, as he has all year.

“To do that with 20 seconds left, that was amazing,” Jordan Whittington said. “Hud made amazing plays right there. Milton did as well. You practice those kind of situations for when the moments come, and we executed perfectly.”

It didn’t result in a Texas win, but it was not what I was expecting to see in the last 21 seconds from the Longhorns.

Is the Texas O-line better at pass blocking than run blocking?

With two true freshmen on the line, and with the potential for more to join them this season, my expectation for O-line this year was that they would be better going forward and running the ball than dropping back into pass sets.

That may need some adjustment.

For the most part, Texas has handled top opposing pass rushers through the first four games. Playcalling and game situations have an effect on what the line is able to do on the ground, but Ewers and Card have had time to operate from the pocket.

Meanwhile, there have been many examples of Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson having to put in tremendous efforts in order to just get back to the line of scrimmage.

Of course, Robinson can’t fumble the ball like he did in overtime.

“We were trying to get a stretch play out and get the linebackers flowing for me to cut up and find a crease to try to get a touchdown,” Robinson said. “When I did cut up, the linebacker came, and when he hit me, the ball slipped out. That’s on me.”

Still, the Longhorn OL has some work to do trying to open up holes on the ground. Ewers (and Card) can operate with the time they’ve been given. It’s tough to say the same for Robinson and Johnson.

Salute to Bert Auburn

“Bert, he just came in and did his job,” Robinson said.

Place kicking was not the top concern for Texas entering the 2022 season, but it was one that likely caused some anxiety for the Longhorns. Cameron Dicker was a difference-maker in every special teams aspect, and replacing him was a tall task.

Bert Auburn has not only handled the job well, he’s handled it well in the clutch.

His long field goal at the buzzer on Saturday is just more evidence that the Longhorns have an unflappable guy trying to add three points to the scoreboard.

He won’t hit them all, but he’s hit the important ones this year.