It’s a horror movie that Texas fans have seen before. They can quote the lines, scream at the plot twists and cover their eyes at the end.
Call it “How The Longhorns Lose.” A big-time foe or rival comes to DKR/Memorial Stadium. Texas plays well at times but there’s always something – the defense gets sliced and diced, the offense moves the ball but can’t score inside the 5, key injuries occur, coaching decisions backfire. UT fans’ emotions sink and soar and then sink again before the students head to Sixth Street and the adults gather for tailgate postmortems.
The film was shown just two weeks earlier, so it’s painfully familiar. The Longhorns played well enough to beat LSU but couldn’t seal the deal and lost by a touchdown. On Saturday night, Oklahoma State brought a five-game Austin win streak into the Big 12 opener. As the game unfolded, a familiar plot was followed. A disappointing final score would be analyzed with the “what ifs” and the “yeah, buts” of recent games with the Cowboys.
Turns out, though, a new director’s cut flipped the script. Texas won a game against a salty foe when it didn’t play its best and when it overcame several self-inflicted wounds. The Longhorns head into a welcome and much-needed off week following a 36-30 victory which was as much in doubt as the score indicates.
In his third season, Tom Herman’s blueprint for success has involved plenty of coachspeak that rings true after victories and hollow after losses. In trying to restore the program’s pride and prestige, one of his messages has been “play your best” and victories should follow.
“We’ve been telling (players) since we got here that our best was good enough, but less than our best probably wasn’t,” Herman said. “Tonight, we took a step, in my opinion, because we played less than our best and still beat a really, really good football team.”
The Cowboys entered the game with the nation’s leading rusher in sophomore Chuba Hubbard, the nation’s leading receiver in junior Tylan Wallace (who fried UT’s secondary last season in Stillwater) and Spencer Sanders, a redshirt freshman quarterback from Denton Ryan who is a dangerous dual threat.
The offensive numbers indicate a draw. Texas finished with 498 total yards while Oklahoma State had 494. The Cowboys, however, ran 18 more plays. Hubbard needed 37 carries to gain 121 yards (and he had 17 yards lost) while Wallace had five catches for 83 yards. Sanders, who is as elusive as wind-blown smoke, threw for 268 and rushed for 109.
What defensive coordinator Todd Orlando did was craft a containment scheme that kept Hubbard from cutting back against pursuit for big gains and to harass Sanders enough so that he was often scrambling away from pass rushers (and never mind that his evasive tactics were effective).
The Longhorns’ defense also defended their goal line with gusto. Oklahoma State had three drives that penetrated the UT 10-yard line. Two resulted in field goals, one ended on downs. Cowboys fans were anti-social on social media about coach Mike Gundy’s decision making.
“Do you think I give a rat’s ass about social media?” Gundy responded in his post-game interview. He also understands the football math. “You can’t kick field goals consistently like that and come down here and beat a team that’s ranked 10th or 12th or whatever. You’re not going to beat them down here kicking field goals.”
Herman had his own second-guess moment in the second quarter. Texas had momentum, a 14-6 lead and faced a fourth-and-three at the Cowboys’ 28. Instead of a 45-yard field goal try, the Longhorns went for it and got stuffed. Herman called it “an ill-advised (play) call but the right decision.” It appeared to be the wrong decision when Oklahoma State made it 14-13 with a six-play, 70-yard touchdown drive.
The defense had at least six players injured, most of them in the secondary. That depletion plus the potential of Oklahoma State’s passing game had many observers wondering why Gundy dialed up 37 carries for Hubbard and had Hubbard throw just 32 passes.
(One wonders what Gundy’s reaction would have been to a question about Tweets asking for more throws.)
Texas entered the game missing injured DBs B.J. Foster (hamstring) and DeMarvion Overshown. Starting cornerback Jalen Green suffered a dislocated shoulder, starting safety Caden Sterns injured his knee in the fourth quarter and nickel back Josh Thompson fractured his foot.
With the secondary shuffled, sophomore Montrell Estell made his first start at safety and his interception in the first quarter set up UT’s second touchdown.
As the injuries piled up, freshman Chris Adimora – who was not even listed on the depth chart was forced into action. He broke up a pass that would have been a touchdown (before the Cowboys scored their final TD) and in his first appearance on the “hands” unit, snagged Oklahoma State’s onside kick after the visitors had pulled within six.
“They showed you guys things,” junior safety Chris Brown told the Austin American-Statesman about Estell and Adimora. “I know what they can do, I practice with them every day, I know what they’re made of. … It comes down to waiting your turn and waiting until your name is called and getting that opportunity. When they did, they executed. I’m proud of them.”
Texas also gifted Oklahoma State two touchdowns because of muffed punts, both near the end of each half. The second led to the Cowboys’ last TD that pulled them within six points. Herman’s assessment of the punt return game: “Embarrassing.”
Had somehow the Longhorns’ mistakes turned into a déjà vu-all-over-again loss, the caterwauling over handling student ticket entry would have become a huge issue. Because of stadium construction, a stampede of student fans raised safety issues for the LSU game. A “TSA approach” Saturday night resulted in the student seating section being empty at kickoff.
This is what the student section looks like. We are 60 seconds away from kickoff.
I’m being told the students are here, they’re just waiting in a slow-moving line outside of DKR. pic.twitter.com/fQr4NAbpat
— alex briseño (@alex__briseno) September 21, 2019
The ingress issues were masked by a victory and the egress involved happy fans. Winning is the pancake makeup that makes the flaws harder to see.
