*****Game Thread: West Virginia Mountaineers @ Texas Longhorns*****

[Dillohorn1]

Hats off to Card.

 

[Johnny Depp]

I really like Card but I think his lack of consistency accuracy is why Ewers won the job. Today he had Roschon wide up twice and worthy free deep. He was 1/3 on those throws but the 1 to Roschon made him catch it off balance and go to the ground instead of eating up wide open grass. 

Yes, there may be differences in going through progressions, pocket presence, etc, but if you miss several wide open guys a game, that will come back to bite us.

Those were the only 2 misses early, and Roschon tripped. he was 9-11 at one point. finished with 77%. Perfection no, damn good, yes.

About the run to set up the pass, yeh no. Texas was able to build that 28-0 lead without the help of a running game. The Longhorns had 14 carries for 11 yards (0.8 ypc) in the first half.

It looks like this team has an identity, and it's pass 1st.

 

[Steelhammer]

Good win but once again 1st half was aggressive but only 10 pts in 2nd half. Good thing we had big lead cause W Va. handed it to us in 2nd.

 

[Johnny Depp]

Yea, its gonna so great when Ewers completes every pass, I can’t wait. Card just went 21-27, over 300 yds, 3 td’s, 0 Int’s in a big win dude.

"For the fourth game in a row, Card used his legs to keep a drive alive at a critical moment. After West Virginia’s touchdown drive to cut the deficit to 21, Card pulled the ball down and ran for 17 yards on third-and-7 from his own 28 to extend the ensuing Texas series."

 Not sure QE has that ability.

"Card entered the locker room at halftime with a passer rating of 225.5 (208.7 for the game). That’s what happens when you go 13-for-17 for 223 yards and two touchdowns with two of your four incompletions coming on a throwaway in the final seconds of the half and a Hail Mary on the last play of the second quarter. He wasn’t perfect, but he showed toughness and once he settled in, he did a great job of keeping plays alive."

"Card’s best throws of the game included hanging in the pocket and getting rocked on a 15-yard touchdown pass to Worthy to open the scoring. He also climbed in the pocket to find Worthy 45 yards down the field, setting up the 13-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Sanders "

"If this was it for Card and Quinn Ewers is back behind center for the Oklahoma game, Card will slide back into the backup role fresh off of his best performance as a Longhorn. If nothing else, nobody can question Texas boasting a deep, talented quarterback room with two starting-caliber players in the fold. That's not easy to do in the era of the NCAA transfer portal."

https://247sports.com/college/texas/Article/Instant-Reaction-Texas-dispatches-West-Virginia-for-first-Big-12-win-38-20-194595714/

 

[North Texas Golfer]

Yea, its gonna so great when Ewers completes every pass, I can’t wait. Card just went 21-27, over 300 yds, 3 td’s, 0 Int’s in a big win dude.

Yep, I with you on this one. 

I'm reading some of the above posts about how "imperfect" Card was and laughing to my self thinking, what in the hell are these people watching! Not to mention what in the hell are they expecting. It's pretty crazy actually. 

And, yes, I'm all in on Ewers as QB1 for the Horns. 

 

[Drb522]

Agree 100%. Card is a hero, IMO. Played with a nagging injury for three games now. Sucked it up and played well. It's not pretty, but he drove the bus very well.

Makes me think that Ewers injury was worse than originally expected, if they’re willing to let Card play hurt

 

[tejasrulz]

Good win but once again 1st half was aggressive but only 10 pts in 2nd half. Good thing we had big lead cause W Va. handed it to us in 2nd.

Texas had the ball 4 times in the 2nd half. The results were TD, Punt, FG and last drive to run out the clock resulting in 10 points.

WV had the ball 3 times in the 2nd half. The results were Downs, TD and TD with both coming off long time-consuming drives after their teammate gets carted off the field resulting in 13 points.

Sorry, that's not "W Va handed it to us in 2nd".

Offensive player of the game, Worthy, it was his night. He caught the best TD pass and threw the best TD pass of the game.  Hon Mention Card and Sanders

Defensive player of the game, Ford, dude was everywhere. Hon Mention Thompson and Watts

BTW, I was at the game last night. Pretty good crowd overall.

 

[Drb522]

Good win but once again 1st half was aggressive but only 10 pts in 2nd half. Good thing we had big lead cause W Va. handed it to us in 2nd.

Texas only had 3 drives in the second half. A TD, a FG, and victory formation.  Execution was a little lacking, but playcalling was aggressive.  I’m happy there.  Defense has to get off the field on 3rd down in the second half.  
 

4 drives in second half….punt.  My mistake

 

[Steelhammer]

Texas had the ball 4 times in the 2nd half. The results were TD, Punt, FG and last drive to run out the clock resulting in 10 points.

WV had the ball 3 times in the 2nd half. The results were Downs, TD and TD with both coming off long time-consuming drives after their teammate gets carted off the field resulting in 13 points.

Sorry, that's not "W Va handed it to us in 2nd".

Offensive player of the game, Worthy, it was his night. He caught the best TD pass and threw the best TD pass of the game.  Hon Mention Card and Sanders

Defensive player of the game, Ford, dude was everywhere. Hon Mention Thompson and Watts

BTW, I was at the game last night. Pretty good crowd overall.

So we agree W. VA 14 UT 10,

 

[tejasrulz]

So we agree W. VA 14 UT 10,

No, I don't agree. WV outscored Texas 13-10 however Texas had the ball deep in WV territory late in the game. Far from what you originally stated.

 

[Eastexhorn]

Have no issues with Texas running the ball in the 4th quarter.  Helped chew up clock and let Bijan get his 100 yards rushing.

Be glad about a convincing win and now prepare for ou.   In my opinion, the ou game is Texas’ to lose. No reason UT can’t beat ou, and badly.

As long as OU's QB is out Texas should be a big favorite and win easily.

 

[tejasrulz]

For those of yall wondering, CJ Donaldson, the WV RB who was carted off the field, was cleared last night and flew back with the team. 

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

Texas had the ball 4 times in the 2nd half. The results were TD, Punt, FG and last drive to run out the clock resulting in 10 points.

WV had the ball 3 times in the 2nd half. The results were Downs, TD and TD with both coming off long time-consuming drives after their teammate gets carted off the field resulting in 13 points.

Sorry, that's not "W Va handed it to us in 2nd".

Offensive player of the game, Worthy, it was his night. He caught the best TD pass and threw the best TD pass of the game.  Hon Mention Card and Sanders

Defensive player of the game, Ford, dude was everywhere. Hon Mention Thompson and Watts

BTW, I was at the game last night. Pretty good crowd overall.

This. We have to grade each game on its own merits and in this case, Sark did the right thing. Won the game handily, no injuries. It's easy to generalize trends, but today we won the game early and was never in doubt. On to the gooners..

 

[Johnny Depp]

This. We have to grade each game on its own merits and in this case, Sark did the right thing. Won the game handily, no injuries. It's easy to generalize trends, but today we won the game early and was never in doubt. On to the gooners..

That may be true for the final drive, but the other 2 drives stalled when we were "trying".

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

That may be true for the final drive, but the other 2 drives stalled when we were "trying".

WV defense was "trying" too

 

[Captain Hookem]

Good win but once again 1st half was aggressive but only 10 pts in 2nd half. Good thing we had big lead cause W Va. handed it to us in 2nd.

When a team is up by more than 2 scores the last thing a defense wants to do is give up a quick score. As a result dropping more guys back in protection and letting opposing offenses burn clock is not a bad thing. By doing this you avoid getting beat deep or (and what has been more probable) huge chunks of yards with defensive holding/PIs and clock stoppages.

Ideally the defense would make every possession a 3 and out, but that's not realistic. If the opposing offense takes the underneath and scores quickly, then that's not good thing. 

However those drives burned a lot of clock. It's actually the best way for us to burn clock right now because we aren't good enough yet to force our will in the running game to burn clock and close out games. Opposing teams are trying to make us pass first and turn those games into shootouts (which we unfortunately saw at Tech). 

As a result, the defensive approach was great for the game that played out yesterday.

 

[Johnny Depp]

Texas is #1 in the nation in allowing drives of 10 plays or more. Troubling stat.

GOTF

Get off the field.

 

[Eastexhorn]

I would be more worried if they were #1 ib 3 plays or less giving up TD's

 

[Sirhornsalot]

Have no issues with Texas running the ball in the 4th quarter.  Helped chew up clock and let Bijan get his 100 yards rushing.

Be glad about a convincing win and now prepare for ou.   In my opinion, the ou game is Texas’ to lose. No reason UT can’t beat ou, and badly.

^ ^ ^ This.

How cool of Sark to get Bijan his 100 yards and immediately get him out of the game. He made sure Bijan got his. I like it.

 

[Sirhornsalot]

Makes me think that Ewers injury was worse than originally expected, if they’re willing to let Card play hurt

I think it was Card's ankle improving each week, but getting re-injured during the games. It doesn't take much to re-injure an ankle. He was limping during the 4th quarter yesterday.

I think it was a matter of:

1. Card could play and was not showing visible signs of pain during the week.

2. Card's results were justifying keeping Ewers on the bench.

Imagine if you had played Ewers and he was injured during this game? Imagine the shit storm we'd be having had that happened.

One thing we learned though, IMO. Card is more than a capable backup. We have two strong QBs at our disposal.