Instanalysis - Texas Bowl

[Matt Cotcher]

 
in Texas Longhorns Football By Matt Cotcher   

 @mlcotcher
 
FINAL SCORE: Arkansas 31 – Texas 7

First half: Arkansas 24 – Texas 7
Second half: Arkansas 7 – Texas 0

First half observations

• Big stop by Diggs on the opening kickoff. The Hogs had the sideline setup and Alex Collins would have gotten big yardage.
• Three straight running plays to open the game for the Horns net a first down. But 2 of the next 3 plays are passes, and the OL didn’t hold up against the Arkansas pass rush.
• Peter Jinkens was in position to make a negative play on 2nd down (Arkansas’ second drive that started in Texas territory), but he overran the play. Costly mistake.
• The strip by Mykkele Thompson and resulting fumble that popped straight into an Arkansas player’s arms was dumb luck. The fact that it only cost 3 points instead of a touchdown is a credit to good defensive focus. Thompson also made a nice open field tackle on the next drive that saved big yardage (on the play where Hicks was flagged).
• Huge holes from the Texas OL in the run game in 1st quarter. They didn’t pass block well though.
• The referees missed an obvious hold on Hughes, and a pushoff by the WR on Arkansas’ first touchdown. The no-calls result in a 10-0 lead, and that’s a tough spot for the Texas offense.
• On the goal line fumble, it looked like Johnathan Gray was not expecting a handoff.
• 10-0 was a “tough spot”….17-0 is disastrous for this team. Texas now has to change their game plan and throw a lot, and based on the pass protection in this game, that’s troublesome.
• John Harris (2) and Daje Johnson each made nice catches to help boost Swoopes on the TD drive after the goal line fumble. Also give an assist to Jacorey Warrick on the kickoff return. Teammates picking up their QB in a critical spot.
• There hasn’t been much to be critical of with the Texas defense all season, but letting Arkansas march down the field right before halftime negates any momentum that the Horns built when they scored their TD.

Second half observations

• The sack by Naashon Hughes that was negated by a PF penalty when he grabbed Allen’s facemask was so typical of this game.
• Arkansas wasted a nice return and easy penalty yards when they missed a field goal on their first drive of the third quarter. A 17-point lead is safe, a 20-point lead might’ve iced it. Texas is on life support, but breathing.
• The deep throw where Daje Johnson was out of bounds was a nice play call, a good throw, and a horrible use of personnel. Most wide receivers score on the play. I don’t fault Johnson, he did catch it after all – my beef is with Shawn Watson.
• After suspensions and injury resulted in limited time for Daje Johnson this year, the fact that his number was called so regularly in this game was a total surprise.
• The 3rd quarter was forgettable for both teams.
• In Jaxon Shipley’s and John Harris’ last game, I expected a big performance out of one of them.
• Arkansas punched in a 4th quarter touchdown and the crowd started up the S-E-C chant.
• The Texas offense looked good against the Razorbacks’ second team defense. Then Swoopes threw an interception. It capped off the night appropriately.
• Total game time was 3 hours and 15 minutes. The second half seemed longer than that.
• Texas only had five second half possessions. Four of them were 3 & out with negative total yardage.

Two takeaways
1. Aside from the goal line fumble, Tyrone Swoopes didn’t play horribly. Sure he missed a few passes, but find me a quarterback that doesn’t. A big share of the offense’s ineptitude goes to the OL, but Swoopes did nothing to spark the team tonight – that’s troubling.

2. 6-7 is a losing season any way you slice it. Most Texas fans believe in this coaching staff and the direction of the program. But John Mackovic and Mack Brown only had one losing season apiece. The Horns play Notre Dame, TCU, and OU in their first 6 games of 2015. If the team is 3-3 at the halfway point next season, the bandwagon will be emptying quickly.

Notable Stat’s

• Texas ran 24 plays in the first half, and just 19 in the second half. The offense never gained 6:00 in TOP in any quarter.
• The Longhorns racked up 7 penalties for nearly 300 yards.
• The Horns averaged 0.1 yards per rush (net) and 2.3 yards per passing attempt.
• The top 4 tacklers were DL and LB – a strong performance and big reason the Hogs averaged less than 4 yards per rush.
• Other than on their lone touchdown drive, the Texas offense never had a drive of more than 6 plays.
• 6 of the Horns’ 11 drives were net negative yardage.

 

[Matt Cotcher]

The final offensive stat's were so astoundingly bad that I could have used any of them for that final section.

 

[Aaron Carrara]

Daje sorta got back to his old self today.  Was good to see him more involved in the offense.

Also noticed we had two returns of 30 yards, courtesy of Johnson and Warrick.

 

[Juan]

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011

 

[BevoBlake]

We had a few calls go against as well that stifled momentum. That's not the reason we lost but I do think it had a negative impact on the momentum the team had.

 

[Lukus Alderman]

It was a poor performance, but the defense didn't look awful. The lack of offensive production made it worse.

 

[Juan]

I hate typing this but they Piggy OL did (often blatantly) hold all game

Still .......

 

[GBT]

We are worse than Nicholls State. Think about that. Sorry to say it but are we that talentless or IS IT coaching as well ?


 
NIC ARK

1st Downs 17 26

Total Yards 242 684

Passing 208 189 Rushing 34 495

Penalties 5-35 7-69

3rd Down Conversions 3-17 3-6

4th Down Conversions 2-3 1-1

Turnovers 1 1

Possession 34:10 25:51


 
 



Can we go get UAB's players. They don't have a program anymore, right ? Some of their coaches ?

 
UAB.........ARK 

1st Downs 12 24

Total Yards 195 484

Passing 62 211

Rushing 133 273

Penalties 2-10 2-9

3rd Down Conversions 4-14 6-13

4th Down Conversions 0-3 1-1

Turnovers 1 1

Possession 24:49 35:58

 

[dillohorn]

Bad. Just bad.

 

[Worster1]

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011



I went to bed last night pissed off after reading the Diggs quote and unfortunately I woke up this AM still pissed off about the quote and the overall performance of the Horns during the game.  This one is going to take a while to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

 

[dillohorn]

I went to bed last night pissed off after reading the Diggs quote and unfortunately I woke up this AM still pissed off about the quote and the overall performance of the Horns during the game.  This one is going to take a while to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

We've got all off season to eat this sandwich.

 

[GBT]

NO TRICK PLAYS ????? We have all month and we KNOW we are fighting with a short stick, yet we use no trick plays...nothing to try to put their defense on their heels ???? I am sorry if I ruffle feathers, but this coaching staff sucks ass. Our defensive play and coaching sucked as well If you listened to the Longhorn Legends broadcast on LHN, they said as much, in a very PC  kind of way.

 

[armadillo slim]

i was somewhat surprised we held them to 31, at least 7 of which were on the offense.

just an awful performance.

i don't think we'll see swoopes take another snap at QB unless its an emergency or injury situation.  he's not the answer at QB.  he's not going to "continue to develop".  if i was swoopes, i'd ask  the coaches to try me at tight end.  he's got the size for it.  Maybe even DE.

i don't know if Heard is the guy, but I think it was a mistake to redshirt him this year.  I dont know if he'll play either.  If by some strange quirk of fate we were to get Murray, he'll end up starting day one.  I think its about our turn to catch lightning in a bottle and I think he's it, but obviously its a stretch to think he'll come here.

 

[armadillo slim]

on a brighter note, the basketball team will get Isaiah back and that will relight the fire they had earlier.  i think they run to great eight, with an outside shot at the final four.  i think Isaiah will make a 6-8 point difference in the team.

then, baseball will roll around and it'll be time to for the good feelings to return.  we're going to Omaha again, guys and gals.

we all knew this was going to be rebuilding effort.  i don't think we knew it would be this rough and were hoping for something better, but it is what it is.  just swallow hard and take it like a man (or woman, as the case may be).

 

[HornEsch]

This pretty much sums up the game...

 

[GBT]

We were 8-4 last year with NO NFL draftees. Returnees were a year younger. We lost to a team that was a contender in the bowl game.

This year we go 6-7 and lose our bowl game to a conference bottom feeder in the most embarrassing loss of the entire bowl season.

Remember how we hated the Mack Brown PCs. The same old same old over and over ? the "Its on us." "Blame me." "Lets give X team credit." blah blah blah...and nothing changed ???

7 PCs and we hear the same stuff out of Charlie ...."We didn't get it done." We didn't execute.""Defense couldn't get off the field." ...blah blah blah...AND NOTHING CHANGED !!!! Hells bells ..IT GOT WORSE !!!!

I'm not expecting a conference title, even though it looks like the Big 12 is on par with Conference USA and the MAC, etc......but.....I expect to be competitive every game and win most of them.

As far as I'm concerned Charlie and Vance have three years to fix this mess. If not, then I am in Red's corner.

Still putting my money into the foundation and putting my family's butts in our over priced seats....but the clock is ticking for this staff. I hope Belmont has them on the clock too.

 

[GBT]

on a brighter note, the basketball team will get Isaiah back and that will relight the fire they had earlier.  i think they run to great eight, with an outside shot at the final four.  i think Isaiah will make a 6-8 point difference in the team.

then, baseball will roll around and it'll be time to for the good feelings to return.  we're going to Omaha again, guys and gals.

we all knew this was going to be rebuilding effort.  i don't think we knew it would be this rough and were hoping for something better, but it is what it is.  just swallow hard and take it like a man (or woman, as the case may be).

Not to be a wet blanket but....

We looked like a rolling ball of butcher knives through the Kentucky game...Since then ...not so much....

Unless Taylor is as good as TJ Ford, I wouldn't get my hopes up on that Final Four thing. Did you see the Stanford and Rice games ( on our own court ) ?

If we play like that, we will be lucky to be top four in our conference. Our bigs seem soft, and we have no real pure scorers who can light it up, and we let other teams' shooters get open looks all day long to drain 3s. Right now we look like a 2 and through team. Hope Taylor comes back 100% so we can make a run, because without him we aren't...... judging from the last couple of games.

 

[Juan]

Here is Diggs' full quote per 247

“There are guys in the locker room that don’t deserve to be there. Coach Strong does a tremendous job of trying to get people going but at the same time you a grown man. It’s time to handle this yourself.  

 
(It’s) all about pride.  I guess they don’t have a lot of pride in themselves. I take this thing serious. When I put that uniform on it transfers me into a different person.â€

 

[Juan]

Here is Malcom Brown's quote --

“Some people were recruited but came here for the wrong reasons.  But I don’t think they’re anti-Charlie Strong or anything, but they’re just not working. We could get more out of them, (but) they’re not giving it there all. They just need to buy in.â€