OTF Premium Snap Judgments: Rasheem Biles spurs No. 11 Texas to 31-3 rout of Mississippi State

[Jeff Howe]

Maraad Watson’s 61-yard scoop-and-score was the play of the game in No. 11 Texas’ 31-3 rout of Mississippi State on Saturday.

But what Rasheem Biles did on that play encapsulated one of the most impressive individual defensive performances of the Steve Sarkisian era.

Inside the last 90 seconds of the first half, Biles sacked AJ Swann on second-and-10. The hit knocked the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback out of the game. The loose ball bounced sharply off the DKR turf into Watson’s hands, adding insult to injury.

Biles wasn’t done. He led the convoy that guided Watson down the visiting sideline and into the end zone, delivering a block that helped the Longhorns swing the momentum for good.

Biles finished with eight tackles, three sacks, four tackles for loss and two forced fumbles. Will Muschamp deserves credit for weaponizing Biles in the defense’s two full games without Colin Simmons, but Biles executed the plan well enough to top his performance in last Saturday’s win over Ole Miss.

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Biles also helped Texas (6-2, 3-2 SEC) hold Mississippi State (4-4, 2-4 SEC) to a field goal after Arch Manning’s third-quarter fumble gave the Bulldogs the ball at the 28-yard line. Biles sniffed out an end-around to Anthony Evans III, stopping Mississippi State’s outstanding wide receiver for a 15-yard loss after Evans threw the ball out of bounds.

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The Longhorns sacked Swann and Billy Puckett a combined seven times. With its second game in SEC play with seven or more sacks (Texas had 10 in the conference opener against Tennessee), 21 of the defense’s 26 sacks this season have come in league play.

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Muschamp seemed to adjust after Swann got into a rhythm early with an 8-for-8 start, playing tighter coverage and dialing up the pressure on the quarterback. The threat of the vertical passing game went away when Puckett entered the game, allowing the Longhorns to tee off on the Bulldogs.

The lost yardage on sacks contributed to Mississippi State finishing the game with 68 yards rushing, its second-lowest total of the season. Saturday’s effort against the run was the best of the season by the Texas defense, while the 1.7 yards per carry the Longhorns held the Bulldogs to was topped only by the 1.6 yards per attempt Texas held the Volunteers to on Sept. 26.

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We’ll see what (if anything) Sarkisian says about injuries after the game. Texas saw Cam Coleman, Hollywood Smothers, Kade Phillips and Graceson Littleton leave the field throughout the night.

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Mississippi State’s five sacks and eight tackles for loss established new season highs. Zach Arnett followed the plan that a lot of defensive coordinators have successfully deployed against the Longhorns, using late movement to cross up Texas’ blocking schemes and protections and throwing multiple pressures at Manning.

Until the Longhorns can do a better job of picking up games, pressures and stunts, Manning can do a better job of determining where the ball needs to go and Sarkisian can make sure he’s got built-in hot routes and safety valves to help Manning get rid of the ball, Texas will continue to see pre-snap movement and face pressure from all directions.

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The Longhorns couldn’t get the traditional running game going. Even when taking out the lost yardage on sacks, Texas ended the game with 93 rushing yards (3.4 yards per attempt).

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Along with the offensive line’s forgettable performance, I thought Sarkisian got away from the things that worked against Ole Miss, namely the quick game and working the perimeter with screens.

Clunky might be the best way to describe the offense on Saturday. Manning lost a fumble on the first drive of the third quarter for the second consecutive game and the Longhorns had five three-and-outs after finishing last week’s win over the Rebels with three.

The whole operation wasn't right for large chunks of the game.

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Mac Chiumento’s average of 38.2 yards per punt won’t cut it in closer games against better competition. The punt team has left a lot to be desired, a problem that becomes more glaring when the offense sputters.

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Texas controlled the game from the jump. Saturday’s performance wasn’t good enough to beat Missouri or LSU, but at least the Longhorns took care of business.

They can look forward to the first of three season-defining road games in November with a win in tow.

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[Califashorn75]

Great points! Our defense is superb. 

[Battrayal]

Man I loved the effort by this team. D was awesome, definitely championship level.

 

Very happy about how Arch responded after his boneheaded play. Could've very easily repeated our 3rd quarter woes but turned it around.

 

But man, if I were a DC planning against Texas, I'd TE stunt every play. Sikorsky and Robinson are too slow with eyes, hands and feet to pick any of them up (aka they do nothing good on those plays). They were teeing us up. Someone cooler than me could put together an epic montage of whiffs from our GCGs on those plays this year. would probably be 10 mins long.

 

Overall, happy with the result. Are we perfect? Far from it, but we just need to be good enough to make it to December and then put it all together there (see OSU 2 years ago). The pieces are clearly there, especially if we just stick to what we do good at.

[Jeff Howe]

9 minutes ago, Califashorn75 said:

Great points! Our defense is superb. 

It'll do what it has done and give Texas a chance in every game.

[Jeff Howe]

5 minutes ago, Battrayal said:

Man I loved the effort by this team. D was awesome, definitely championship level.

 

Very happy about how Arch responded after his boneheaded play. Could've very easily repeated our 3rd quarter woes but turned it around.

 

But man, if I were a DC planning against Texas, I'd TE stunt every play. Sikorsky and Robinson are too slow with eyes, hands and feet to pick any of them up (aka they do nothing good on those plays). They were teeing us up. Someone cooler than me could put together an epic montage of whiffs from our GCGs on those plays this year. would probably be 10 mins long.

 

Overall, happy with the result. Are we perfect? Far from it, but we just need to be good enough to make it to December and then put it all together there (see OSU 2 years ago). The pieces are clearly there, especially if we just stick to what we do good at.

Nothing surprised me tonight. The good and the bad. Saturday's win is what I've come to expect from this Texas team. I might've felt better if Sark had hammered the quick game and the screen game more often because both were working.

[Jeff Howe]

@CJ Vogel said Sark added Ryan Wingo to the list of Longhorns who didn't finish the game due to injury.

[Wentwood]

D Will and Jelani both tackling incredible!

Both played great

[Jeff Howe]

29 minutes ago, Wentwood said:

D Will and Jelani both tackling incredible!

Both played great

I can’t complain about anything defensively. 

[UT_Ro]

Why even play Smothers? If you felt like the other backs couldn't get the job done against msu then we have bigger problems. 

[Alex Butler]

39 minutes ago, Jeff Howe said:

Nothing surprised me tonight. The good and the bad. Saturday's win is what I've come to expect from this Texas team. I might've felt better if Sark had hammered the quick game and the screen game more often because both were working.

It’s just mind boggling how we manage to avoid doing things that work in effort not to be, I guess, predictable. But we are predictably pitiful on offense for the majority of the game. It seriously looks like teams are playing with 12-13 defenders against us. We’d be down with TAMU and Arkansas this year if not for the defense. Which suffered several big injuries tonight. I blame Sark for that too. This defense has been exposed to too many plays over the last 5 weeks. No reason we should’ve been playing that many snaps with the pieces we have on offense. 

[Waxahorn]

I don't understand why we do not recruit a great punter or kicker out of high school every year and develop them. It's one third of the game!

[Jeff Howe]

5 minutes ago, Waxahorn said:

I don't understand why we do not recruit a great punter or kicker out of high school every year and develop them. It's one third of the game!

You should be able to get them in the portal. They went 1-for-2 in that regard this past cycle.

[Texasborn91]

Offense sucks. Not a cohesive unit. Looks like we are knee deep in mud most of the game. 

Edited 7 hours ago by Texasborn91

[TexShoe]

Joe Ossai-like

[HonkEm]

Just got home from the game, and I swear Cap Metro gets worse every year. The buses are never on time, and somehow they're always running behind when you need them most.

As for the game itself, the atmosphere reminded me a lot of the Florida game. The crowd just never seemed engaged. It was quiet most of the night, with very little energy or noise. Complete opposite of the Ole Miss game, where the crowd actually showed up and created a real home-field advantage.

Not complaining about the win, but it was a pretty boring game. Texas controlled it from the start, the crowd never got into it, and there just wasn't much juice in the building all night. One of those games you'll be happy they won, but probably won't remember much about a month from now.

 

[MBHORNSFAN]

The offense is broken bad and it appears unfixable at this point. Hard to believe it's worse than last years. 

[mcwast]

i hated to see smothers go out again, but he was running like he was blindfolded.  i don’t understand why sark didn’t just stay with the hot hand.  

[Alex Butler]

13 minutes ago, mcwast said:

i hated to see smothers go out again, but he was running like he was blindfolded.  i don’t understand why sark didn’t just stay with the hot hand.  

Agree, injured on Arch’s scramble. He definitely looked like he’d missed time and was learning the offense all over again. 

 

5 hours ago, MBHORNSFAN said:

The offense is broken bad and it appears unfixable at this point. Hard to believe it's worse than last years. 

Much worse too, it’s literally the last thing anyone thought would happen. Yet here we are, 8 games in with a historically…bad offense. We’ve now given up more sacks in 8 games that we did in 13 last season. It’s quite impressive how committed to under achieving Sark and co have been. We talk about complementary football and the defense didn’t get the memo that they meant complementarily AWFUL. Thats what it seems like watching tbh. We’ve lost half of our secondary in this game and the best player in the country and ther just go and churn out a 186 yard performance with a score and gave up 3 points, which were earned off an offensive turnover in scoring position.