OTF Premium The Texas offense isn't broken, but right now, the Longhorns are bad

[Hashtag]

Sark has no one on offense to tell him no. Sark's best offenses were with Nick Saban screaming down his throat about what he wants. 

[UT_Ro]

Sark gotta let AJ call plays or somebody else cause the offense is stagnant & it's sad 

[DanielOnorato]

1 minute ago, JMarquette said:

Why should we even think that? What has made you even think that’s remotely possible?

 

also, who the hell cares if it’s against Sam Houston? 

Because 5 straight 100 yard passes is definitely plausible. I wasn't being facetious at all!

[JMarquette]

2 minutes ago, UT_Ro said:

Sark gotta let AJ call plays or somebody else cause the offense is stagnant & it's sad 

Yes Milwee, the guy who has done so great with QBs for the past 5 years. 

[thatdude2]

25 minutes ago, Roy Hinojosa said:

We're all underwhelmed and disappointed, so I'm just going to adjust expectations since they were so lofty this past off-season.

Serious question to the OTF crew, are we being vanilla on purpose or are we just this bland on offense because we need time to cook? I hope it's the former, but why are we still being vanilla? Why not bust out the playbook? Sark is losing the fans at this point.

No one is a fan if they bolt. Have to stay on through thick and then.

[Hashtag]

Just now, UT_Ro said:

Sark gotta let AJ call plays or somebody else cause the offense is stagnant & it's sad 

Akron Offensive FEI

2013 - 113

2014 - 122

2015 - 99 

2016 - 90

2017 - 114

2018 - 126

[LonghornFan4Ever]

3 minutes ago, UT_Ro said:

Sark gotta let AJ call plays or somebody else cause the offense is stagnant & it's sad 

Neal Brown is literally on staff as an analyst lol Sark would probably bolt for the NFL before giving up play calling even if CDC tried to make him

[.45s]

46 minutes ago, Jeff Howe said:

The Texas offense is bad.

I won’t declare it broken. I believe it can be repaired and that the Longhorns can put a product on the field capable of helping them win games in the SEC.

But Steve Sarkisian’s offense regressed from a middle-of-the-road performance against San Jose State to a clunker in Saturday’s 27-10 win over UTEP.

After three games, Texas is 12-for-42 on third down, 5-for-12 on fourth down and 8-for-13 in the red zone with six touchdowns, two field goals, two interceptions and three turnovers on downs.

The Miners outperformed the Longhorns on first down (5.3 yards per play for UTEP to 4.5 for Texas), committed fewer penalties (six penalties for 34 yards for the Miners, while the Longhorns were docked 81 yards on seven penalties), got a more efficient day throwing the football from Malachi Nelson (24-for-36, 209 yards and two interceptions) than the one Texas got from Arch Manning (11-for-25, 114 yards, one touchdown and one interception) and averaged more yards per play (4.4 to 4.2 for the Longhorns).

Scotty Walden and his staff deserve a lot of credit for showing up ready to play. UTEP wasn’t intimidated by Texas, came to town with a sound game plan and made the Longhorns work for 60 minutes.

The 4.2 yards per play by the Texas offense marked the fifth-worst single-game output under Sarkisian. The only games in which the Longhorns have been worse under Sarkisian were losses to Arkansas (4.0 yards per play) and Iowa State (3.2) in 2021, TCU (3.3) in 2022 and last season's regular-season meeting with Georgia (3.4).

The issues on offense exist beyond failing to play to a standard or the personnel Texas didn’t have (Quintrevion Wisner, DeAndre Moore Jr. and Emmett Mosley V were out and C.J. Baxter Jr.’s day was done after one carry). Sarkisian’s attack lacks an identity and whether it was Manning’s erratic afternoon (10 consecutive incompletions at one point), the times the offensive line lost the battle at the point of attack (the Miners didn’t record a sack, but they had five tackles for loss and 12 of the Longhorns’ 56 official rushing attempts either lost yards or went for no gain) or poor situational execution, the Texas offense found different ways to stumble throughout the day.

The week leading up to the Sam Houston game next Saturday (7 p.m., SEC Network+) will be a time when Sarkisian must look in the mirror and determine a course of action on offense.

The offense Sarkisian wants (and the one a lot of other people, myself included) isn’t one the Longhorns can have right now. With one non-conference game left, Sarkisian must take the information he’s gathered so far and try to build confidence across the board by building on what the offense can do well.

It might mean that Manning runs the ball more than what Sarkisian initially expected (he ran for two touchdowns, and he and Matthew Caldwell had the longest runs from scrimmage on Saturday, both recording 14-yard gains).

It could mean figuring out which portions of the short passing game can get Manning in a rhythm early in the game so that the defense doesn’t automatically play coverage to prevent the deep ball, rendering the passing game helpless, which is what it was for almost the entirety of the UTEP game.

Sarkisian and Kyle Flood could examine personnel along the offensive line and try a different combination.

Whatever answers Sarkisian comes up with, Texas can’t have a repeat performance of Saturday’s debacle the rest of the way. Even though the defense held up their end of the bargain (six tackles for loss, sacks by Hero Kanu and Zina Umeozulu and interceptions by Jelani McDonald and Graceson Littleton while holding the Miners to a 4-for-13 performance on third down and an 0-for-3 effort on fourth down) and the kicking game is showing signs of growth (Jack Bouwmeester got back on track with a 47.8-yard net punting average, Mason Shipley went 2-for-2 on field goals and Ryan Niblett had a 49-yard punt return), the offense is operating at a level so far below a championship standard that it’s hard to look beyond the next game on the schedule when envisioning the trajectory on that side of the ball.

 

View full news story

 

Yes, the offense is sloppy and unimaginative, dlr what appears to be several reasons.  

[TTown]

Don't know the definition of broke , but eyes don't lie. It is broken . Sometimes broken things can be fixed. This time is it getting more unlikely  by the week.   No job should be safe going forward at Every position period.No more excuses that was pathetic on the Offense. They owe the defense some of their NIL $$ 🤣

[Joe Zura]

5 minutes ago, Hashtag said:

Sark has no one on offense to tell him no. Sark's best offenses were with Nick Saban screaming down his throat about what he wants. 

I hate myself because I agree with you 

[Hashtag]

Just now, LonghornFan4Ever said:

Neal Brown is literally on staff as an analyst lol Sark would probably bolt for the NFL before giving up play calling even if CDC tried to make him

 

jk, i think.

[Hashtag]

1 minute ago, Joe Zura said:

I hate myself because I agree with you 

If what I have heard is true the only person that may be able to influence him would be Banks

Edited 1 hour ago by Hashtag

[Joe Zura]

1 minute ago, Hashtag said:

If what I have heard is true the only person that may be able to influence him would be Banks

We have Neal brown right there let him call plays 

[JMarquette]

1 minute ago, Hashtag said:

If what I have heard is true the only person that may be able to influence him would be Banks

It’s the f*cking monkey, isn’t it?

[thatdude2]

Chill

[JMarquette]

@Hashtag it’s crazy that @MBHORNSFAN hasn’t chimed in yet? Pretty wild - it’s almost like we were right and he has no clue what he was talking about! 

[Hashtag]

Just now, JMarquette said:

@Hashtag it’s crazy that @MBHORNSFAN hasn’t chimed in yet? Pretty wild - it’s almost like we were right and he has no clue what he was talking about! 

He's just happy to be here brother!

[Hornito]

When Caldwell came in last week and threw a pass it instantly looked different and better. I didn’t know he had come in. Same today when he had that run. It just looked smooth. It won’t happen of course because of who the Mannings are, but this Defense could manage wins with just a smooth game manager and we might have one on the bench. I certainly hope Arch can grow from what surely must be a rock bottom throwing performance. Hook’em 

[TexasLonghorns]

11 minutes ago, Hashtag said:

Sark has no one on offense to tell him no. Sark's best offenses were with Nick Saban screaming down his throat about what he wants. 

Facts! Everyone looks wonderful coaching a Nick Saban product with him in your hip pocket telling you exactly what to do. He was Sarks shadow during his tenure at Alabama. 

[Hashtag]

2 minutes ago, Hornito said:

When Caldwell came in last week and threw a pass it instantly looked different and better. I didn’t know he had come in. Same today when he had that run. It just looked smooth. It won’t happen of course because of who the Mannings are, but this Defense could manage wins with just a smooth game manager and we might have one on the bench. I certainly hope Arch can grow from what surely must be a rock bottom throwing performance. Hook’em 

I like your represado 

[birdlaw5895]

This offense is booty 

[SuperDave0805]

56 minutes ago, Jeff Howe said:

I'm not throwing in the towel, but I'm worried. Very worried.

Fat lady isn't singing but she is warming up

[NothinButDaHorns34]

Wonder how the guys who were celebrating quinn leaving a year early feel now? I would’ve LOVED to have him back for his senior year. 

[Forrest J.]

58 minutes ago, Jeff Howe said:

I'm not throwing in the towel, but I'm worried. Very worried.

If this isn’t broken, what’s heck does broken look like??? 😳 

[Bunk Moreland]

What I don’t understand is that Sark exuded a huge amount of confidence about Arch and about his offense coming into the season. How could he possibly be so wrong? Have the coaches taken the experience and leadership of the last few years for granted and taken their foot off the gas? Are these guys having problems when the lights turn on that aren’t apparent in practice? It’s a real head scratcher.