OTF Premium Texas needs bare minimum on offense to help overworked defense, improving special teams

[Jeff Howe]

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Texas won a football game on Saturday.

That’s almost the full extent of the positives from a sobering 16-13 overtime win over a lowly Kentucky squad at Lexington’s Kroger Field.

A team shouldn’t apologize for winning a road game in the SEC. Still, Steve Sarkisian’s offense put up a putrid performance, so much so that it nearly wasted an outstanding night on special teams and a defensive effort that, while not dominant, saw the Longhorns dig deep enough on the 86th official snap they defended to finish off a goal-line stand.

“I always feel like, once a year, you have a culture win where the game is not pretty, but the team — because the team is so close — finds a way to win the game,” Sarkisian said. “Tonight, these guys found a way to win when the game was sliding in the wrong direction. So, absolute credit to our defense. What a tremendous goal-line stand in overtime. What a tremendous job by our special teams — Mason [Shipley], Jack [Bouwmeester], Ryan Niblett, that punt return unit — and the way they played in that phase of the game.”

The 179 yards of total offense Texas (5-2, 2-1 SEC) posted is the lowest single-game total for the program since a 2015 season-opening loss to Notre Dame.

Shawn Watson’s offense tallied 163 total yards in the first game of Charlie Strong’s second season, finishing a woeful night in South Bend with an average of 3.1 yards per play with only eight first downs to their credit. Tyrone Swoopes slugged his way to a 7-for-22 night, throwing the football for 93 yards.

The Longhorns averaged 3.3 yards per play on Saturday. The offense’s anemic production matched the per-play output in a 2022 loss to TCU for the second-worst for a Sarkisian offense on the Forty Acres, trailing only the 3.2 yards per play Texas averaged in a 2021 loss to Iowa State.

Furthermore, after a low-penalty game against Oklahoma, the offense had two critical infractions late in the game. Those errors contributed to 24 of the Longhorns’ 55 plays coming on passing downs (second-and-8 or longer and third and fourth down with a to-go distance of five or more yards) and 12 plays from scrimmage (not counting two kneel-downs by Manning) that went for no gain or lost yardage.

“We do some things that are, obviously, very frustrating,” said Sarkisian, whose offense faced six third downs with nine or more yards needed to convert (5-for-16 on third-down attempts). “You get a hold on the first play of overtime. You get a false start in the fourth quarter when we're trying to put the game away. We catch a pass with a minute to go and we go out of bounds without getting the first down, or stay in-bounds and make them use the other timeout. There's little things that we're not doing offensively. We miss open throws. Clearly, I'm not calling enough stuff for our guys to feel good about what we're doing."

On Saturday, Sarkisian’s offense had half as many three-and-outs (4) as first downs (8).

Arch Manning, who has been sacked 13 times in four games against Power Four competition, had to try and make something out of nothing too often while, once again, facing an absurd amount of pressure. The Wildcats harassed Manning in 15 of his 32 dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus, accounting for a 46.9 percent pressure rate.

When he had time to throw, Manning’s 12-for-27 outing (132 yards) was eerily reminiscent of his performance against UTEP earlier in the season, making this game another that was marred by poor execution and numerous missed opportunities.

“We've got to find ways to get him more completions,” Sarkisian said of Manning, who was 4-for-9 for 51 yards on third down. One of Manning’s four third-down completions was a 9-yard strike to DeAndre Moore Jr. on a third-and-7 en route to Shipley’s game-tying field goal late in the fourth quarter.

“There’s some good things there, but there’s some layups that we’ve got to hit for him, too, and that he needs to hit,” Sarkisian said. “We need to find more of those opportunities for him.”

After the 2015 loss to the Fighting Irish, Strong stripped Watson of play-calling duties and Swoopes was benched in favor of Jerrod Heard. Sarkisian isn’t going to demote himself and he admitted afterward that he didn’t entertain the idea of sitting Manning for a stretch and going with Matthew Caldwell.

Still, comparing Saturday’s offensive showing against a Kentucky (2-3, 0-3) defense that came into the game allowing 192.7 rushing yards per game in SEC play side by side with a 38-3 bludgeoning at the hands of Notre Dame, a team whose two regular-season losses came to top-12 opponents on the road by a total of four points, frames the historically horrific nature of the offense's attempt to build on their efficient, productive afternoon in last Saturday’s win over Oklahoma.

Thankfully, Texas continues to put up a united front. The defensive leaders chose to prop the offense up rather than throw the other side of the ball under the bus.

Even when Sarkisian said the Longhorns’ identity is centered around the defense and kicking game, Colin Simmons, who had three sacks and a forced fumble in the win, felt his coach must've misspoke.

“We're a team. We're a whole team,” Simmons said. “It ain't just defense and special teams. It's defense, special teams and offense. We've got the offense's back. The offense has got our back and the special teams got both of our backs.”

Anthony Hill Jr., who had a game-high 12 tackles and notched his first interception of the season, said the defense understands how much it must help the offense right now. Hill indicated the defense is comfortable carrying the load, specifically because Pete Kwiatkowski’s group has the talent, experience and leadership to get the job done.

“We know we're very young on that side,” Hill said of the offense. “We've got a lot of older guys on defense, so we want to help them out and just keep lifting them up and keep pushing them because we know their time is coming.”

Even though the Texas offense’s ceiling is significantly lower than anyone expected, a repeat of Saturday’s performance will all but guarantee another loss, especially with the upcoming uptick in competition.

The offense can't be expected to evolve into a juggernaut. Still, an identity in which winning the field position battle and counting on the defense to keep the opponent’s point total down is the path to victory won’t get Texas anywhere if the offense continues to drag the other two phases down.

The defense and the punt team could’ve secured one of Kentucky's four combined fumbles. The Wildcats' 7-for-18 night on third down extended too many drives in which the Texas defense had a chance to get off the field.

Nevertheless, the offense was so bad on Saturday that the Longhorns needed the defense to be elite and the kicking game to be virtually flawless to win. While the bar doesn’t appear to be set very high for what the offense must do to carry its weight, their ability to clear it (and by how much) will determine what becomes of the 2025 season.

“If our style of game and our style of play is that we're going to play hard-nosed football and we're going to play great on defense and great on special teams, we need to be more efficient on offense with the opportunities that we get,” Sarkisian said. “That's what we need to do offensively, is we've got to minimize the self-inflicted wounds and become more efficient.

“We just… We weren't efficient enough tonight.”

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[4thandFive]

I want to look forward to watching. I want to think it was a blip. I want to think Sark will adapt. 
 

I want to do those things. 

Edited 3 hours ago by 4thandFive

[Jeff Howe]

I didn't write this with the intent to pour salt into the wound or beat a dead horse. I wanted to point out three things:

1. The offensive performance against Kentucky was historically bad. To be cast in the same light as a Shawn Watson offense is as bad as it gets for a Texas play-caller.

2. Even with the bar lowered to just asking for efficiency on offense, it didn't come close to getting cleared on Saturday. Sark even mentioned at the postgame that at some point, the dam will break if the offense keeps putting everything on the defense and kicking game.

3. I don't think anyone is asking the offense to suddenly light it up and be elite. However, it can't put up another performance like that and expect to win. 

[Joe Zura]

We get it Jeff sark is a mastermind 😭😭 kidding. Great article btw mute Howe 🤘🏼🤘

[Alex Butler]

It’s frustrating to hear stuff like we’ve got to do a better job getting him easy completions…from the play caller. Earth to Sark, call plays that do that. It’s like we’re not scouting teams on offense and attacking weaknesses it looks like we just go out and gameplan after the game has started. He fact arch hasn’t gotten hurt is still astounding to me and a testament to his toughness. It’s almost criminal to do that to him. 

[NothinButDaHorns34]

Just when we thought that the offense had found its footing and an identity against blOwU they show how undisciplined and inconsistent they are the next game. 

[Texas fan in Georgia]

Colin Simmons needs to get in somebody’s face. Anthony Hill is good enough to challenge his teammates. This defense is too good and has been too good for too long . If I was a starter on Defense I’d be fed up with the offense. Challenge them, aggressively but in a positive way. If that makes sense.

[Casey67]

49 minutes ago, Jeff Howe said:

I didn't write this with the intent to pour salt into the wound or beat a dead horse

Understood.  

 

[Barny89]

I typed a long paragraph trying to be positive and funny, but I erased it to ask the following.

OTF, I think after how bad this last game was to watch, it would make sense (and great content) to put out a video to show what worked against OU compared to Kentucky and why. There are some things that are obvious, but I think it would be a good exploration on both games.

[Here for the Wins]

The pass to Moore that he ran out of bounds.  More of it Sark.  It was open against OU.  It was open here.  UK showed us a number of simple plays in the pass game.  Jet sweeps/ends around to it other than Wingo.

[Califashorn75]

Who is this teams Brian Orakpo? Accountability is what he demanded or else. 

[alrightalrightalright]

1 hour ago, Jeff Howe said:

I didn't write this with the intent to pour salt into the wound or beat a dead horse.

Great article, Jeff. Your insight and analysis are always valued and appreciated. 🤘🏽

[Texas fan in Georgia]

3 minutes ago, Califashorn75 said:

Who is this teams Brian Orakpo? Accountability is what he demanded or else. 

Needs to be Colin . Ant hill seems too nice and well mannered off the field. Colin Simmons has attitude to em. 

[drag worm]

It really is amazing how much the confluence of issues all hit at once on offense this season.

- Bad evaluations and no development from past OL recruiting classes is bearing no fruit. 

- Arch in his third year gets outplayed by a redshirt freshman “local boy” from Lexington.

- Five RBs in the room and not one turns out to be an elite option. (Thank you Wisener for playing so far above your weight for two seasons now. You are a dog.) 

- Baxter back injured which has to be expected as the norm for him going forward.

- Our one skill position add in the portal Moseley hurt for the first four games. 

- Sark going all in on Wingo as 2025 WR1 fails to materialize for a myriad of reasons both having to do with Arch and Wingo. 

- Clark who we heard about all offseason either isn’t back to the same as he was as a recruit or he just wasn’t anywhere near the Bijan comparisons that we heard during his recruitment. 

- Endries portal bidding war win doesn’t result in the next Sanders / Helm as much as it does another body in the TE room. 

- And maybe most importantly, the one guy at QB we need right now to punish aggressive front 7s attacking our Swiss cheese offensive line is sitting on the bench in Miami. Having been escorted out of the program to make way for Arch.

What a mess. 

[SuperDave0805]

Line up and run basic running plays like they did against OU and if I need to be clearer RUN THE DAMN BALL SARK!

[tommym]

Texas and sark need to run an offense like the 49ers. The problem is a non-dynamic rb. Manning needs to throw more first read to get confidence early. More motion, Tight Ends doing more seam route. Manning needs to play more like a point guard, allow the game to come to him, not forcing the issue.

[UT_Ro]

As reporters idk if y'all have some type of deal or are told to only ask certain questions but this is the UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS sark needs to answer the tough questions.. I'm tired of hearing we didn't execute, the timing was off, I've got to call better plays etc.. What the hell was the offense doing in the off season & fall camp to look this bad.. An OC needs to be hired for next season cause sarks playbook is either outdated or too complicated to execute & get rid of that damn "script" it hasn't worked