Poor special teams, poor tackling, missing RBs lead to latest Texas loss

Statistically the Texas Longhorns were right in the game with Oklahoma State.

But too many poor plays did more than leave head-scratching questions; they simply reinforced doubt, especially when the Longhorns had two weeks to prepare for the Cowboys and still suffered a 49-31 loss Oct. 1.

The Longhorns (2-2, 0-1) had 568 yards of total offense compared to the Cowboys’ (3-2, 1-1) 555 yards.

OSU quarterback Mason Rudolph threw for 392 yards and three touchdowns and had a rushing touchdown.

Trailing 37-25 at the half, the Texas defense picked it up in the second half, giving up only one touchdown because of great field position following an interception thrown by quarterback Shane Buechele.

But it was the poor defensive play in the first half that coach Charlie Strong focused on after the game. He noted the Cowboys converted better than 50 percent on third down and took advantage of poor tackling by the Longhorns.

“Those were the back breakers,” he said of the third-down conversions. “You feel like you can execute and get off the field. We didn’t get it done. They tried, we just didn’t get it done.

“That’s what’s driving me crazy,” he said of the missed tackles. “We’re just not tackling. Run through the guy, just finish wrap the guy up and get him on the ground. When a guy is running at you, you can’t break down. If a receiver can freeze, you’re in trouble. Tackling is something you have to do over and over and over.”

Coaches decided to play veteran players in the secondary in the second half, and Strong indicated he liked the rotations much better.

“They came out the second half and got stops and got hits,” he said. “The secondary we mixed it up some, you had more of your vets back there. Rotate them in there and bring them out when something happens.”

Offensively Strong can pinpoint that running backs Chris Warren and D’Onta Foreman were lost before the third quarter ended. Between them they had 26 rushes for 252 yards and two touchdowns. Without them, Texas 71 yards on 22 carries. And that forced the Longhorns to be one dimensional and played right into any defensive coordinator’s hands. But that’s not what Texas observers are focused on.

Instead, they’re thinking of three blocked extra points, a missed two-point run and a missed field goal that kept points off the Longhorns’ score total. Even worse Oklahoma State returned the first blocked extra point for a safety.

Strong said long snapper Jak Holbrook was small, and they’re trying to make him big. What needed to happen was an adjustment involving Holbrook and the guards where they both didn’t try to block the same defensive lineman.

“They were stepping right over the center,” Strong said. “He’s going to get knocked back. But we can get that corrected.”

And Texas observers are thinking of the timeout Strong called late in the second quarter when the Longhorns were trailing by five points. On second and 17, the Cowboys got 18 yards and finished the drive with a touchdown and a 12-point advantage at intermission. They had about 90 seconds left in the half to score and crossed paydirt in 62.

Strong said he called the timeout to get the ball back because “our offense was hot,” meaning OSU hadn’t figured out a way to stop the Longhorns. But the team that took advantage of the timeout were the Cowboys.

When he met with reporters after the game, Strong said he told the players they must have a better mindset about playing on the road.

“Anytime we go on the road, we got to play our best,” he said. “We got to play really good defense on the road; we didn’t play good defense. We can get a stop, go and score on offense. It was more getting that stop.”

As for his job security, Strong was correct when he said “you’re evaluated each and every day here.” And that won’t change after this game.

Instead it will only intensify as the Longhorns prepare for Oklahoma and the annual Red River Shootout at 11 a.m. Oct. 8.