2022 UTSA Roadrunners Post Mortem: Offense
The UTSA offense ball-controlled the Longhorn defense, stole an extra possession with an onside kick, and with the addition of Jahdae Barron’s Pick 6, the Longhorn offense managed only 9 meaningful offensive possessions. Only four of those possessions were in the first half, yielding 17 points.
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Don’t blame the Texas offensive staff for being overly conservative. It’s probably already been forgotten that Texas went for it on 4th and 1 on their own 35 yard line on the first drive of the game. Or that the staff tried a number of deep shots before realizing that the page needed to be turned to something else. Texas eventually scored on 6 of their 9 possessions, generating 34 offensive points and 459 yards on only 59 plays for 7.8 yards per play average. Rushing for 298 yards at 8.3 yards per clip will boost a team’s chances of victory. The game in a nutshell? The Longhorn rushing attack getting on track while Hudson Card avoided turnovers. Bijan Robinson finished with 202 yards from scrimmage and 3 scores, but Roschon Johnson was integral in establishing physicality, bringing some much needed juice, and almost single handedly carrying the Texas offense through an early rough patch.
Longhorns fans were perhaps a bit taken aback to see that Texas can’t just impose their will physically on a G5 opponent (Bijan Robinson averaged less than 4 yards per carry at halftime), but credit UTSA’s early scheme and the fact that the Texas OL isn’t going to get a ton of displacement missing blocks. Once Texas cleaned up some things and found a winning run play, they wore down the Roadrunners and began popping big runs.
The best example of the Roadrunners wearing down as Texas blockers found their stride is on this leisurely 41 yard Bijan Robinson touchdown run to put the game out of reach, 38-20.
No defender touches him on the entire run. This play scores in two hand touch. Look at the displacement across the line of scrimmage by Texas blockers on a simple inside run. Gunnar Helm is the only exception because he did the old “Oh, you want to penetrate outside? I’ll just escort you there” block. Please note the exceptional job JT Sanders does on the linebacker/safety and Jordan Whittington’s knockdown effort on the perimeter to seal the edge like a vault.
QB
Hudson Card couldn’t connect on any shots downfield, but a different variety of shot to his ankle might have allowed him to break a decisive 32 yard run on 2nd and 22 in the early 4th quarter. The play proved integral in creating Longhorn separation as the Horns went up by 18 one play later with Bijan’s touchdown run. Card played within himself, finishing 15 of 23 for 161 yards with no turnovers. His best work was flipping it out to Roschon, Whittington and Worthy in the short passing game and then letting them do the lifting. His longest completion of the night went for 26 yards. Card absolutely did his job. Seeing the field and pulling the trigger decisively in an open-ended scenario is not a current strength.
RB
The Texas running game exploded in the second half, with Bijan Robinson finishing with 183 yards on 20 carries and 3 touchdowns, including a 78 yard scamper out of the RoCat. His career longest. Robinson had tough sledding early as the Texas OL struggled to get their hats on the right guy or move UTSA’s squatty interior, but Robinson may have also been too enamored of his own elite cutting ability, attempting to make 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level cuts instead of just making his initial cut and then running through arms and hands. Once those issues were ironed out, Bijan exploded for 135 yards rushing in the second half on only 6 carries against an increasingly beaten down Roadrunner defense. 119 of those yards came on two touchdown runs.
Roschon Johnson finished with an excellent 11 carry, 81 yard rushing performance complemented by another 23 yards and a touchdown on 3 catches, but the manner in which it was achieved was most notable. One handed grabs, hurdling defenders, running through and over tacklers. RoJo brought enthusiasm, violence and energy from the opening kickoff for four quarters and it was exactly what the Longhorns needed to rally around. Great example of leading by pure effort and aggression.
OL
Christian Jones has always been a capable run blocker, but has too often been the subject of negative attention for his pass protection. His pass pro appears to have improved, but Texas fans need to really love on him for doing things like this:
Jones absolutely collapses his man on the block down and turns his shoulders completely, effectively sealing off the entire backside of the UTSA pursuit. Total and absolute dominance. Hutson and Sanders do a fine job with their kick out leads, but the guy who made that play go for 78 yards was wearing #70, not #5. And by #5, I mean Bijan…umm….Johnson?
Hayden Conner had some early struggles on the other side identifying what hat to hit, but the entire OL got it together in the second half and Texas looked much better.
Texas pass protected very well overall and run blocking improved substantially as the game wore on. UTSA doesn’t have a good defense, but they play hard.
WR/TE
Sanders had his best game as a blocker. Proof that he played 3.5 very good quarters tracking down linebackers and safeties because in the early game he blew a block and then had a hold. Whittington graded out as my best receiver again and a big part of that was his consistently outstanding blocking, reliability and overall physicality. Xavier Worthy turned some easy little flips into chain moving gains, but seeing routes through remains a building point. One interesting thing I noted is that on a few run plays or screens out wide where Whittington and/or Cain are blocking, Worthy just releases like it’s a go route and his man inevitably turns and runs with him. That’s one way for a 160 pound guy to neutralize a defender. I had it in my notes to praise Casey Cain for some exceptional blocks on screens, but as I underlined it he gave up a free pass to a hard charging corner who blew up Roschon Johnson.
Final
I encouraged everyone to avoid worrying about style points on offense until Texas gets back its passing game upside. Even with some constraints on a risk averse passing game and a slow-starting rushing attack, the Texas offense kept hammering at the rock until it cracked and then eventually exploded.
They’ll need to bring the same approach to Lubbock. Conference play is here.
