The Longhorn offense no-shows in 17-10 loss to TCU

AUSTIN — Most of the 104,203 in attendance at Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium and the millions watching the No. 18 Texas Longhorns square off with the No. 4 TCU Horned Frogs expected to see a matchup typical of the Big 12 over the last decade, with up-and-down action from prolific offenses led by talented quarterbacks and featuring superstar running backs.

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What the in-person and at-home audience saw instead was a performance the Longhorn offense failed to show up for. Texas was held under 200 total yards for the first time since the 2015 season opener against Notre Dame and failed to score an offensive touchdown for the first time since the 2016 season finale against TCU in a 17-10 loss.

“Offensively, zero rhythm in the game,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We could not get out of our own way, which is extremely frustrating. Clearly did not see this coming.”

Both defenses were the stars of the show, with the Longhorn defense accumulating 14 tackles for loss and five sacks. It even did the bulk of the scoring for Sarkisian’s team, with a late Jahdae Barron scoop-and-score serving as Texas’ only touchdown.

Though the performance was strong, it was not spotless. TCU scored two touchdowns via broken plays. The first came in the third quarter when Kendre Miller busted loose for a 75-yard touchdown run to make it 10-0. The second occurred in the fourth quarter when Max Duggan found a wide open Quentin Johnston in the end zone to make it 17-3.

Those two mistakes aside, the Texas defense did its job for most of the night against an offense that entered averaging 508.7 yards per game and 7.0 yards per play. Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense limited the Horned Frogs to 283 total yards and 3.9 yards per play. Barron, Barryn Sorrell, and DeMarvion Overshown led the Longhorns with 11 tackles apiece. Sorrell added 1.5 sacks and 3 TFLs, while Barron had 3.5 TFLs in addition to his touchdown.

It was the offense that failed to do what was necessary for victory. Quinn Ewers turned in a performance akin to the one delivered a few weeks ago versus Oklahoma State. He was 17-for-39 for 171 yards and an interception. Ewers began the night 0-for-7 against a TCU squad that was No. 95 in passing defense.

As he did in Stillwater, Okla., Ewers repeatedly looked for Xavier Worthy with deep throws. No. 3 targeted No. 8 on 12 occasions, but the two managed to link up just four times with none of the four on deep throws. Only two other receivers, Ja’Tavion Sanders and Jordan Whittington, were targeted by Texas’ signal caller on Saturday night.

For Sarkisian, in another callback to the contest in Stillwater, said he didn’t consider placing Hudson Card in the game late to try to salvage a poor performance, believing it wouldn’t be fair to the third-year sophomore. He thought Ewers competed well, but admitted the former Five-Star Plus+ quarterback didn’t have his best showing on the field.

The running game gained little ground against the Horned Frogs’ three-man front defense. Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson combined for 17 rushes for 43 yards. Robinson’s 12-carry, 29-yard performance likely puts any Heisman hope to bed. Overall, Texas tallied only 28 rushing yards, with five Ewers’ rushes losing 15 yards.

“It’s frustrating,” Robinson said. “For the offense, we just couldn’t get the run game going. Couldn’t find any creases. Anything.”

Despite anemic offense, there were opportunities for Texas. The Longhorns had two chances in the red zone, one in the third quarter and the other in the fourth.

In the first opportunity, a Johnson run that went nowhere and two incompletions resulted in a Bert Auburn field goal that netted Texas’ first points of the game. In the second opportunity while trailing 17-3 in the fourth quarter, an incompletion, a bobbled snap, and two more incompletions left the Longhorns without six points when they needed it most.

There was also a chance for Ewers to find Robinson through the air for points early in the fourth. Facing a 2nd-and-3, Robinson ran a wheel route and appeared to elude his defender and break open. By that point, however, Ewers had moved onto the next receiver in his progression.

“I saw a linebacker, whoever it was, run out with him,” Ewers said. “At that point, I got off of it because I assumed he was going to be covered up.”

A few plays later, Texas would end its second red zone trip with no points.

Barron’s late touchdown gave Texas the most hope it had all evening, but the Longhorn defense couldn’t answer the bell one last time as TCU gained the yardage it needed to run out the remaining 4:25 on the clock

In addition to the opportunities missed, Sarkisian forfeited an opportunity near the end of the first half. The Longhorns took possession of the ball on their own 25 with 1:20 left and one timeout. Texas moved to midfield, setting up a 4th-and-1. Instead of trying to gain more yards or points, Sarkisian elected to punt the ball away and go into halftime.

“If we don’t get it, I just didn’t want to give them the ball with a short field with a chance to get points when we were playing good defense,” Sarkisian said.

The result of opportunities missed and forfeited by the Longhorn offense put all the pressure on the Longhorn defense. The two lapses put Sarkisian’s team outside the margin of error it could ill afford to leave if it wanted to pull off its first top five win at home since 1999.

The loss makes a trip to Arlington as part of the Big 12 championship game, which would be a rematch against TCU, highly unlikely. In its current format, no team with three conference losses has ever made it to the Big 12 title game. Texas currently sits at 6-4 with a 4-3 conference record.

There’s one side of the ball that will draw most of the attention as the being reason behind the defeat Texas suffered Saturday night. The struggles of Sarkisian’s offense that failed to score a touchdown made an upset win an unreachable goal.

“We didn’t run the ball well,” Sarkisian said. “We didn’t throw the ball well. We didn’t execute in the red zone well. We didn’t convert third downs well. We didn’t do anything good. It’s easy to point at one guy, but that wasn’t the case. We didn’t play good offensive football.”