Texas football recovered from consecutive losses and beat Baylor 27-16 this past Saturday. Let’s break down how the game went.
Sam Ehlinger
Sam Ehlinger was shut down for the most part, which was surprising. If Texas is going to win out and get to the Big 12 Championship, he needs to play better than he did last Saturday. He looked different compared to the guy we’ve seen play the first four weeks. Ehlinger finished with 270 passing yards with one touchdown and one interception. He also added 51 rushing yards on 15 carries and two rushing touchdowns.
Thankfully the defense came through and held Baylor to under 20 points, and Texas got the win. Ehlinger will have to go into Heisman mode with three of Texas’ last five games being against top-25 competition in Oklahoma State on Oct. 31, Iowa State on Nov. 27 and Kansas State on Dec 5.
Defense
Well that was a big sigh of relief. The Longhorns defense contained the opposing offense to under 30 points. That is something it has not done since the first game of the season against UTEP. This defense allowed a bunch of points to opposing offenses this season. When you have championship goals for a college football season, allowing more than 30 points a game isn’t ideal, especially on a regular basis.
The defense added two sacks to their performance, but it needs to force some turnovers if the Longhorns want to beat the better teams. However, the bye week proved to be a much needed one and was a step in the right direction.
Running game
The running game was an important factor in the Longhorns’ win against the Bears this past weekend. Besides Ehlinger’s 51 yards, it was a team effort from the running game. Bijan Robinson ran for 55 yards on 12 carries, and Keaontay Ingram ran for 57 yards on 16 carries. Texas ran for a total of 159 yards yards for the game. Texas needs to control the time of possession, especially when going against tougher opposing offenses
Looking forward
Texas can still get to the Big 12 Championship this season. The Longhorns are not far behind in the standings and are fifth behind Oklahoma, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Kansas State. The game against Baylor was a good start, but Texas will be playing against tougher competition than what it has faced so far.
It will have to be an all-around team effort from everyone. It will also require some luck as well. Oklahoma and Iowa State will need to drop at least one more game. In addition, Kansas State and Oklahoma State will need to drop at least two more games and one of those two for each team must be against Texas. This game was more of a morale booster and something positive to build from and motivate the Longhorns to finish off the second half of the season strong. Texas can get it done, but it will come down to the very last game of the season.
