When it comes to playing on the road, the Texas Longhorns just haven’t got it done all year. When it comes to stopping high octane offenses, the Longhorns have struggled for most of the year, and that is being kind when you look at some of defensive performances earlier in the year. Yesterday in Lubbock, Charlie’s Strong squad finally got that monkey off their back when it comes to road performances and on top of that, the defense did a good job of containing a Texas Tech offense that has been putting up video game numbers through the air with star quarterback Patrick Mahomes at the helm.
While Mahomes and the Red Raider offense were able to move the ball and find the end zone against the Texas defense yesterday, he was not the star of the matchup, despite entering the game leading the entire country in passing yardage and is top five in passing touchdowns.
Texas running back D’Onta Foreman was the best football player on the field yesterday and I don’t think it was close. Foreman cleared 100 yards rushing early in the contest, making it the 10th straight game he has accomplished the feat, and he got to the mark pretty early as he absolutely shredded the porous Red Raider defense to the tune of 341 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Texas Tech didn’t look very interested at all in trying to tackle number 33 in white all game long, and the scary part about is that he probably could have flirted and even eclipsed 400 yards rushing if Texas didn’t inexplicably go away from him down the home stretch of the game.
It may have been a case of the Texas coaching staff not trying to overwork Foreman, but it was a decision that could have cost them the game, and while Foreman has been banged up, he was on the field for majority of the game. After failing to put Texas Tech away despite several opportunities to do so, Texas found itself relying on its defense who has struggled all year long to make a play to end the game. Fortunately for the Texas offense, the defense was up to the challenge as sophomore cornerback Kris Boyd skied into the air to reel in a Mahomes pass in the end zone to seal the victory. Boyd has been Texas’ best corner over the past several weeks now and it was his first career interception and it couldn’t have come at a bigger time.
Speaking of that Texas defense, after conceding some quick touchdowns early on they seemed to make some adjustments and get into a grove against Mahomes and the Tech offense. After the first two scores, the Tech offense didn’t get on the scoreboard until Mahomes hooked up with Cameron Baston with 7 minutes and 33 seconds left in the 3rd quarter. Texas Tech was outgained offensively by Texas 658 to 482 despite winning the time of possession battle and running just north of 100 plays on offense. One of the biggest issues Texas faced defensively coming into this matchup was keeping Mahomes fenced in and keep him from hurting them with his feet. Mahomes finished with 15 carries for -16 yards rushing, so I would say Texas did a great job of limiting him on the ground and that was in part to guys like Malik Jefferson spying him all afternoon long. The Texas defense was able to sack Mahomes 3 times and was able to hit and knock him down several other times, so overall they did a good job of pressuring the gunslinger and while he threw for 367 yards, it took him 59 attempts to reach that, which is only 6.2 yards per completion.
This matchup ended up being tight right down to the very end, but it could have easily gotten out of hand one way or the other for both teams at different times in the matchup. As mentioned previously, Texas had a chance to go up by several scores and put the game away, but was unsuccessful, and Texas Tech got a huge momentum shift when they were able to wrestle the ball from D’Onta Foreman as he came close to crossing the goal line and returned it for a touchdown. Following this wild play, Tech was unable to capitalize on the momentum and eventually allowed Texas to take the lead going into half time.
Overall, the game was entertaining and provided a lot of drama from start to finish and it ended with Texas getting a much needed victory and puts them in position to qualify for a bowl game after not making it to the postseason last year. I have touched on it previously, but winning this game also keeps the scenario alive that Charlie Strong could win out with three games left on the schedule, including a ranked West Virginia squad next weekend in Austin. While the Longhorns still have a very winnable road game against Kansas left on the schedule, the Mountaineers and TCU are capable of beating them, but fortunately for Texas they get them at home. It has never been easy for Strong during his entire tenure in Austin, and I don’t expect the next few weeks to be easy either. Regardless, winning yesterday in Lubbock was yet another step in the right direction for Texas after knocking off Baylor last week and they have a chance to keep it going next week.
