Armanti and D’Onta Foreman have been spark plugs for the Texas offense this year. Armanti leads the team in receptions, receiving yards, and is tied for the team lead in receiving touchdowns, while D’Onta has been an unstoppable force running the football and is third in the nation in rushing yards. With the Foreman twins playing a very prominent role within the offense, it only makes sense that both played major roles in Texas’ upset victory over Baylor this weekend.
The Longhorns entered the matchup as underdogs to the Bears on their own home turf, but after last year’s victory over the Bears in Waco, nothing was being taken for granted as indicated by the point spread that favor Baylor by just four points. While the Baylor defense had been solid all year long, they certainly knew they were going to have their hands full slowing down a Texas offense that has shown that it is capable of being physical and running the ball down a defense’s throat. It didn’t take very long to see that Saturday was going to be more of the same from D’Onta, as the Texas running back got going early and often despite Baylor’s best efforts to keep an extra defender near the line of scrimmage to try to slow him down.
Not to be outdone early on, Armanti was able to hook up with Shane Buechele for a 40 yard touchdown strike that evened the game at 7-7 in the first quarter. Armanti proved to be a tough task to cover for the Baylor secondary for most of the day. Foreman and Buechele connected later on in the half for a catch and run of 51 yards that looked like it was going to be another touchdown, but Foreman was stripped of the football inside Baylor’s five-yard line and the Bears were able to recover it. While the fumble proved to be frustrating at that point in the game, Armanti would make up for it down the home stretch. On the drive that Texas ended up kicking the game winning field goal on, Buechele and Foreman hooked up on a 38 yard strike that put the Longhorns within striking distance to take the final lead over the Bears. It was a heck of a catch by Foreman and it was as clutch as he could be considering the circumstances. Foreman would end the contest with four catches for 142 yards and a touchdown, which was good for a 35.5 yard per catch average.
While Armanti hurt the Bears through the air, D’Onta proved from start to finish that he was an absolute load in the ground game. The Texas running back battered the Bears defense to the tune of 250 yards on 32 carries and was able to find the end zone twice during the game. Foreman averaged 7.8 yards per carry and continued to prove that he is one of the best backs in the entire country. Foreman continued his streak of running for over 100 yards that dates back to last season, and he did it by posting his best game of the year. I said early on that it looked like Foreman could go for over 200 yards on the ground and he got halfway to 300 yards before everything was said and done. Not only did he keep his streak alive with another impressive performance, Foreman became the first Texas running back since Jamaal Charles to rush for over 1000 yards in a season, and there are still four games left on the schedule with a potential bowl game after that.
The Foreman brothers have been major key for the Texas offense this year, and they came up huge in a big game over the weekend. Without them Texas probably would have been up a creek against the Bears and probably would not have had a chance to spring the upset like they did. It can’t be understated what they meant to the offense this weekend or over the course of the season as they have shown their abilities to make big plays week in and out.
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