Failure in Fayetteville: Texas Offense Falls Flat in Loss vs Arkansas
The No. 15 Texas Longhorns were dominated on the road on Saturday night, as the team lost by a score of 40-21 to the Arkansas Razorbacks behind a rowdy home crowd in Fayetteville.
The Razorbacks put a stamp on this game out of the gates, asserting dominance in the trenches on both offense and defense. Arkansas rushed for 333 yards as team while holding Texas to only 256 total yards of offense.
While Arkansas' offense put points on the board, the Razorbacks' defense, led by defensive coordinator Barry Odom, presented Steve Sarkisian and the Texas offense with constant pressure and intensity all night.
The Texas offensive line was embarrassed in every aspect. Longhorn's QB Hudson Card was seeing pressure on almost every play, even when the Razorbacks weren't blitzing. It came to a simple matter of the Texas o-line getting out-classed at the line of scrimmage.
During a handful of plays Card had time and room to throw, the Arkansas secondary stayed glued to their assignments. The Longhorns had every reason to throw the football as they trailed for most of the game, but the Razorback defense still managed to hold Texas to only 118 passing yards as a team.
Here are some of the team and individual stats for the Longhorn's offense in the loss.
QB Hudson Card - 8 of 15 for 61 yards, eight carries for 13 yards, one lost fumble
QB Casey Thompson - 5 of 8 for 57 yards, seven rushes for 44 yards, and two touchdowns
RB Bijan Robinson - 19 carries for 69 yards and one touchdown, one catch for four yards
WR Xavier Worthy - Two catches for 41 yards
WR Jordan Whittington - Five grabs for 32 yards
Texas Offense:
118 passing yards
138 rushing yards
4 of 13 on third down
READ MORE: Back To The Drawing Board: Texas Falls In Fayetteville 40-21
Don't let the 21 points on the scoreboard fool you. It was an absolutely abysmal night for the Texas offense.
From the start, the Longhorn's offense was non-existent. Two straight three-and-outs were the story of the first two offensive possessions, as Texas didn't pick up a first down until 1:19 left in the first quarter, as QB Hudson Card found wide receiver Xavier Worthy down the right sideline for a 25-yard gain.
Bijan Robinson followed this up with a nifty 20-yard gain that put Texas in business at Arkansas' 29-yard line down 3-0 at the end of the first. The offensive momentum seemed to be swinging the Longhorn's way.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. Texas kicker Cameron Dicker hooked a 52-yarder, leaving the Longhorns empty-handed after their best drive of the night up to that point.
Sure, the Arkansas defense was getting consistent pressure, but this would be an easy adjustment for Texas to make, right? Not in the slightest.
A major reason for Texas' lack of success in the running game and in pass protection was due to the monstrous effort by the Razorbacks front-seven to get pressure in the backfield on every snap.
Even against three-man looks by Arkansas on the defensive line, the Longhorn's five offensive linemen would allow easy penetration towards Card or Robinson. This made it extremely difficult for Texas to get anything consistent on offense, which was a pattern that continued throughout the game.
After Dicker's miss, somehow the offense got even worse for Texas. The next two possessions marked the third and fourth three-and-out for the Longhorns on the night. Now, the Longhorns found themselves staring down a 16-0 deficit at halftime with all the momentum against them.
Texas received the ball coming out of the locker room but immediately gave it back up going three-and-out once again. Luckily, a BJ Foster interception two plays later bailed the offense out, setting up the Longhorns in prime position to score right outside the red zone.
The offense finally came through, as Robinson punched in a one-yard score to cut the lead to 16-7. Yet, just as a comeback seemed to be brewing, the Razorbacks canceled any such aspirations.
Arkansas struck quickly, extending the lead to 23-7 after rushing for another score. The Longhorn's next two possessions looked like more of the same from the first half.
READ MORE: Texas and Texas Tech Agree To Annual Non-Conference Matchup Post Longhorns SEC Exit
After being stopped on fourth down near midfield and allowing the Razorbacks to add to their lead at 26-7, Card fumbled on the first play of the next drive in fitting fashion. As he was winding up to throw, Arkansas defensive lineman Zach Williams got a slight piece of the ball as it was going forward, allowing the Razorbacks to recover the fumble on the Texas 26-yard line.
One play later, the home team added on another touchdown to extend the lead to 33-7. If the game wasn't already ugly, it definitely was after that sequence.
With the game basically out of reach by the end of the third, Casey Thompson replaced Card at QB after the fumble and provided a quick spark.
Thompson, who lost the competition for the starting job to Card during the summer, showed that he might be the safer option at signal-caller for Texas moving forward. On his first series of the game, he led the Longhorns on a 10-play, 75-yard drive that ended with Thompson running into the end zone from five yards out.
It was an impressive drive from Texas, but the score was still 33-14. It was simply too little too late. Arkansas scored quickly again on the team's next drive, making Texas' next offensive possession look like a thing of beauty as the Hogs defense played less intense after doing everything up to that point to secure the win.
Thompson ended up rushing for another touchdown after a successful 14-play drive. His success on the night is one of the main reasons Texas made the final score seem at least somewhat competitive.
There's not much else to say about this one. The Longhorns got flat-out beat in every aspect of the game, as the Razorbacks played with more intensity and toughness throughout.
Sark and the offense will need to make every adjustment in the book if they want to recover from this embarrassing loss. Luckily, the team will get a favorable matchup at home next Saturday against the Rice Owls.
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