Texas Needs Bye Week To Reset Mentality Following Loss To Oklahoma State
It's out of their control, now. All the Texas Longhorns can do now is wait.
Well, that and pray.
A 41-34 loss Saturday to Oklahoma State ends all conversation of Texas trying to become the first two-loss team to make the College Football Playoff. It hasn't entirely ended its hopes of making it to the Big 12 Championship on Dec. 3 in Arlington, but the pathway has the twists and turns from hell.
Currently, the Longhorns (5-3, 3-2 Big 12) are behind No. 7 TCU (7-0, 4-0), No. 9 Oklahoma State (6-1, 3-1), and No. 22 Kansas State (5-2, 3-1) in the current conference standings. They still have games against the Horned Frogs and Wildcats, not to mention pair of matchups against Kansas in Lawerence and newfound Baylor team at home.
For now, the Horns rest. They need to after allowing the Pokes to score 17 unanswered points in the second half and give fans a flashback to Saturdays on the regular a season ago.
The pain will fester for over the next 13 days before Texas returns to the gridiron to face Kansas State, a must-win matchup for both schools.
Good. It needs to.
"That'd be nice to play next week, but it's just not how it goes," quarterback Quinn Ewers said postgame. "It'd be nice to get the bitter taste out of your mouth, but I think (the bye will) be good for us to regroup, figure out what we're about, hopefully bounce back."
Texas still finds itself making the same mistakes from Steve Sarkisian's first season. The Longhorns had the lead for 30-plus minutes, blew it with minutes remaining and couldn't find any offensive consistency to match their opponent.
Ewers looked human, going 19 of 49 passing (38.8 percent) for 319 yards and two touchdowns against three interceptions. Bijan Robinson totaled 55 yards in the second half, but couldn't punch it in for points. The offense tallied 152 yards off 42 plays and only walked away with three points to its credit.
Texas is now 1-6 on the road under Sark. The Longhorns were undisciplined when the moments counted, being charged with a season-worst 14 penalties for 119 yards. And the defense lost its juice, allowing OK State QB Spencer Sanders to record over 400 yards of offense and two touchdowns.
“It hurts to the core,” Texas linebacker DeMarvion Overshown said. “I’m hurting, everyone in the locker room is hurting. Losing a big game on the road, going into a bye week, it’s going to sting.”
Texas is taking baby steps in Year 2, but the fan base wants the 'All Gas, No Brakes' that was promised when Sark was hired back in January of 2021. In 20 games, the Longhorns have beaten one ranked opponent, and that was against No. 23 Louisiana in Sarkisian's debut.
Don't think for one second Sark isn't frustrated. He's 10-10 since arriving in Austin and has blown five double-digit first-half leads during that span.
"Take nothing away from Oklahoma State, they deserved to win," Sarkisian said. "But a lot of what happened today was self-inflicted wounds. They didn't beat themselves. They kind of hung around and we started to beat ourselves."
Everyone is looking for the right answer to the same problem. Some believe a week off will do wonders for the team's physique. Others think a week of practice with a game week feel might be the kick needed to get Texas back on track.
Who's to say? Last season, Texas entered its bye week after losing to Oklahoma State with the same intentions, only to blow another lead on the road against Baylor. Unlike the Bears last year, the Wildcats won't have time to recover. They face the Pokes in Manhattan Saturday afternoon.
Good teams recover from heartbreaking losses. Great ones show what they're capable of when clicking on all cylinders.
What type of team are the Longhorns? According to Overshown, the next 13 days will dictate that outcome.
"We've just got to move on to the next one," Overshown said. "Take this bye week, get healthy, clean up things from this game."
You can follow Cole Thompson on Twitter @MrColeThompson
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