No. 3 Texas Longhorns Goal Line Woes Costly in Oklahoma Loss
The No. 3 Texas Longhorns had a golden opportunity in the beginning of the fourth quarter to tie the No. 12 Oklahoma Sooners.
The Longhorns were down 27-20 and had four shots from the 1-yard line to punch in a game-tying touchdown but couldn't do it. That failed opportunity at the goal line proved to be the difference in Texas' thrilling 34-30 loss in the Red River Rivalry against Oklahoma.
Texas Longhorns running back Jonathon Brooks gets tackled against the Oklahoma Sooners Saturday at the Cotton Bowl.
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Quarterback Quinn Ewers completed a 28-yard pass to wide receiver Jordan Whittington down to the 1-yard line, but the Longhorns weren't able to match the Sooners' physicality at the line of scrimmage.
Offensive lineman Connor Robertson couldn't sustain his block for long enough, as linebacker Kip Lewis dropped running back Jonathon Brooks for no gain — a theme for the three-straight runs in the goal-to-go situation.
With seven down linemen on second-and-goal, Oklahoma was able to set the edge while closing up any cutback lanes for Brooks. The second-effort scrum couldn't drive Brooks across the goal line either.
On third-and-goal, defensive lineman T'Vondre Sweat lined up as a wingback and blew his defender 3 yards deep into the end zone, which would have cleared the path for Brooks to walk in for a touchdown.
However, defensive lineman Byron Murphy II, who lined up as a fullback on the play, took on a double team with Hayden Conner but couldn't reestablish the line of scrimmage, which allowed Danny Stutsman to shoot the gap and drag down Brooks for a loss of 1.
Instead of kicking a field goal and cutting the game to 27-23, head coach Steve Sarkisian elected to keep the offense on the field. The Longhorns spread their formation out, as opposed to their jumbo packages they ran the first three downs.
Ewers rifled a throw to wide receiver Xavier Worthy on a tunnel screen, but he was spun down short of the goal line. Linebacker Dasan McCullough made the initial hit on Worthy, but Billy Bowman was there to clean up the play.
“We went to a play that we felt really good about,” Sarkisian said. “Bang-bang. We don’t score by about 4 inches.”
Had Bowman not been there to tackle Worthy, he likely would have scored and, in turn, Texas likely would've won.
