At this point, Texas’ mission is simple — keep that SEC loss total at “1” and let the rest take care of itself.
On Saturday, the Longhorns accomplished that mission by getting some revenge on the 2021 loss it suffered at Arkansas and grinding out a 20-10 win.
Here are 3 takeaways from Saturday in Fayetteville:
1. That Texas defense put on a clinic against a rested, but ineffective Arkansas offense
Sure, it was the first SEC game of the day, but Jahdae Barron and Alfred Collins are locks for SEC weekly honors after how dominant they were for the Longhorn defense.
Barron had an interception, a sack, 2 tackles for loss and he forced a key quarterback hurry blitzing through the A-gap on 3rd down. Collins also had 2 TFLs and a sack, but he made the play of the day and put the game away with a forced fumble that helped Texas keep it a 2-score game.
Texas’ defense continued to show that it’s one of the best units in the country. It held Arkansas to 69 first-half yards, and it really only had 1 bad drive. Outside of that, Pete Kiatkowski’s defense was in total control. It forced 9 tackles for loss and 6 sacks of the mobile Taylen Green.
Green, who was hurt in the blowout loss to Ole Miss 2 weeks ago, was mostly held in check. Tyrone Broden dropped a catchable ball that led to the Barron interception, and with a more pass-heavy approach, Arkansas struggled against the nation’s top passing defense. The Hogs were held to 231 yards of offense in their own building.
2. Quinn Ewers and the Texas passing game didn’t capitalize on a juicy matchup
Against Arkansas’ bottom 10 pass defense in FBS, Ewers didn’t go off like Jaxson Dart did 2 weeks ago in Fayetteville. The Hogs had 3 new starters in the secondary after they allowed 9 passes of 50 yards in their first 9 games (2nd worst in FBS).
And yet outside of that first touchdown pass to a wide-open Matthew Golden for 20 yards, Texas’ downfield attack was nowhere no be found. The longest pass of the game was a wheel route to Tre Wisner that went for 30 yards because he had room to run.
That’s not to say it was a lost day for Ewers. He didn’t turn the ball over, and the throw he made to Golden in a tight window capped off a perfect response drive to make it 20-10 after Arkansas had all the momentum. Ewers shook off a bad 3rd quarter — one in which Texas had 39 yards and 1 first down — and played effectively enough to win on the road against a team who already handed a top-4 team a loss. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that Texas’ national championship hopes could come down to getting better performances out of the passing game, and Saturday’s showing wasn’t a sign that it had those issues figured out.
3. Texas is now setting itself up to all but lock up a Playoff berth next week
As in, next week at home against a Kentucky team that has 1 SEC win. Granted, it was a road win against a top-10 Ole Miss team. But yeah, Texas can get that all-important 10th win by taking care of business against Kentucky.
We can debate the fact that Texas doesn’t have a win against a current CFP Top 25, but the selection committee has the Longhorns at No. 3 because they’ve been a more complete team than other 1-loss squads. We’ll see if that means a Playoff berth is a certainty heading into that massive A&M reunion.
For now, though, Texas can celebrate a gritty road win.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
