Steve Sarkisian and Texas came up short after driving down inside the red zone in the dying moments of the Sugar Bowl.

The Texas head coach was asked to explain the play calling at the post-game press conference. It started with a swing pass to running back Jaydon Blue that went for 1 yard as he had to get out of bounds to stop the clock. The 1st play was designed to get the ball to either Ja’Tavion Sanders or Jordan Whittington.

“He was more of a check down on the play. We were looking for an opportunity for JT or J.Whitt, trying to create an opportunity for those guys to go highpoint it. Naturally, they did a good job defending it and a good job of just getting the ball out to Blue with a chance in space, but he had to get out of bounds.”

Sarkisian noted how tough it can be inside the red zone without timeouts. The goal was to create some mismatches for some of the best players and things didn’t fall the Longhorns’ way.

“It’s a tricky situation in that you’re out of timeouts, so we had to be very careful that we don’t complete a ball short of the goal line or pretty much the game’s gonna end at that point,” said Sarkisian. “When you’re forced to throw it into the end zone each time, it makes it difficult, especially when they’re defending the endzone. We were just trying to create some matchups with some different route combinations to create some 1-on-1s and give our playmakers a chance to make a play. We just weren’t able to do it and that’s just the way it goes sometimes.”