First-year Texas coach Steve Sarkisian promised “All Gas, No Brakes” when he took over the program. The Longhorns haven’t checked the fuel gauge in a while, apparently.
After going up 21-10 against No. 16 Baylor in the middle of the third quarter, Texas blew its third straight double-digit lead in a humbling 31-24 defeat. Sark’s team had a four-point advantage entering the fourth quarter, but joined 2018 Tulsa and 2018 West Virginia as the only teams to blow a lead in three straight games over the past five years. Texas has now been outscored 75-27 in the second half of its last three games.
But perhaps the most painful stat is that the Horns are on a three-game losing streak for the first time since former coach Charlie Strong’s last game in 2016.
The loss drops Texas to 4-4 and 2-3 in Big 12 play, effectively eliminating it from the Big 12 Championship Game race. It matches the same number of conference losses former coach Tom Herman had in Big 12 play during his final 7-3 season, but with four games remaining. Texas never finished below .500 in conference play under Herman – and in fact never had a losing record at any point in conference play.
“One of these weeks, we’re going to get over the hump,” Sarkisian said after the game. “When we do, we’re going to become a very dangerous football team.”
The most surprising development was running back Bijan Robinson being held to just 43 yards on 17 attempts. One of the premier backs in college football, Robinson entered Saturday with five straight games of at least 127 yards rushing. It was the lowest total of Robinson’s career since Oct. 10, 2020 against Oklahoma, a game which Robinson carried the ball just five times.
Conversely, Baylor running back Abram Smith posted 113 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries while backup Trestan Ebner added 66 yards. The gap in productivity was perhaps the biggest disparity in the loss, especially as the Bears put together second-half touchdown drives of 14 and 9 plays, respectively.
Second-half struggles were on Texas’ mind even before the loss to Baylor, as Sarkisian noted following the 32-24 loss to Oklahoma State on Oct. 16.
“For us as a team to go where we want to go, we can’t just hold on,” Sarkisian said. “We can’t think to hold on because a couple things don’t go our way. We have to think that something good is right around the corner. Right now, we’re in a space where we get a lead, something doesn’t go our way and we harbor negative thoughts and those thoughts lead to cautious play, uncertainty…untimely errors.”
Despite the talk, the errors were still there. Texas turned the ball over on downs twice out of five second-half drives, including a bizarre fake punt that was immediately sniffed out. In the final drive of the second quarter, wide receiver Joshua Moore dropped a would-be touchdown and then tipped another pass that turned into an interception to take surefire points off the board.
Down by one touchdown and desperately needing a score to tie the game in the game’s final drive, quarterback Casey Thompson threw four straight incompletions to end the game.
Opportunities to turn things around will be few and far between down the stretch. The Longhorns travel to play No. 22 Iowa State on Nov. 6, but the final three games are against teams with a combined 2-10 record in conference play. The opportunities for Texas to pick up meaningful wins to build on in Sarkisian’s first season are coming to a close.
