Game 7 (W) - Texas 23 vs Baylor 16

Published by David Macias

Another game where we don't play the full 60 minutes and let it be a nail biter at the end. Not breaking any news here, but we're playing to our levels competition every week - thankfully they've been ending in W's. 

Think about this. 

We've outscored 3 ranked opponents by 41 total points.

We've only outscored our 4 unranked opponents by 13 total points. 

Whatever, we're 6-1! The last time we got to 6 wins in October was 2012, and the last time we had a 6-1 or better record was 2009 (last national title run).

While the 2nd half was quite frustrating and Shane looked more like a true backup than a guy who was battling Sam for the starting spot before the season, Shane did his job and we got the W - hats off to him.

On to the game.

UT 0 - Baylor 0
Sam gets hurt. This is what teams risk by running their QB. Sam running is what makes him a more dynamic player and in so many ways makes the offense go. However, he's also a bruiser of a runner, not a speed guy who's just trying to get to the outside or end his run with a slide. I really think we win 35 - 13 or so if he doesn't get hurt, but as a good friend of mine says, "if your aunt had nuts, she'd be your uncle".



UT 0 - Baylor 0
Sam makes a nice throw after the injury. Thankfully, Sam has the lowest grade of a shoulder sprain and we have a bye week, so he should be good to go for Okie Light next week. It couldn't have been that badly injured if he was able to throw this dart after the injury. Let's just hope it doesn't get re-injured (knock on wood).



UT 0 - Baylor 0
CJ nice hands. Shane was a little sporadic with this throws, but it's nice that he had targets like CJ and LJH to throw to. What a great hands catch here.



UT 3 - Baylor 7
QB read works with Shane initially. You can see the DE #93 go to the outside and respect the QB run, which opens a nice hole for Tre Watson. As you'll see, Baylor quickly made the adjustment to Shane being at QB and not Sam. I don't recall Shane pulling it on a QB read once, and I wonder if he didn't read any of them right OR if the coaches directed him not to pull as to not risk having to play Cam Rising or Casey Thompson.



UT 6 - Baylor 7
Baylor defense adjusts on the QB read. You can see that the DE on the near side doesn't flinch at all and assumes handoff to the RB.



UT 6 - Baylor 7
Again, QB read doesn't work as well with Shane. Here, you can see the blitzing slot corner play the handoff to the RB the entire way, and he ends up making the stop for just a 2 yard gain.



UT 6 - Baylor 7
Great run D. It's tough to see who the other two players are, but Gerald Wilbon #94 and 2 of his compadres win their match ups and all meet up for a 2 yard loss in the back field. I really enjoy how this defense is continually able to play the run while keeping 2 deep safeties for help is pass coverage.



UT 6 - Baylor 10
Keontay all day. We finally fed him more and he got his first 100 yard game as a Longhorn. I don't dislike Tre Watson, but this guy is special. I'll probably have a post of just Keontay runs at some point - stay tuned. Again, the blitzing corner is playing the handoff, but Keontay is so good at breaking tackles in the back field and he's got a burst that's unmatched by pretty much anyone on the team.



UT 6 - Baylor 10
It's not a penalty if they don't call it. It does appear to be a push off, but Baylor dude - you can't just quit on the play and not attempt to make a tackle. Also, Baylor's WR had almost the exact same amount of a push off on their first TD, so at least the refs called it evenly. This might have been Shane's best ball of the day, perfectly placed in front of CJ and on the outside shoulder. Even had CJ not pushed off, it would've been tough for the CB to make a play on it.



UT 13 - Baylor 10
Finally, LJH running in a TD from the wildcat. I think the Horns' staff has to consider this play more often from here on out with Sam nursing a shoulder injury. Note the nice (almost hold) block by Sam Cosmi #52, he gets just enough of #3 that also cause #44 to not be able to make the play, and LJH and his 6'4" frame does the rest.



UT 20 - Baylor 10
Caden. F'n. Sterns. Looking back on how the game played out, this pick and the following play were huge to lead to another 3 points. 6 point lead was all the difference in the game when Baylor got it down within the 25 at the end and had to take shots in the end zone for a TD. Sterns has such great instincts. Also, remember how I said it's nice we can play 2 deep safeties because we can play the run with so few d-lineman/LBs, it allows for a great ball hawk safety like Sterns to only have to play half the field. Brewer eyes this pass from the start. Sterns reads it, and makes a great catch on the play. What a stud.



UT 20 - Baylor 10
Huge 3rd down conversion by Jamison. Most offensive plays to Jamison have been a reverse that ended in a loss, but this little slip screen was clutch. And it is a screen, he catches the ball behind the line and Keontay and Beck are blocking from the start. Good blocking and nice speed by Jamison to create the bad angle to allow us to get a field goal and our final points of the game.



UT 23 - Baylor 10
One of the very few highlights of the 2nd half. This was shortly after the Buechele INT. Great 4 man pass rush. Hager forces the QB upfield and G Johnson does a great job of getting off his block and coming in to clean it up as the QB steps up.



UT 23 - Baylor 10
B Jones with the bad angle. This was quite frustrating, because I thought we could hold them to a field goal right here. They just had a false start to lose 5 yards to take it back to the 10. Jones just underestimates their RB's speed and takes a very bad angle. He's got to keep outside leverage and force the running back inside back to his friends. The run it in on the next play from 3rd and short, but if it's 3 and 8 or 9, I'm not so sure they convert.



I'll probably try to post a couple more "random musings" before the Okie Light game, so stay tuned and follow me on Twitter to get all the updates .

Every Lil' J catch from the win over OU

Published by David Macias

This is less of a break down of the game (that's here) or certain plays and more of a why not just enjoy the greatness that is Lil' Jordan Humphrey. No real reason behind it except for your viewing pleasure. It was a great all-around TEAM win, but hey, the guy had the biggest day on offense for anyone not named Sam, so why not soak it in a little more?

His stat line from the game:
Receiving
9 catches (on 11 targets) 
133 yards
1 receiving TD

Passing
2/2 passing
10 yards
1 passing TD

I made a couple bold claims about LJH in a preseason post:
1. He'd lead the team in TDs with 12 (Not so bold.)
    (I said 5 receiving and 7 rushing, because I thought we'd use him in the wildcat in goal line situations as we did in the Spring game.)
   - How's he tracking? He's leading everyone not named Sam with 4 WR TDs and 1 Passing TD. CJ also has 4 WR TDs.

2. He'd be in the top 5 of Heisman voting in 2019 (Quite bold.)
    (Again, because if he racked up a ton of goal line TDs and had a great stat line as a WR for a top 5-10 team, why not?)
  - How's he tracking? Well, again, he's obviously not going to get any (or many) goal line rushing TDs, though it was cool to see him get a passing one out of the wild cat. Without those rushing TDs, I doubt he'd make the Heisman conversation, BUT, what about the Biletnikoff award for best college WR? If LJH stays next year and CJ is gone, I don't see why he won't end up a Biletnikoff finalist.

He's currently leading our team with 535 receiving yards and 4 TDs, which puts him on pace for 1,070 yards and 8 TDs. Not bad for an ex Running Back/3 star recruit!

Ok, to the GIFs.

Catch #1. Result - first down.



Catch #2. Result - 2nd and short.



Catch #3. Result - first down.



Catch #4. Result - 4th and short (and a HUGE gain on 3rd down!)




Catch #5. Result - first down.




Catch #6. Result - first down.



Catch #7. Result - TD.



Catch #8. 4th and medium.



Catch #9. Result - 2nd and long.



Let's go get 1-0 vs Baylor! A nice full 60 minute pounding of the Bears from Waco would be quite nice. Enough of this playing to our opponents level stuff.

Game 6 (W) - Texas 48 vs OU 45

Published by David Macias

Hold on... currently at about cloud 7 on my way back down from cloud 9. 

I mean, for real though - lets gooooooooooo! Best (and most important) Texas win since 45-35. Great that Shipley wrote the Players Tribune article that pretty much foreshadowed this victory. 

Can you believe we're here at 5-1 now? I can't - see below for predictions for the rest of the season after the loss to Maryland. 

Here's my updated likelihood for the rest of the season and how I'd feel about it:



How I felt after the Maryland lost:



I have more thoughts about this game, but I wanted to get my quick reaction/mini breakdown to you as soon as possible, so here goes. (Check back later in the week for more GIFs and Horns > OU chatter.)


UT 10 - OU 7
True Freshman safety playing on the line. Crucial 3rd down stop early in the game to force a field goal and not let OU take the lead. I want to write another piece on him alone for this game (stay-tuned!), but what versatility by a true freshman safety. You'll see later how he makes a great play on a deep pass, but here he's lined up over their left tackle and easily beats the tackle off the ball to get a tackle for loss on 3rd and short. 



UT 10 - OU 10
Sam stepping up in the pocket. His stats were gaudy, and his play magnificent throughout - these are the kinds of games that propel a young QB from 'playing good enough' to 'Heisman watch'. To the naked eye, this looks like any other 13 yard completion over the middle, but watch closely as he works through his progressions (his left to center), feels the pressure and steps ups, gathers himself and throws a strike. Textbook QB play.



UT 10 - OU 10 (same drive)
Aggressiveness on 3rd and long. Love it. First, let's think about the play call. So many times in this situation you see teams run a screen or drop hoping they get lucky. I think Herman (who supposedly called the plays in this game) took into consideration where the Horns were on the field and his confidence in getting big chunks on OU's ex-Bob Stoops' defense. This was crucial to setting up the 4th and short that we converted. This goes in the box score as 0/1 on third down, but this play is a huge success.

Furthermore, what a catch by Beck. I still hate how heavy 47 looks on him, but I didn't think he had this type of catch in him. Catches like this will give him a shot in the league (I mean, the Cowboys are starting Geoff Swaim, so...). Very nice all around.



UT 17 - OU 10
CJ going beast mode. These CBs couldn't do a thing against CJ and LJH. Look how much space the CB is giving CJ, just to come up and look like he's playing two-below touch football. Even the safety doesn't want to see 6'6" CJ coming at him with a full steam. Easy pitch and catch for 15.



UT 24 - OU 17
Now it's LJH's turn. On the play above to Beck, I talk about how screens and draws are the usual call to hope you can get a big chunk. Funny thing, they're actually kind of ready for it, but an initial missed tackle by 18 and LJH flipping the beast mode switch along the o-line helping him out is a thing of football beauty. He literally gets 11-12 yards after getting "stood up" at the 38 yard line.



UT 24 - OU 17
Every guy doing their job. It's 4th and 2, and Herman has no questions about going for it, because he's confident in his guy's preparedness and ability to dominate the line. Sam doesn't get touched until a yard past the line to gain. Quality pull and block by #72 Elijah Rodriguez to get just enough on #9 without holding. Beck also has a great block on this play.



UT 31 - OU 24
Great lane discipline by the 4 pass rushers. Chris Nelson and Gary Johnson make this play. Yes, Murray's likely tiny hands are likely what actually made the play, but these two guys corralled him and didn't give him a gap to run through. We obviously saw what Murray could do in the open field (quite impressive, won't lie), so forcing him into plays like this are a huge win, obviously.



UT 38 - OU 24
Davis says 'Sit down Hollywood'. Could this be more textbook by Davis? I don't think so. Quick play recognition, closes ground very quickly, and breaks down against a very explosive WR. I love how our big and lengthy corners dominate quick screens and are great open field tacklers. Side note, Davis has earned my CB 1 status on this team. I still like Boyd, but I think Davis has played better than him this year from coverage to run/screen support.

This play was crucial, because we ended up stopping them on the next play and forcing a punt. Yes they came back and tied it, but can you imagine what might have happened if they had more time during that crazy 21 point swing with all that momentum? Every stop mattered.



UT 45 - OU 24
A glimpse of BJ's big day. I want to dive deeper into how great a game he played, but look at this karate kid/UFC fighter-type move BJ pulls after getting his legs taken out by the RB. He doesn't skip a beat and gets Murray's leg wrapped up for the sack on 3rd down. Again, every stop mattered!



And then there were about 8-10 minutes of this...


I won't get into details, but apparently our o-line forgot how to block without holding, and the entire Defense thought the game was in the bag and/or forgot geometry AKA didn't know what taking a good angle meant.


UT 45 - OU 45
Trust your line and your big moxie-having QB. This QB run had already produced many yards and  TDs throughout the game. Nothing sexy about it. In fact, probably one of the least interesting plays to the less-than-casual football fan. But on this day, it was like butter. Watch Sam finish this run. Then watch it again. He then gains another 8-9 yards in a couple plays to set up Dicker the M F'n Kicker. Ball game.



Finally, you just gotta watch this 2 minute video by the @TexasFootball handle. Greatness.

---

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Game 5 (W) - Texas 19 @ K State 14

Published by David Macias

A quick synopsis of the emotional journey during the win at K State:
- We're about to blast these dudes by 30+, and I probably won't have to watch the 4th quarter if I don't want to.
- What. The. Fffff. We're going to blow this, and I hate everything.
- Well, you know it's still big to win on the road especially in Manhattan since we haven't done it in over a decade, and we have a four game winning streak woooo! OU next week, let's goooooooo!

If you think about it, that was exactly the opposite of the Maryland game. (Hating life, coming back and feeling relieved, blowing it at the end and giving up on football.)

It is what it is. I was quite annoyed we shot ourselves on the foot a few times to not score again after we put up 19 points pretty quickly. I also thought our play calling would've been much better with Beck out (though hope he gets well soon), but there was some suspect gimmicky stuff going on once we got in the redzone. 

Anyway, on to the game.

Keontay loves making the first guy miss (1/3). I hope he can get fully healthy and stays that way, because this guys is by far the most dynamic guy we have coming out of the backfield.



Sam. Cannot. Miss. This. Throw. What I'm not showing here is how Sam had a perfect pocket to throw from. What I am showing is just how f'n open Duvernay is and how Sam could have thrown the ball in a roughly 5-7 yard radius short and still had a TD. I guess he was trying to throw the perfect pass and over threw Duvernay. This will hurt us in bigger games and is partly what is keeping Sam from taking the next step as a QB in my opinion.



(Andrew) Beck single handedly kills this drive. Our option plays have not been that successful this year (not including the inside read option), but Beck get's an F- on this play. First, he completely whiffs on his block, and second, he pushes the corner in the back. Watson made a little something out of nothing with a 3 yards gain, but instead we lined up for 2nd and 20 on the next play - a net 13 yard penalty.



Omenihu was clearly defensive MVP. Here's the first of many great plays Omenihu made on Saturday. 2 sacks (including a safety) and 3 tackles-for-loss got me like... 😍



Here's one of Omenihu's tackle-for-loss plays. Not only does he beat the guard off the snap and get 4 yards deep, but it looks like he breaks Delton in half. Our entire defensive unit played well (minus the penalties), but Omenihu really shined. Great stuff, especially on 3rd down.



The good of D'Shawn Jamison. This great return for a TD set the tone early. He really only makes one guy miss, but when there's good blocking (kudos to the entire return team), that's all you gotta do and he executed. Can't say the same for his only touch on the offensive of the ball, which you're about to see.



The bad of D'Shawn Jamison. I don't doubt the coaches tell players on reverses and trick plays to take a minimal loss if "it's not there". Worst case scenario this is a 2-3 yard loss. Not great, but not a 15 yards loss. EXTREMELY frustrating play. I say it every week so why not here - no more sideways! As I mentioned even if Jamison doesn't make the idiotic turn back the other way, it's still likely a short loss. 



C. J. All Day. Later in the game when we get within the 10 yard line we try a dumb TE throwback and a tackle-over play (where C Anderson lines up at WR and Beck lines up at tackle, and he's eligible so ideally you catch their D off guard). I can somewhat understand getting gimmicky if you're team really struggles in the redzone or doesn't have big playmakers on the outside, but we DO have Colin Johnson and he had already done this when we made this poor play calls later.

I just don't get it! So often I feel like we could keep our play calls pretty standard and just run with Keontay and throw the ball downfield without getting fancy or gimmicky. However, the coaching staff feels compelled to calling all the off-the-wall plays they practiced during the week. It's nice to have those plays in your back pocket, but if they're not needed (which they weren't) just lineup and run your bread-and-butter plays up and down on them all day.



Another Omenihu splash play. This was partly Omenihu playing hard, and partly Delton not throwing it right away. Delton was absolute garbage on Saturday, and K State would not have scored had he played the second half. I'm sure of it.



More of the same from Omenihu. 2 plays later Omenihu does it yet again. It's quite unfair to ask another guard to try and block Omenihu, and it really doesn't help their case when they're blocking for Delton, who probably should have just thrown it away as soon as he saw the play wasn't there.



Keontay loves making the first guy miss (2/3). The true fish has 2 minor injuries he's playing through, and somehow he made getting 7+ yards on almost every play look effortless. These types of plays don't make anyone's highlight reel, but the first down train is more likely to stay on the tracks when you keep getting 2nd and short.



Great individual effort by CJ. Not only does CJ bail out Sam by reaching back and catching the slightly inaccurate throw, but catching this ball 4 yards short of the first down line, and getting the first down on a 3rd down play was clutch. It led to 3 more points later in the drive. NFL teams are going to love seeing this on film after they see those jump balls he's bring down.



Note, I'm basically skipping through the extremely frustrating 3rd quarter and early 4th quarter where our team played not to lose. I'm glad we held on, but what a beat down of a second half #amirite?

Keontay loves making the first guy miss (3/3). Again, look how easily he sheds the first would-be tackler at the line of scrimmage while barely slowing down. That's a nice burst coming out of that broken tackle too. He made this 13 yards look quite easy. I'm not saying our other RBs couldn't have also turned this play into a first down, but there's something special about him that separates him from the rest of his backfield comrades.



The Jekyll and Hyde of Sam Ehlinger. On a crucial third down with the lead potentially on the line, Ehlinger's Hyde comes out (Hyde is the bad alter ego FYI) and he misses an pretty wide open CJ that would have resulted in a first down and who knows what more after that. There's no excuses here. Clean pocket, open throwing lane, and plenty of space between the 6'6" WR and his defender and the boundary. If he wants to a chance to play at the next level, he'll need to start hitting these throws more consistently.



Great call by Orlando and play by Hager. There were technically enough blockers for our pass rushers, but the nice stunt by Hager frees him up to almost reach the QB for a near game-sealing 3rd down stop. He completes the play by doing what he's taught, get your hands up if you don't make it to the QB in time, and he gets the crucial deflection.



The Jekyll of Sam Ehlinger. Another opportunity with the game potentially on the line and this time the accurate Sam presents itself. Clutch throw and catch to pretty much seal the deal. I might have to go back and watch some of the games, but it might be that Sam is more accurate on throws over the middle of the field than on the outside. Just a hunch I have. Note that I've shown CJ 1) Go up and get a jump ball, 2) reach behind him will running across the field, and 3) go down low for a catch. That's called versatility my friend.



If you made it this far, I first want to say thank you for reading!

Just like last week, I'm offering a promo, and one reader already took advantage of it. (Thanks @eljefe512 for following and retweeting the post!)

Promo - help spread the word of Just Another Longhorns Fan for the chance to win a $20 Fanatics e-gift card. (2 of 3 remaining now thanks to @eljefe512)
1. Follow me on Twitter @dmacUT (This promo will only be for new followers)
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