The Longhorns’ offense struggled to move the ball for too long and couldn’t come up with enough to advance.
The No. 5 Texas Longhorns had chances to draw the game even late, but once again red zone miscues and selftexas-vs-no-8-ohio-state-three-keys/” title=”No. 5 Texas vs. No. 8 Ohio State: Three keys”>-inflicted wounds sent them to a loss to the No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes. Now, all the Longhorns can do is reflect on a season that was and hope they can reload for a 2025 run.
Red zone playcalling and execution will continue to cost Texas
After Ohio State put up a go-ahead touchdown drive with seven minutes left on the clock, Texas put together its own long drive that was shaping up to tie the game but once again ran into the boogieman that is red zone scoring under Steve Sarkisian. After getting stonewalled on first down, Sark dialed up a toss play that lost Texas seven yards, setting up two obvious passing downs.
Jack Sawyer tipped The third-down pass at the line and then stripped Quinn Ewers on the next play and returned it 83 yards for a score. Whether it was Oklahoma a year ago or the many other times Texas couldn’t score from inside the crucial red zone and it turned out to be the difference in the game.
The defense had to carry the team for too long
Heading into the game, many didn’t give Texas much chance to slow down the Ohio State offense, and after a relatively easy scripted drive for Ohio State to start the game that resulted in a touchdown, the defense put the clamps on. Texas forced punts on four consecutive drives in the first half, including back-to-back three-and-outs, that Texas was unable to answer with anything productive until 29 seconds remained in the first half.
The defense once again forced turnovers and punts in the second half, but couldn’t put together one last stop in the fourth quarter when Ohio State scored a go-ahead touchdown with seven minutes remaining in the game. The offense, in obvious passing situation on the next drive, Ewers threw up a late prayer and Ohio State came away with the win.
Texas finally didn’t lay down in the third quarter
After Ohio State scored on a 75-yard screen to head into halftime, set up to try and go up two scores it could have been easy for the Longhorns’ usual third-quarter slump to put them into panic mode. Instead, the defense grabbed an interception and forced back-to-back punts, keeping the Buckeyes out of the end zone for the entirety of the quarter.
The offense, which struggled with complimentary football throughout the season rewarded their efforts with a 12-play, 67-yard drive to tie the game at 14 late in the third quarter. While it didn’t turn out to be enough for the Longhorns to overcome the Buckeyes in the end, the third-quarter response from the Longhorns finally came at the end.
