Texas Recap and Tracking The Almost Big 6

By Nick Cantilo


Happy Labor Day, laborers! This being my first labor day since joining the workforce with my shiny new degree, I'm actually pretty pumped to be blogging on the morning of my day off with no threat of some looming assignment. Hope it's going well for all others.

Welcome to the first installment of my weekly post, where I'll be recapping the performance of the Longhorns, as well as looking at how my Almost Big 6 performed. 

Before I get started, I'd like to offer my thanks to Clemson. I'll try to thank any non-SEC team which beats an SEC team in a big game this season. It is a great service to the American people to prevent one more trashy, shameless "SEC!" chant from taking a small part of the American soul that has been so tirelessly built for the last 237 years.


Looking Back at the Longhorns

This was truly a game of two very different halves - almost exactly. There were twenty-eight excruciating minutes of the Longhorns playing themselves off the field. I don't want to take too much away from the New Mexico State Aggies' performance in the first twenty-eight minutes, but if there's an NMSU fan out there who legitimately believes their team deserves a halftime lead against Texas, then good luck to that person. David Ash looked completely 2010 David Ash in up to the point that NMSU took their 7-0 lead. 

Up to the first touchdown, David threw two interceptions, nearly fumbled the snap and blew a drive, and failed to take the reigns of the offense while they struggled. In the first five drives, Texas fumbled, turned over on downs, punted, and had two passes intercepted. Woof. Thank goodness for the defense, who spent a gargantuan length of time on the field last night and still played pretty gosh darn well. The defense from last year would have probably given up at least a few field goals, if not touchdowns. A few missed tackles by the usual suspects aside, the Texas defense kept the game in a place where David Ash could grab onto his huevos and dominate the game. After the touchdown by NMSU, the defense barely bent. They looked good against NMSU - not great - and should look to be really good after a few weeks.

This is exactly what happened. David Ash ended up leading the offense to set the UT record for total offense in a game. He did the lion's share of this work in 15:33 of possession. You read that correctly - Texas possessed the football for all of fifteen minutes and thirty-three seconds after the second interception. In that time, they scored 56 points on 582 yards of offense. They had big (26+ yds) scoring plays of 54, 66, 55, 74, and 38 yards. I could go on for days about who did what and how great it was, but it's important to keep the perspective that it was NMSU and that nobody wants to read this all day. Bottom line - the Texas offense is really, really good when they're on. I believe firmly that they could put yards and points on anyone if they're confident and in rhythm. 


The Almost Big 6
(In the order in which I originally released them)


Daje Johnson
Not to brag, but I was on the money. This young man is electric. He touched the ball nine times on offense (6 rushing, 3 receiving), and gained 129 yards for two touchdowns. One TD was a 66 yard catch and run. The other was a 24 yard rush. Once he's in space, he's gone. Plain and simple. 


James Sims
Did not play. Kansas off this week.


Trey Metoyer
I'm oddly hoping he cleans this up. He only had one catch. It was a 13 yard touchdown, though. I guess if you're going to catch the ball one time, you may as well get six points from it. I'm betting he gets better and that, if Trevor Knight turns into an above-average passer, he will get more looks. 


Casey Pachall
Casey didn't look all that great against LSU. He wasn't terrible or anything, but you probably can't outgun LSU with a 45.2 QBR. I don't think he was done any favors by the dual QB thing. Put your confidence in a quarterback, and he should play with confidence. Having Devonte Fields on other side to slow down LSU might have taken some pressure off of TCU's offense as well. I think Casey has plenty of time to recover and take the team back as his own. 


Cortez Johnson
Did not play. Suspended for this game for violating team rules. 


Cedric Reed
Cedric had a great game. The UT stats give Cedric 10 total tackels (4 solo, 6 ast), 1 sack, 1 TFL, and one QB hurry. The unrecorded stats are that he owned that poor offensive lineman. He and Jeffcoat look to be a really good team. I'm excited to see Reed's numbers increase throughout the year. 





In the name of the Bevo, Vince Young, and Coach Darrell Royal, 
Amen!

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