Crunch Time: Breaking down Texas’ third down and red-zone performance against Michigan

In a monumental victory over the Wolverines, did the Longhorns perform well in two critical eras? Let’s dive in.

In a dominant 31-12 win against the then-No. 10 Michigan Wolverines at the Big House in Ann Arbor on Saturday, the then-No. 3 Texas Longhorns raced out to a commanding lead before halftime.

In the second half, the Longhorns kept the Wolverines at bay to secure the victory. While the performance in Ann Arbor and what it means to the overall success of the program is clearly positive, the need to improve remains. In this week’s edition of Crunch Time, we’ll dive into how Texas performed on third downs and in the red zone, two key areas that required improvement from last season

Third downs

10-of-16 (62.5 percent)

Texas converted a whooping 8-for-10 (80.0 percent) of third downs in the first half on the way to a 24-3 lead. The offense set the tone on the first drive converting the first three third-down attempts as quarterback Quinn Ewers looked poised and decisive, completing passes of 33 and seven yards.

The 33-yard pass from Ewers to junior wide receiver Isaiah Bond on 3rd and 13 helped set the tone for the game even though the Longhorns weren’t able to score on the drive — Bond shows off his route-running ability on the stutter and go, along with his short-area quickness to create separation, and Ewers delivered an inch-perfect throw that both beat the safety helping over the top and ensured that Bond didn’t take a big hit on the play.

Ewers also scrambled for a first down on 3rd and 7 after exiting the pocket under pressure and hitting a Michigan linebacker with a Vince Young-like pump fake.

Where did that pump fake even come from?

“I don’t know,” Ewers admitted on Monday. “They don’t know what’s going on behind them, so I was just trying to get him to jump so I could go get that third-down conversion.”

The drive eventually ended with a missed field goal after a a 24-yard touchdown pass on 3rd and 11 from Ewers to sophomore wide receiver DeAndre Moore was called back due to a holding penalty thrown on junior right tackle Cam Williams, the third penalty on Williams that drive, including his second false start on 1st and 10 from the Michigan 23-yard line.

Let’s just say it was a bad call.

Regardless, the Longhorns also picked up several other important first downs during the first half, including a six-yard gain on a 3rd and 4 by sophomore running back Quintrevion Wisner to set up the second touchdown and a 20-yard completion by Ewers to junior wide receiver Matthew Golden to set up the field goal late in the first half.

Wisner’s run featured a nice cut upfield to take advantage of strong blocking on the slice zone play, but more confusing was the call by Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, who used two down linemen with his best defensive tackle, Mason Graham lined up outside Texas junior left tackle Kelvin Banks and two uncovered linemen to the play side of the slice zone run by the Longhorns.

In the second half, Texas didn’t execute quite as well, going 2-for-6 (33.3 percent). The Longhorns were stopped on multiple occasions when the distance was 10 yards or more, illustrating the need to avoid penalties and stay ahead of the chains on first and second down.

Through two games, Texas has converted third downs at a rate of 57.1 percent, which is tied for 10th nationally. Last season, the Longhorns finished 70th in the country with a rate of 38.4 percent.

Red zone

Four attempts, three touchdowns, one field goal

The red zone was a strength for the Longhorns in the Big House as Texas converted opportunities into points.

“I think we’ve minimized the self-inflicted wounds,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said on Monday, reflecting on an offseason area of emphasis.

On the first touchdown drive of the game, Texas relied upon freshman running back Jerrick Gibson heavily in the red zone — Gibson ran the ball three consecutive times from the Michigan 20 and eventually punched it in for the touchdown.

The eight-yard touchdown run was an example of how Sarkisian can take a simple gap scheme concept with senior center Jake Majors and senior left guard Hayden Conner pulling, option off a defender with the run-pass option, and dress it up with a wide receiver running return motion to hold the back-side defender as Texas puts hats on hats to the play side to set up an easy touchdown run for Gibson following his blockers.

If Gibson can continue to run the ball effectively, Texas will be poised for success given how he complements Wisner and Jayden Blue, who don’t have as much power in the lower body as the Florida product.

The other two drives showed Sarkisian’s play-calling prowess and the talent on the current roster.

On the first, an important drive to end the first half, Ewers made an NFL-caliber throw against his body to Golden on a crisp route that highlighted the ability of both players.

Sarkisian schemed up the play to Golden by putting two tight ends and a wide receiver bunched to the field, allowing Golden to operate with plenty of space in the boundary on an out-breaking route concept that negated the safety playing as an overhang player just outside the box, setting up a one-on-one matchup for the Texas wide receiver that he won against Aamir Hall with star cornerback Will Johnson aligned to the boundary.

On the final red-zone drive, the speed and fluidity of Blue was on full display as he used a hesitation move to race past three Michigan defenders and deliver the final knockout punch.

Blue’s touchdown reception came with Texas bunching three players to the field, setting them up to create natural rubs against the Michigan defenders as Blue went in motion before the snap.

It’s a concept that illustrates one of Sarkisian’s most foundational beliefs in keeping the ball to speedy players in space and forcing opponents to tackle them. Blue’s subtle hesitation move ensured that the Wolverines couldn’t get him to the ground short of the end zone.

If Texas can continue to find creative ways to get the ball into playmaker’s hands, the offense will be poised to improve from last season.

“Sometimes the execution is on us as coaches that maybe we have too much that they have to learn that they can’t know the finer details of those calls,” Sarkisian said. “And so we’ve tried to really kind of get our red-zone package pretty tight, get really good repetitions so that our guys can execute it at a high level and the result is, hey, we’ve got 10 touchdowns.”

The lone red-zone trip that didn’t result in a touchdown still ended with a field goal. However, the drive was in a strong position to punch the ball in for six as Texas was set up with a 1st and goal from the 6-yard line before a false start penalty on Williams pushed the Longhorns to the 11-yard line and made a conversion more difficult.

Compounding the false start were other self-inflicted wounds of the variety that Sarkisian is trying to eliminate.

“We run a counter play and we don’t block it properly,” Sarkisian said. “We run a power play, we felt like was really good, but we don’t go block the safety and the safety makes the tackle in the hole, and then third down is tough. When you have 3rd and goal from the 10, that’s a difficult scenario. But it goes back to the self-inflicted wounds. When we really evaluated last season, it was a.) penalties and b.) execution.”

For the season, Texas has scored all 11 red-zone possession, which is tied for first nationally, while ranking eighth in touchdown rate at 90.9 percent. Last year, the Longhorns finished 87th nationally with a red-zone conversion rate of 80.3 percent and 120th with a red-zone touchdown rate of 50.8 percent.