Developing a killer instinct is a final hurdle for Texas to overcome

The Longhorns have learned how to finish, but they still haven’t proven they can put opponents away consistently.

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Longhorns want to take pride in being a soul-stealing operation with a killer instinct late in games.

In that regard, despite last year’s success and last Saturday’s win over the Michigan Wolverines in the Big House, the Longhorns are still a work in progress — head coach Steve Sarkisian expressed his frustration during his Monday press conference that his team was out-scored 9-7 in the second half against the Wolverines and didn’t put any points on the board in the fourth quarter, in part because the home team had a 13-play, 50-yard drive that took 7:14 off the clock with all but 39 seconds of it in the final 15 minutes.

“We need to go to another level with our killer instinct and we need to be more relentless in the fourth quarter of these types of games — the games in hand, and that’s okay that it’s in hand, but that doesn’t mean that that’s how it has to go and give up a touchdown and not get first downs,” Sarkisian said.

Michigan ultimately possessed the ball for 17:34 in the second half as Texas punted the ball three times before the three running plays took the final 1:53 off the clock.

“The game just kind of felt like we only played three quarters. I want to play 60 minutes. I want to make it 60 minutes of hell for our opponents and we have a roster that can do that,” Sarkisian said. “But that’s also a mentality that we’re striving for, that we’re working towards, and I think that we can get better at. And so that’s that’s definitely a point of emphasis of ours as well.”

It’s part of the “All Gas, No Brakes” ethos that Sarkisian preaches and it was evident in how the Longhorns head coach approached the second half with redshirt junior quarterback Quinn Ewers remaining in the game until the final whistle and junior starting running back Jaydon Blue receiving carries until late in the third quarter despite missing a large portion fo the first half with a right ankle injury. When Michigan finally scored its first and only touchdown of the contest, it was junior starting nickel back Jaylon Guilbeau who allowed the reception after senior starting Jack end Barryn Sorrell provided pressure on Wolverines quarterback Davis Warren.

The play calling by Sarkisian matched that aggressiveness — when the Longhorns started their second drive after halftime, Sarkisian called a post route to senior wide receiver Silas Bolden trying to hit a big play. Ewers made the right read on it in targeting the speedy Oregon State transfer, Sarkisian said, but the Texas quarterback just slightly overthrew his 5’8 receiver.

Another second-half missed opportunity mentioned by Sarkisian came midway through the fourth quarter after the defense ended the 13-play Michigan drive by forcing a turnover on downs. On a 1st and 10 play from midfield, Ewers delivered one of his most impressive passes of the game to sophomore wide receiver Johntay Cook, an off-platform delivery under pressure for a 23-yard gain negated by a holding penalty on junior tight end Amari Niblack on his only pass-blocking rep of the game.

“I was a little bit frustrated, kind of just in general there in the second half — I felt like we were aggressive still [but]… we just kind of weren’t hitting on the cylinders I would have liked and so for me, it’s like, ‘Gosh, how can I get us back quicker?’ And that was something I was looking for,” Sarkisian said.

For redshirt junior safety Michael Taaffe, it comes back to that whole soul-stealing thing.

“It’s just a matter of pride that you’ve got to have in yourself to where it’s like you want to take that opponent’s soul. You want them to really understand that when they go to bed at night, they remember Texas Longhorn defense. They remember how we came to play,” Taaffe said on Monday.

Michigan’s touchdown in the fourth quarter was Taaffe’s evidence supporting his contention that Texas wasn’t able to accomplish the soul-stealing feat in the Big House.

“We preach winning the fourth quarter and we didn’t win the fourth quarter, so at the end of the day, there’s how good of a game we played offensively, defensively, special teams, but there’s still a lot left to get better at,” Taaffe said.

The emphasis on developing a killer instinct is an outgrowth of the emphasis on finishing that began during Sarkisian’s first season on the Forty Acres. In the wake of the overtime loss to Texas Tech in Lubbock two years ago, Texas was off to a 7-9 start under Sarkisian as the Longhorns struggled to maintain second-half leads.

A month later, the Longhorns hadn’t solved those issues, blowing a 14-point first-half lead on the road against the Cowboys when Oklahoma State out-scored Texas 17-3 after halftime.

In 2023, Texas improved enough to win a number of games that were within one score in the fourth quarter, including Alabama, Houston, Kansas State, TCU, and Iowa State. Even the 31-10 win over Wyoming featured Texas heading into the fourth quarter with the scored tied 10-10 prior to a 21-point explosion by the Horns.

But the frustration for Sarkisian was that his team was still lacking the ability to put opponents away.

Against the Cougars, the Longhorns raced out to a 21-0 lead before giving up three straight touchdowns, eventually having to come up with an important stop just outside the red zone to force a field goal that tied the game at 24-24 and then needing a savvy play from hobbled nickel back Jahdae Barron on 4th and 1 at the Texas 10-yard line to kneel out the final 1:03 and preserve the 31-24 victory.

In the overtime win over Kansas State that Ewers missed due to the injury he sustained in Houston, Texas took a 27-7 lead on a field goal by Bert Auburn with 4:13 remaining in the third quarter before allowing 21 straight points in less than two and a half minutes of game time thanks to an interception thrown by quarterback Maalik Murphy in his second career start and the only fumble by running back Jonathon Brooks in his 266 career touches. To hold onto the 33-30 overtime win, the Longhorns had to stop the Wildcats on four plays from the 6-yard line or closer as Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman went for the win in the first overtime period.

So when Sarkisian talks about the need for a killer instinct, it’s because the Longhorns nearly had their magical 2023 season derailed by the inability to put opponents away after stumbling through the first two years of Sarkisian’s tenure thanks to an inability to finish.

Coming out of the Michigan game, the reality is that Texas projects as the betting favorite in every game with the likely exception of next month’s home contest against Georgia, currently the nation’s top-ranked team as the Horns harbor aspirations of playing for a national championship.

But at some point this season, Texas may have to repeat its late-game heroics from last season if the team can’t build and sustain comfortable leads in those critical moments in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter.

Taaffe, at least, takes comfort in the understanding that the Longhorns still have upside to tap into during the quest to peak at the right time.

“We’re not a finished product — our best ball is yet to come,” Taaffe said.

“We have so much more work to do so when it’s in January and we’re still playing, that’s when we’re going to touch our potential and are going to be playing our best ball. But right now, we’re still scratching the surface.”