No. 1 Texas 35, Mississippi State 13: Five observations and Sunday chat

the Longhorns remain undefeated after Saturday’s double-digit win over the Bulldogs.

It wasn’t the sexiest win, but you will take a 20-point win all day long to open up conference play. The No. 1 Texas Longhorns came into Saturday’s matchup at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium favored by almost 40 points against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, who have struggled mightily in year one under new head coach Jeff Lebby.

It was a slow start for the Longhorns, but things picked up in the second half, as they were able to keep the Bulldogs at bay all afternoon despite Lebby’s best attempts to try to keep the ball away from the Texas offense.

After five straight wins to open the season, the Longhorns will roll into a bye week and try to get healthy before heading up the road to Dallas for their annual tilt with Oklahoma. There will be plenty of correcting happening over the bye week by head coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff with how the game played out today and that is probably the best-case scenario to keep the team sharp heading into a pivotal two-week stretch.

Lets hop into the observations from Texas’ first ever SEC conference win over the Bulldogs.

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Arch Manning was fantastic in his second start

That’ll work.

Manning followed up solid performance from last week with an absolute nuke of a performance against Mississippi State on Saturday. Another full week of prep did the young quarterback a world of good, as he absolutely carved up the Bulldogs with a very efficient outing.

This was the play of the day for me by Manning — It’s 3rd and 9 and State is bringing more than you can block at an important moment in the game with Texas leading 7-6 late in the first half. Manning knows he is going to take a hit and still hangs in the pocket and delivers an absolute dime to Deandre Moore in stride for a touchdown. That’s a big boy play in a big moment with the game still tight and the offense trying to work things out.

If the throw wasn’t enough, Arch put his wheels on display once again for everyone to appreciate.

Texas has the best QB2 in country and are in fantastic shape for when Manning will be in saddle in 2025.

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Penalties and miscues plagued Texas on Saturday

Oh me, oh my, where did I even begin with this section?

This was easily the sloppiest game thus far this season when it comes to instances of this team shooting itself in the foot and making things harder than they needed to be. False starts, holding calls that wiped away big plays, bad ball security, missed tackles, and bad run fits. Those are things that will get you beat by more quality opponents down the road and it will be something the coaching staff will for sure be highlighting over the bye week.

Eight penalties for 65 yards for the day and while they didn’t cost Texas the game, they were responsible for hindering the offensive operation at times and leading to drives stalling out. If Texas cleans that stuff up they probably score 45-plus points again on Saturday.

Jaydon Blue… Bro, brother, broham… This was supposed to be a showcase year for you. Putting the ball on the deck twice and giving the opposition short fields is not how you reward your coaches in your expanded role. You could tell how the coaches felt about the case of fumbleitis, because we immediately saw increased usage by Quintrevion Wisner and Jerrick Gibson. Speaking of Wisner, that kid runs with some anger and I like it.

I wouldn’t want to be some of these guys in film session tomorrow. There is going to be several feet being applied to asses collectively on Sunday afternoon.

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Colin Simmons might be him

Texas might have them one in Colin Simmons. We had already seen the flashes leading into this matchup, but he was an absolute menace on Saturday. No. 11 was flying around the yard all afternoon and he absolutely stuffed the stat sheet for the Longhorns with seven total tackles, three TFLs, two sacks, and a forced fumble for the true freshman from Duncanville.

The Metroplex has produced some monsters off the edge over the years — guys like Myles Garrett and Von Miller immediately come to mind. Simmons might be in the same mold as his predecessors by flashing game-wrecking ability five games in and he is only going to keep getting better.

Speaking of Miller and Garrett, Miller had two sacks and four TFLs as a true freshman at Texas A&M, while Garrett went super nova with 14 TFLs and 11.5 sacks. Simmons is already ahead of Miller’s pace and now he will look to track down Garrett.

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The defense piled up sacks and negative plays

It wasn’t the most sound game by PK’s defensive unit, but one thing that can’t be debated is the amount of times the Texas defense created havoc in the offensive back field.

My guy Vernon Broughton had some big shoes to fill this year and he has responded accordingly. His hat trick (strip, sack, and recovery) of Michael Van Buren was one of the plays of the game and it returned momentum back to Texas after the fumble by Blue just before.

The Texas defense notched six sacks and 11 TFLs on the afternoon and that was despite Lebby trying to play keep away with the football and running ball 50 (!!!) times during regulation.

The Texas defense needs to tighten some things up over the bye week when it comes to run fits, but they definitely made life hard all afternoon for whoever the Bulldogs put under center.

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For better or for worse Sark is always aggressive

One thing you can never accuse Sark of is lacking aggression. That was never more clear than when he opted to take points OFF the board on Saturday and try to convert a fourth down.

I am all for being aggressive pushing the envelope at times, but this particular instance seemed a tad too aggressive for my liking considering you already had points on the board and the offense had been a little inconsistent.

On top of being very aggressive in that moment, I wasn’t in love with the particular play call/read that was made by the quarterback. If you are going to go for it in that moment, I would have liked to see something a little more high percentage dialed up there.

This could be a quibble for some, but this was something I noted in game that stuck with me until now.

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5-0 on the year and 1-0 in SEC play. Time to get those bumps and bruises healed up, because the Sooners are looming on the horizon.

With the bye week on deck you get a little longer to enjoy this SEC opener. After that pack your lunch and your hard hat, because it is Red River time.