Texas looked outclassed for much of the game and came away with an embarrassing loss.
This was a chance for the No. 1 Texas Longhorns to show that they truly belonged in the upper echelon of both the SEC and college football at large. While they managed to make it respectable late, the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs looked quite a bit better than Texas in several facets of the game, especially in the trenches.
The offensive line can be bullied
It’s fitting that the game’s final play featured a Georgia defender harrying Ewers as he threw up a desperate pass toward the end zone. The Bulldogs sacked the quarterback seven times and came away with 10 tackles for loss, led by the efforts of Jalon Walker who abused both Kelvin Banks and Cameron Williams early and often, two players with a lot of early-round NFL Draft buzz heading into the contest.
Nine different players recorded a tackle for loss in the contest and UGA recorded eight tackles for loss and three strip sacks in the contest, eventually prompting quarterback changes from Texas. Not all of it is on the offensive line, with both quarterbacks struggling to process and get the ball out quickly.
Texas can’t survive slow offensive starts
A week ago, Texas started slow but got it going late to beat Oklahoma, but it’s clear the Oklahoma Sooners aren’t as talented as Oklahoma. Where last week was a slow-cooker win over a rival, Texas couldn’t catch up with the Bulldogs. Texas trailed by 23 points at halftime and managed just 38 yards in the first 30 minutes of play. Even with second-half heroics, there just wasn’t enough time to fully recover.
Texas did what you needed to in the third quarter to get back in the game, scoring 15 unanswered points to close the game to one score. But the first-half deficit meant that Georgia changed the entire game state with a few long drives, even if they didn’t result in points. Then, one long scoring drive was effectively a knockout blow, changing how the offense approached the game.
Complimentary offense is still a need
Going into the game, forcing Carson Beck to make bad reads and bad plays was a key to victory for Texas, but the quarterback’s struggles only seemed to highlight Texas’s. Georgia’s first three drives were a three-and-out and a pair of interceptions by Beck, gifting Texas good field position. Texas responded with a pair of punts and a fumble, giving that field position right back to Georgia, and letting them capitalize.
In the second half, Texas opened with a touchdown and a defensive stop, an opportunity to get the game back into a surmountable deficit. But, once again, Texas turned it over on downs in response and the offense stagnated. In the fourth quarter with the game on the line, the defense managed two stops, putting the ball back in the offense’s hand. resulted in a turnover on downs that took four minutes off of the clock and another that took one minute. Emblematic of this, Texas went without a third down conversion until the fourth quarter, a 3rd and 2 toss from Quinn Ewers to Ryan Wingo.