No. 5 Texas 27, No. 25 Vanderbilt 24: Five observations and Sunday chat

The Longhorns escape Nashville with another Top-25 win.

All wins are good wins when you are trying to get into the playoff field with the expanded 12-team field changing the dynamics even more. I am sure many people will be on the ledge about the 27-24 win by the No. 5 Texas Longhorns over the No. 25 Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville on Saturday coming down to an onside kick, but I won’t be one of them. That is a much-improved Vanderbilt team under Clark Lea and they are definitely on the upswing as a program.

Texas missed opportunities to really pull away at different points in the ballgame, but all that ultimately matters is that you walked out of there with a win and you get into the bye week right on time, so that you can get healthy and ready for when Florida rolls into town in a couple weeks.

The Longhorns the only top-five team that played a tight one today. No. 4 Ohio State squeaked by Nebraska up in Columbus early in the day and it took a late interception off the arm of Dylan Raiola, the true freshman signal caller Huskers to put the game away. Sometimes games are won in ugly ways, but all that matters is that you get the win and stay in the hunt.

Under head coach Steve Sarkisian, Texas remains in the hunt heading into the bye and into the back half of their schedule. Survive and advance is the name of the game from here on out.

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Penalties and miscues made this game tight

This was easily the most frustrating aspect of the game for Texas on Saturday — 10 penalties for 107 yards to Vanderbilt’s four penalties for 35 yards is how you end up getting in dogfights and allow games to stay close. The Longhorns were able to move the ball offensively up and down the field against Vanderbilt’s defense with 392 total yards, but multiple times they shot themselves in the foot with untimely penalties that wiped big plays off the board and put them behind the sticks.

While the offense had their fair share of untimely penalties, one of the bigger ones came at the expense of the defense. On Vanderbilt’s final drive of the game, Texas defensive tackle Vernon Broughton was penalized for targeting on a hit against quarterback Diego Pavia, negating a 72-yard interception return by Longhorns cornerback Kobe Black.

That penalty led to Broughton’s ejection from the game, thereby making him ineligible for the first half of the Florida game. On top of the ejection, extending the drive allowed the Commodores to put together their longest scoring drive of the game and put them in position to tee up an onside kick.

The penalties and miscues have been far too consistent for Texas from week to week and at some point it could endanger the College Football Playoff hopes for the Horns.

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Quinn Ewers was better this week

Yes, I know someone is going to bring up the interceptions in the comments, but hear me out for just a second — 27-of-37 passing for 288 yards and three touchdowns is a much better performance than what you have seen from Ewers over the past two games.

The first tipped pass that led to a turnover was the result of a pressure allowed by center Jake Majors along the interior, while the other came on a free runner which looked to be by design (I think the tight end released into the flat after showing a initial block). You would like for Ewers to anticipate the defender putting his hands up on the second one, but I am not putting blame at his feet for the first one since that pressure falls on the offensive line.

At one point Ewers had 17 straight completions and he achieved it by spreading it around to eight different receivers over the course of the ball game. He is having moments where he seems indecisive and isn’t letting go of the ball, which led to some issues at different points in the ballgame, but I am not as down on Ewers as most probably will be after this performance.

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The Texas defense played winning football

The defense deserves a game ball for how they defended a offense that can really be a headache for which to prepare. Everyone knows Pavia’s story by now and everyone has seen how well he operates the triple option-style offense that Vanderbilt deploys.

You have to be disciplined, play with good eyes, you have to secure the edges, take good angles, and tackle well in space. Texas did that when tasked with it for most of the night. Once again, the defense was dealt double decker poo poo sandwiches in the form of short fields of of turnovers. Vanderbilt was successful on converting them into points. Outside of that, the Texas defense made Pavia and his offense earn everything and did a great job of getting of the field on money downs and limiting big plays.

On top of that, the Longhorns defense picked off Pavia twice (would have been three if not for the penalty) and also recovered a fumble. Pavia entered the matchup with only one interception on his ledger and has been very good about protecting the football — according to Pro Football Focus, the interception thrown by Pavia this year was his only turnover-worthy play.

Texas safety Michael Taaffe has been a key cog on the back end of the Longhorns defense all year long and he had a hand in two of the three forced turnovers forced.

Taaffe came up big in a game where Andrew Mukuba was ruled after already being down Derek Williams, out with a season-ending knee injury. The former walk on has been a heck of a find for the Horns and current Director of Player Personnel John Michael Jones.

Vanderbilt was known to do two things extremely well entering this matchup — they keep the ball away from the opposing offense by dominating time of possession and being very good on money downs. Texas won the time of possession battle (31:09 to 28:51) and held Vanderbilt’s offense to 4-of-14 conversions on money downs. That’s a winning proposition when you are playing a team with that kind of identity.

By the way, I noticed true freshman Kobe Black getting some run at corner throughout the game on Saturday. Every time he popped up on my screen he made a play. He had the pick six that was called back and had a good PBU on a third down. If he is beginning to come on, that only bolsters the depth of the secondary even more for Texas.

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DeAndre Moore Jr. steps up big in Isaiah Bond’s absence

With Texas down their WR1 heading into this matchup, it was crucial for the offense that someone in that receiver core step up in Nashville. I thought it might be true freshman Ryan Wingo, who got the start with Bond out, but instead it was Deandre Moore who turned in his best game of the year against the Commodores.

Moore had six catches for 97 yards and had not one, but two touchdowns to pace the Texas passing game.

After Saturday’s performance, Moore now leads the team with five touchdown receptions on the year and starting to show you have to account for him along with the other weapons at Ewers’ disposal. This was a big game for him and it was a performance certainly worthy of a game ball.

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Texas still had some pass protection issues

On one hand the protection by the offensive line wasn’t nearly as bad as it was last week. On the other hand, they had more troubling moments in this game against Vanderbilt’s defense, which is at the bottom of the SEC in sacks and entered the matchup ranked 78th in tackles for a loss. The Commodores defense were credited with NINE tackles for a loss and wrangled Ewers for four sacks on Saturday.

The most troubling moment for me came when Texas was in a slide protection and there was either a miscommunication or a flat-out bust by Hayden Conner that led to a free runner right up the middle for an easy sack. Obviously, there is some context that needs to be applied since I am not in the film room, but vacating the gap and letting a defender run free right up the gut is never the call in that situation.

Later on, Cameron Williams was beat soundly inside for a sack that further derailed a drive that Texas had good momentum on. This was a one-on-one, big-on-big matchup on the edge and Williams flat out got beat.

Between the untimely penalties and the protection busts, the offensive line is going to need to get some things straightened out over the bye week. They still have some quality defensive units left on the schedule and you can guarantee each of them will be eye balling the tape from the past couple weeks.

Opponents have found something.

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You make it to the second bye week of the season with a record of 7-1. You get time to heel the bumps and bruises and get guys like Mukuba and Bond back for Florida. Get healthy and ready for yet another freshman quarterback, but this one has a lot of physical tools even if he is trying to still figure things out.

Per the usual, the 24-hour rule is in effect. Don’t let me catch you moping around and being irritable around these parts over this one. This team is still firmly in the playoff picture and can still achieve all of the goals they set out to achieve. It’s on to the Gators.