Pumping Sunshine: Measured takes on Texas’ loss to Oklahoma State
Texas had a remarkably bad performance on Saturday. The loss was a slow, painful death that many could have realized as the game progressed would end up a loss.
Quinn Ewers had a terrible game. While the popular thing to do is call him a bust and write him off, it’s more than possible to take in the entire body of work and put today in context.
Ewers didn’t forget how to throw a football today. He didn’t forget how to throw a football under pressure. He had a bad game.
Before the game, we mentioned that Ewers could struggle because of the weather conditions. I wrote the following:
Quinn Ewers may not be afforded deep shot attempts (because of the windy forecast). Wind could turn the matchup into a lower scoring game than expected.
Nobody predicted what happened on Saturday, and it was certainly worse than I could ever have imagined. Even so, I’m willing to consider the performance as one bad game and not what defines the young quarterback or this team.
Here are a few takeaways from the game.
We bit the cheese from the mousetrap
Osu Vs Texas Football
We got ahead of ourselves with Texas, particularly with Quinn Ewers. Ewers has been brilliant at times. On Saturday he was abysmal. That doesn’t mean that he and Texas cannot still finish strong. It just means they have more to prove moving forward.
Texas' season is not over
ougrades — print1
We shouldn’t have to even go there with Texas suffering only its second conference loss of the season. The Longhorns still have everything but the College Football Playoff pipe dream to play for moving forward.
The run game made strides in the first half
Bryan Terry-USA TODAY Sports
Texas can build off the strong performance it had in the running game early. Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson gashed the Oklahoma State defense with long touchdown runs early. If the passing game had any pulse, Texas might have ran for many more yards. Steve Sarkisian needs to build off that during the bye week.
No, it's not time to start Card or Murphy
Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports
Sarkisian probably should have given Hudson Card a chance in relief when it was clear it wasn’t Quinn’s day. Nevertheless, Texas has chosen its quarterback and until there is a three-game or more pattern of bad play it would be silly to permanently bench Ewers. We will see if his struggles continue when there aren’t 25 mile per hour winds.
Texas is only as good as that day's performance
Osu Vs Texas Football
Texas left the Texas Tech loss with something to prove. In the next two games, they played great football. They have since played not-so-great football. At some point, the program will need to learn to bring their best game every week.
Save program diagnoses until after the bye
Aem Texas Vs Iowa State 32
Lost in how poor a job Steve Sarkisian did against Oklahoma State is what a great job he did last week managing the Iowa State game. We called the West Virginia and Oklahoma games must-wins for Sarkisian in proving he was the coach of the future. He passed those tests. We’re back in that same position heading into the bye week. If Sarkisian doesn’t lose his team, he can create momentum for the program down the stretch.
