Texas offense finally met its match in the Georgia defense.
In their first loss of the 2024 season, the Longhorns were sacked seven times and gave up 10 tackles for loss for a combined 122 yards and eight quarterback hurries. Each of these set a new record for the most seen in a single game this year.
Mistakes from the Texas offensive line have been unheard of thus far, as the line gave up more sacks against the Bulldogs than it had across the last six matchups.
During Monday’s media availability, head coach Steve Sarkisian described specific scenes from Saturday where lack of communication was at fault. One of the more notable plays came when Ewers was sacked during the first quarter and initiated a forced fumble that Georgia recovered, leading to a score on the next drive.
“You know, the first sack, the sack fumble on the corner blitz was a communication error at the line of scrimmage,” Sarkisian said. “Quinn thought he was protected on the backside. Clearly he wasn’t.”
Veteran players up front such as junior offensive linemen Kelvin Banks Jr. and Cameron Williams faced their share of challenges against a relentless Georgia defense, proving that a multitude of players struggled to gain a rhythm.
“Our running back gets run over through the gap, and we all want Quinn to step up, put the running backs on his back,” Sarkisian said. “He can’t step up, and then Kelvin (Banks Jr.) ends up giving up some pressure. We have another one where Cam (Williams) loses his fundamental technique and gets wiped, and we give up a sack there. So it was a variety of things.”
Fifth-year senior offensive lineman Jake Majors underlined the fact that there wasn’t enough effort to protect Ewers and minimize the number of avoidable mistakes, something he felt responsible for.
“I felt like, personally, I could have done better communicating to the offensive line, and I owned up to that,” Majors said. “(It was) a lot of non-verbal communication with the running backs and quarterback. It’s really just a lot of small stuff that we really messed up on. When adversity strikes, we gotta make sure we’re doing the little things right.”
Although the offensive line may not have executed its individual roles to the fullest extent, and despite what the statistics suggest, Banks said the rest of the offense reminded Ewers that they’re always working to put him in the best position to succeed.
“We let him know, ‘Hey we’re here for you. Don’t let this affect you in any way,’” Banks said. “We just made sure we stayed by each other.”
Sarkisian said the misinterpretations from the offensive line were a reflection of the inconsistency seen from the entire offense throughout the night, which will be a major focus point heading into the upcoming matchup against No. 25 Vanderbilt.
“We’ve got to find a level of consistency,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got to find a level of balance, and then we need to play as a cohesive unit on the offensive side of the ball, and that starts up front for us.”
