No. 2 Texas football was not able to enact revenge on Georgia as it had hoped, falling to the Bulldogs the second time this year in the first overtime in the Southeastern Conference Championship, 22-19. The Longhorns were defeated, ultimately, due to self-inflicted errors.
“This is a life of a competitor,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said after the loss. “Okay, you get into this arena, you compete at the highest level against quality opponents, there’s going to be sways and flows in a ball game that sometimes go your way, sometimes don’t. And I think the challenge in games like this is to maximize the opportunities when you get them … and we just couldn’t.”
Texas fell in the first round of overtime as they were unable to convert a touchdown and settled for a field goal, while Georgia made it into the endzone with a 4-yard rushing touchdown by junior running back Trevor Etienne.
However, Texas’ errors were seen throughout the entire game.
In October, when the Bulldogs and the Longhorns first crossed paths, Texas finished with a mere 29 rushing yards. This time, the Longhorns finished with 31 rushing yards.
While Texas succeeded in the receiving game behind junior quarterback Quinn Ewers, throwing an impressive 358 passing yards going 27 of 46, there were also many dropped passes that should have been easy completions.
The duo of Ewers and junior wide receiver Matthew Golden was a dominant pairing throughout the matchup, with Golden holding 162 yards in eight completions. Sophomore wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. finished behind Golden with 114 yards and one crucial touchdown that helped tie the game at 13 in the fourth quarter.
Despite the presence of the passing game, the Longhorns weren’t able to convert more than that single touchdown and only landed in the red zone twice the entire game.
“I feel like we had a good plan going in for sure,” Ewers said. “And we just didn’t capitalize at the end of the day. I think it was all on us.”
Then, after a nine minute drive by the Bulldogs and a good field goal attempt, Texas found itself down again, 16-13 and followed by an unsuccessful drive following, hope looked bleak for Texas.
Cue senior defensive back Jahdae Barron.
Barron clenched an interception off of Bulldog backup redshirt sophomore quarterback Gunnar Stockton with 2:30 left on the clock. After that, Texas, while not managing to convert a touchdown again, tied the game back up with a crucial kick from senior Bert Auburn, 16-16, with seconds left, launching them into overtime.
Texas fought against themselves, accumulating numerous penalties that added up to be a major infliction. Texas had six offensive penalties for a loss of 50 yards and five defensive penalties for 44 yards.
As for the Texas defense, it continued to be a powerhouse, limiting Georgia to 136 pass yards and finishing the first half holding the Bulldogs to negative two rushing yards. In the second half, some confusion sparked when Stockton took over for redshirt senior quarterback Carson Beck, creating a new type of offensive momentum for the Bulldogs.
Barron stated after the game, that while he thought the defense had a good first half, they needed to be better at tackling in the second half and that’s something they will continue to work on.
“We are still in and we still have the opportunity to make things right,” Barron said. “And it can’t just be board meetings for the next two weeks. You got to get back to work. We’ll fix what we need to fix.”
While this loss may sting for Texas fans, the Longhorns will be back in action for the first round of the College Football Playoffs, and for Sarkisian, that’s all he is thinking about.
“We’re going to compete for a national championship, that’s where my mind is at,” Sarkisian said.
