Bohls: Up and down Texas has been here, done that — too many times
Kirk BohlsAustin American-Statesman
Hear this story
View Comments
AD
0:00
SKIP
LUBBOCK — The view remains the same.
Texas Tech showed No. 22 Texas the identical view it’s had pretty much since it last won a conference championship 13 years ago and gave the hurting Longhorns another awful case of deja vu.
Yeah, they couldn’t finish all over again.
Feels more like deja voodoo as if there’s some haunting spell cast on a team that won a national championship and almost a second in the first decade of the 2000s and is now trying to pull itself out of the doldrums of four losing seasons in the last eight years. Of course, the latest curse happened Saturday at frenetic Jones AT&T Stadium where Michael Crabtree once snatched a potential title from Texas in the closing seconds more than a decade ago.
This Texas team probably had no such grand illusions even if it had showed signs of turning the corner with two wins in its first three games, putting in a command performance in a near upset of Alabama and leading Texas Tech by two touchdowns late in the third quarter.
In the end, it was more of the same. And no way to start a Big 12 opener.
Like that that miracle catch in 2008 by Crabtree, who was going to be honored for his College Football Hall of Fame induction Saturday but for a scheduling conflict, this game, too, was lost in the closing seconds. Actually, later than the closing seconds because Texas seemed to pull off a miracle of its own when, with 21 seconds to play after a go-ahead Tech field goal, quarterback Hudson Card directed the offense downfield to get in position for a game-tying, 48-yard field goal by Bert Auburn on the final play of regulation.
Whys of Texas: Yeah, the Horns spent $280,000 on Arch Manning’s visit. And? So?
Disaster replaced euphoria in quick order on the sidelines when Bijan Robinson, Texas’ most reliable player, lost a fumble on the first play of overtime. That energized the Red Raiders, and five plays later, Texas Tech’s Trey Wolff banged home a 20-yard field goal for his second clutch make in a span of six plays to pull off a 37-34 victory over the deflated Longhorns.
SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE
Hispanic Living
Lin-Manuel Miranda graces the cover of USA TODAY’s Hispanic Living magazine featuring cultural news, entertainment, and lifestyle trends.Read Now in the eNewspaper
“We just didn’t play good enough,” second-year Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “It’s frustrating because I know we’re better than we played today.”
They were for a half, but collapsed in the second half in a sea of offensive malfeasance and defensive letdowns. Texas went from all gas and no brakes to just flat-out gassed, its defense marooned on the field for 100 total plays.
Golden: Texas is showing that now, double-digit deficits don't equal doom
For Texas, this is getting to be like a broken record, except that failing to close out a potential, program-altering, momentous victory over then-No. 1 Alabama feels much differently than falling at the very bitter end to an unranked 2-1 Red Raiders team fueled by an energetic crowd.
Now we’ll have to see if this team is broken or not.
Starting quarterback Quinn Ewers may be a week closer to healing his sprained clavicle although Card played well under constant duress, thanks to an offensive line that got schooled. In addition, star wide receiver Xavier Worthy limped off the field with a lower leg injury — X-rays were negative — and leaves his immediate availability in question for next weekend’s home game with West Virginia.
Texas' sins were many. It didn’t pass-block well. Texas couldn’t open running lanes, rushing for just 149 yards, 62 of which came on Robinson's impressive, 40-yard touchdown run and a nifty 22-yard scramble by Card. Texas barely breathed hard on Tech quarterback Donovan Smith, sacking him only twice in 58 pass plays although on one he simply was run out of bounds.
"I don't think it's deflating," Robinson said. "I think it's a learning experience."
Haven't the Longhorns learned enough by now?
More:While quarterbacks get the attention, Texas’ young offensive line quietly strengthens
Then there’s the team’s possibly fragile psyche, given that Sarkisian’s teams have gone 1-6 away from Royal-Memorial Stadium in his year-plus. His teams have blown double-digit leads four times in 16 games. Some of the same old doubts could well surface if Texas isn’t careful, even though it has at times looked far superior to last year’s 5-7 team which lost six straight games.
“Life isn’t over,” Texas slot receiver Jordan Whittington said. “A loss is a loss to me. They just made the plays when they needed to.”
And Texas did anything but.
Once the Red Raiders went to a hurry-up offense in the third quarter, Texas was helpless to slow them down. The Longhorns just could not get off the field in the second half.
“I don’t think we have a big deal about finishing,” nose tackle Keondre Coburn said. “Now today it was a big deal and we’ve got to do a better job of finishing.”
Wolff’s field goal set off a seismic reaction from the sellout crowd of 60,975, and seemingly every student enrolled at Tech swarmed the field, threw their Horns down, acted like they were Dancing with the Stars and wildly celebrated a signature win by first-year head coach Joey McGuire.
So now it’s Texas feeling a bit broken with a 2-2 record after dropping its first road game of the year and echoing back to Sarkisian’s first season when the Longhorns turned in a 5-7 report card. They'll undoubtedly tumble out of the Top 25 and have squandered much of the good will they'd built up.
Texas may be as happy to leave Lubbock in its rear-view mirror as it so desperately wants to leave its long journey of mediocrity behind. Tech, on the other hand, played with an energy and a fury that Texas lacked.
“There’s a reason they don’t want to (keep playing), and it happened today,” McGuire said. “But we should. It should be in every sport. Let’s talk about revenue. They have a much better chance of selling out their basketball arena whenever they play Texas Tech in Austin. They have a better chance of doing that whenever they’re playing here or we’re playing there in football or we’re playing there in baseball. The reasoning behind it, you can see the reasoning behind it and it’s not on our side. We want to play that game.”
McGuire may not get an amen from the Texas folks.
Leaving Lubbock may be easier than the latter because an unranked 2-1 Red Raiders team pinned a soul-stealing defeat on the visiting Longhorns with a dominant second half.
This time, Texas played one good half.
Texas stuck around for the second, but was thoroughly outplayed by an aggressive, up-tempo Red Raiders offense that had 100 plays Saturday to Texas’ 60.
“Yeah,” Texas safety Anthony Cook said, “it felt like it.”
Texas Tech made the most of its hundred snaps, particularly in the second half and overtime when it scored two touchdowns and three field goals in seven possessions and was denied at the 2-yard by a strong Texas goal-line stand on one of the other two series.
Texas, meanwhile, barely registered a touchdown and a field goal in its seven drives after halftime and then lost a fumble from its best player to add salt to what seems like a gaping wound.
Maybe this is only a momentary setback, even though it was a complete collapse on both sides of the ball in the second half, Robinson’s big 40-yard touchdown run and the heroics by Card and Auburn at the end of regulation notwithstanding.
Texas has been here before, aching to return to glory, but it keeps stubbing its toe in its desperate search to regain national — or even conference — prominence.
As for Lubbock, who knows if Texas will ever be here again.
Just don’t tell the Red Raiders this isn’t a rivalry. Don’t tell the thousands of passionate, red-clad students who stormed the field like a tidal wave and taunted the Texas football team that this doesn’t mean much. And if this was indeed the Longhorns’ final trip to Jones AT&T Stadium ever, well, Tech gave ‘em one helluva parting gift.
