Longhorns Update: Lost And Found

Last weekend’s game against Missouri gave us both the lost – and the found – of Texas football. “Lost” was the offensive awakening and resurgence that progressively appeared over the past few weeks. It was now suddenly stranded on a desert island, lost at sea, away without leave, gone without a trace. “Found” in this case was the Longhorns defense. They were dominant again, a quality that has been lacking for some time.

When everything was said and done, the final result was a 17 – 5 Missouri win.

Did I read that correctly? It sounds more like a baseball score than anything else. Five points. One safety and one field goal. That is a pretty anemic offensive showing, when the defense scores almost as many points as the offense.

But I for one knew it was coming – it was just a matter of time.

On these pages, over the past couple of weeks, I have stated that if a team decides to stack up the Longhorns running game, then much will depend upon David Ash’s ability to successfully complete more than 5 or 6 passes as he’s done in weeks past.

Imagine this: it happened, and it’s name was Missouri.

I hadn’t expected the Longhorns to be without their top 3 running backs. I don’t think anyone did. Malcolm Brown was still nursing a turf toe – a condition which, for all intents and purposes, can be quite painful. Joe Bergeron strained his hamstring on the 29th of his 29 carries against Texas Tech. So why was he still in the game for 29 carries with a blowout taking place? With Bergeron and Brown out this week, the Horns were faced with a difficult game ahead, made infinitely more difficult when Fozzy Whittaker went down with a season-ending knee injury.

Missouri put 8 men in the box, daring the Longhorns to put the ball in the air because the run game would be non-existent. They played their cards, and their game plan succeeded. They took away the run (at least what was left of it at that point), and the Longhorns were in deep trouble.

It was a miserable, anemic offensive game. It brought back harsh memories of last season. Did it set the tone for the rest of the season? Are the bowl-eligible Longhorns on the verge of another late-season demise with Kansas State, Texas A&M, and Baylor still left to play? A 6 – 3 record could quite easily turn into 6 – 6, and that wouldn’t be much better than last year’s 5 – 7.

Photo credits: Ashley R. Good