The Reheat: Mississippi State
Texas beat the Bulldogs 35-13 in their first SEC game. It's now fair to ask if the Longhorns will EVER lose a game in this cupcake conference?
Welcome to The Reheat, a weekly recap of the previous day’s game, just popped out of the microwave. Look for it every Sunday, rain or shine.
The Longhorns are 1-0 in the SEC, but some fans are still upset, as if anything short of a 77-0 blowout each week is unacceptable. I read a hilarious post on my go to message board yesterday where someone wrote, “I thought the program was past these types of games.” The grumbler might’ve been a troll, but I think it was a genuine lamentation, because I’ll admit, that fan lives inside of me too. I just keep him locked up and buried deep down since I’ve started writing about the Longhorns. Sure, Texas made some self-inflicted mistakes against Mississippi State, giving a bad team hope when we should have been crushing their dreams with a sledgehammer. But if we’re surprised, that’s on us, because this isn’t the first time a Longhorn team with high expectations has stumbled around against a lesser opponent.
I think there’s a tendency for Longhorn fans to romanticize the good ol’ days that came before the good ol’ days we are currently living in. What I mean is that we quickly forget the teams we now view as legendary were also capable of sleepwalking or playing with their food. In 2005, Texas needed a big comeback in Stillwater and had to shake off cobwebs in College Station before rolling to victories. In 2009, Texas messed around with Taylor Potts and Texas Tech before Sergio Kindle put a stop to any upset notions. In the marquee rivalry games that year, Texas struggled against a Sooner team without Sam Bradford and needed to pull away late against a bad A&M squad.
But now, those teams are looked at as if they were infallible. They weren’t. When those teams had bad games full of turnovers, miscues, and penalties, they went back to the drawing board and got better. Which is exactly what Steve Sarkisian and Texas get to do now headed into the much-needed Bye Week. The Longhorns have two weeks off and fans have two hate weeks leading up to Oklahoma— for the team, it’s two weeks to get healthy and get focused. Quinn Ewers will need to get back to 100%, the defense will need to address run fits, and the offense has to figure out the penalty plague. Oh, and Jaydon Blue will need to regain the coaches’ trust. None of it will get fixed overnight. But the good news is that one day, if this season and team turn out to be legendary, nobody will remember.
Fire The Cannon for: Arch Manning and DeAndre Moore. When the rest of the day looked sloppy, their connections were beautiful, as were their touchdown dances.
Horns Up on Offense for: Kelvin Banks. The stalwart of the O-line and a future perennial NFL All-Pro, the protector of the quarterback’s blindside has allowed one pressure all season and no sacks or hits on Quinn Ewers or Arch.
Horns Up on Defense for: The pass rush. The Longhorns pulled away in the second half as the talent separated, led by pass rushers Vernon Broughton, Colin Simmons, and Colton Vasek.
Bevo’s Bucket for: Two Jaydon Blue fumbles, a dropped touchdown by Johntay Cook, and a litany of penalties—holds and pre-snap flags galore. It was an absolute slopfest, yet the Longhorns still won by three scores. I get why Sark took points off the board in the third quarter; the team was sleepwalking, and he didn’t want to settle. If we’ve learned anything about Sark over the years, it’s that he never lowers the bar. Even in a 35-13 win to go 1-0 in the SEC, Texas didn’t meet the standard they’ve set for themselves this season and Sark was demanding more. But hey, if Blue doesn’t fumble when Texas was marching down the field on the second drive of the game and Cook makes the catch on a dime from Arch, it’s 21-3 and Jeff Lebby and the Bulldogs have to deploy a completely different gameplan on offense and the day looks much different.
Schadenfreude of the week: For a brief moment, it looked like we might have a Perfect Saturday (that elusive prize all Longhorn fans should always hope for: Texas wins, OU loses, A&M loses), but alas, all three teams were victorious.
Later, it looked like laughs should be directed at Georgia for losing 28-0, then it seemed the finger of shame should point at Alabama for blowing that lead, and then, in an instant, it swung back to Georgia for holding the lead for just 13 seconds. All in all, the Georgia loss in Tuscaloosa probably cost Longhorn fans their night game against the Dawgs on October 19th in Austin, so I guess there isn’t much schadenfreude to go around after all.
But it was a tough day for the Magnolia State: the #7 Rebels lost at home to Kentucky, and Mississippi State still found a way to lose to a member of the Manning family.
This piping Hot Take burned the roof of my mouth: The Piggies take down the Volunteers next weekend, giving the primetime spot back to Texas and Georgia for their showdown in Austin.
Hype Train Level (0 being 3 extra points blocked in one half, 10 being Earl wins the Heisman): 6. We get two whole weeks of Hate Week this year, but the need for healing and renewed focus going into Red River is making me guard my heart a little bit.
***ICYMI: Check out our podcast episode from last week with Longhorn Legend - Drew Kelson!***
