AUSTIN, Texas - Texas spent the first half of Saturday night getting punched in the mouth, then somehow still walked to halftime with a life raft.
That’s the part Steve Sarkisian was talking about when he said, “I don’t know if we could have played a worse first half.”
The Longhorns had already turned it over twice in their first five snaps against Ohio State and were staring at a 20-3 deficit, with ESPN putting their win probability at eight percent. Ugly?
Absolutely. But the real story was that Texas kept the Buckeyes from turning that start into a total avalanche.
Three times in the first half, the Longhorns slammed the door in the red zone.
The first came right after fifth-year running back Raleek Brown coughed it up on the opening play from scrimmage. Ohio State only got a 26-yard field goal out of that sudden-change opportunity.
Later, Texas stuffed a 4th and 2 from its own 13-yard line early in the second quarter. Then, with 1:41 left before halftime, the Longhorns forced the Buckeyes to settle for a 30-yard field goal.
Those stops mattered because red-zone defense changes games. Texas has spent plenty of time drilling that exact scenario, and Sarkisian said the work is built into the weekly routine.
“We come out of stretch and the first thing we do is a sudden-change drill and we spot the ball at the 18-yard line, so I don’t think it was foreign for our players on defense to go out and play the way they played that first drive,” Sarkisian said.
Texas fifth-year defensive tackle Hero Kanu put the point even more plainly on Monday.
“Red zone is essentially everything,” Kanu said. “If you get to the red zone, okay, cool, but are you going to score the points?”
The biggest of those stands came on Ohio State’s fourth-down decision at the Texas 13. The Buckeyes had looked ready to bulldoze their way in, with Bo Jackson stacking a nine-yard run and then another five-yard burst down to the 4-yard line. But the sequence flipped fast.
Brad Spence beat the edge and dropped Jackson for a nine-yard loss, killing the momentum. Mason Williams got six of it back, but when Ohio State went to Jeremiah Smith on third down, the result was an incompletion against nickel back Graceson Littleton.
That set up the kind of goal-line moment Texas had been waiting for. As Kanu said of the play, “Access denied.”
It was a team stop from start to finish. Sarkisian credited the collective effort, and the key pressure came from defensive tackle Alex January, whose swim move created the penetration that stopped Jackson’s forward push. Kanu and safety Jelani McDonald were credited with the tackle.
Texas finally showed a little life on offense after that, putting together a 69-yard, 16-play drive. It didn’t end in the end zone because Ryan Wingo dropped a 30-yard touchdown pass, so the Longhorns had to settle for a 37-yard field goal.
Ohio State still found some chunk plays through the air. Smith beat Derek Williams for a 43-yard gain, and Julian Sayin later hit Brandon Inniss for 19 yards to move the Buckeyes back into scoring range.
But the Texas front started to get more disruptive there, too. Colin Simmons flashed with an eight-yard sack after a run stuff by Zina Umeozulu and Kade Phillips, and the pressure forced Ohio State to shrink the field for Connor Hawkins, whose field goal try was cut down to 30 yards.
Sarkisian has talked often about Simmons’ growth, and this was another example of it showing up in real time. The speed is obvious. The added counters are making him a more complete player.
Even with those stops, the numbers from the first half weren’t pretty. Texas gave up 240 yards at 6.5 yards per play, and all five of Ohio State’s explosive plays came through the air. The linebackers had trouble rerouting receivers like Smith, the safeties were left with too much space to cover, and the two-deep shell didn’t do enough to slow the Buckeyes’ passing game or give the box the help it needed against the run.
Still, yardage only tells part of the story. The red-zone resistance gave Texas something it desperately needed: a chance.
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