Cataclysmic mistakes doom Cowboys vs. Longhorns
OSU's 41-34 overtime loss to Texas was a tale of mistakes wiping out a game of dominance. The grades reflect a regrettable game for the Cowboys:
Kicking game
DThe Cowboys committed two cataclysmic mistakes. They allowed D'Shawn Jamison's 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, after taking a 31-20 lead, and Kanion Williams roughed Texas punter Ryan Bujcevski midway through the fourth quarter on a fourth-and-22 play. Texas went on to score the go-ahead touchdown. OSU otherwise was great in the kicking game, including Alex Hale's tying field goal with five seconds left in regulation, but that's 15 points the Cowboys gave away in a game that went to overtime.
Containing Ehlinger
BThe Cowboys did a masterful job of controlling Texas' Sam Ehlinger — until the end. Ehlinger, a battering ram of a quarterback, often beats teams with his scrambling and ability to bounce off defenders. OSU turned Ehlinger into a bit player for most of this game. Ehlinger was sacked five times, and he scrambled for yardage only twice, gaining three and four yards, respectively. But with the game on the line, fourth-and-7, Ehlinger scrambled away from blitzing linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez and found Jake Smith for a 12-yard touchdown pass that gave UT the lead with 4:27 left.
Running game
DThe Cowboys rushed for 130 yards, but the running game was much worse than that suggests. OSU's two biggest gains were non-traditional — Spencer Sanders' 35-yard scramble and a 19-yard Braydon Johnson gain off a reverse. Tailbacks Chuba Hubbard (25 carries, 72 yards) and L.D. Brown (eight carries, 33 yards) found little running room, and Sanders' designed runs were abysmal (seven carries, four yards). That's 109 yards on 40 carries, a meager 2.7 yards per carry. Offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn tried to establish the run in the second half, but Texas was having none of it.
Turnover game
FThe Cowboys committed four turnovers. That's enough to get you beat. But OSU's defense didn't produce a takeaway, so the Cowboys gifted Texas with extra possessions. A poor Sanders pass was intercepted, he fumbled a handoff exchange and he fumbled after being hit in the pocket. Worse yet, Brown fumbled in the fourth quarter at the Texas 33-yard line, with the Cowboys nursing a 31-26 lead.
Offensive game plan
CDunn called an excellent first half, considering the running game was stuck in neutral. A variety of screen and short passes, mixed with the long ball, made OSU quite productive. The Cowboys had 19 first downs and 316 total yards in the first half. But in the second half, that short game dried up, and Dunn stuck with running plays too much. In the first half, he called 27 pass plays and 21 runs. After halftime, Dunn called 26 pass plays and 21 runs. In overtime, Dunn dialed up running plays on second-and-10 and secondand-13 plays.
Deep passing game
ANot every part of the Cowboy offense worked well. But throwing deep did. Sanders threw 12 long balls. He completed four, five were incomplete and three others drew holding or pass interference penalties. Sanders' completions went for 41 yards to Johnson, 28 yards to Tylan Wallace, 28 yards to Dillon Stoner and 25 yards to Landon Wolf.
First-down defense
ATexas ran 30 first-down plays. The Longhorns gained more than four yards on only eight of those plays; 18 times UT made two yards or worse. Most Longhorn series started poorly, contributing to UT's pedestrian offensive performance (287 total yards).
Two-minute offense
BThe Cowboys got the ball with 1:13 left in the game, down three with no timeouts. They drove 62 yards in four plays before the drive stalled, mostly by time. It was Sanders' finest part of the game. He hit Wolf on a curl for seven yards, Wallace for 20 yards off a scramble, Stoner for 28 yards on a streak route and Stoner for seven on an out route. But Sanders tried to scramble on second-and-3, instead of throwing the ball out of bounds, and was held to a one-yard gain. That necessitated spiking the ball to stop the clock with 10 seconds left, resulting in a fourth down and a game-tying field-goal attempt. If Sanders had thrown the ball out of bounds instead of trying to scramble, he might have gotten a shot at throwing the ball to Wallace in the end zone.
Pass coverage
BThe Cowboys let a few Texas receivers get free in the first half, most notably when cornerback Christian Holmes let Brennan Eagles get by for a 41-yard touchdown catch. But that dried up in the second half, even with star safety Kolby Harvell-Peel sidelined by injury. Safety Jarrick Bernard-Converse had two of OSU's five pass breakups. Ehlinger completed just 18 of 34 passes.