AUSTIN, Texas — Final: Texas 27, Baylor 16
FULL GAME ANALYSIS:
Texas defeated the Baylor Bears 27-16 after dropping back-to-back games to TCU and Oklahoma. Baylor came into the game having not played in three weeks due to COVID-19 cancellations.
Texas' defense was stout early on and held Baylor to three points through three quarters.
"It was really big. When you factor in that fourth-down stop, it was really five-of-15 as far as getting off the field," head coach Tom Herman said. "Again, you get what you emphasize. We practiced a lot on third down over the last couple weeks. Early in the game I was a little disappointed because we did get off the field, but it was after a couple of first downs and we were giving our offense some pretty long fields to operate with. But we got that settled down and you get what you emphasize. There wasn't any magical calls or anything. I thought we pestered the quarterback pretty well and they completed some balls underneath us, but we rallied and tackled."
Big chunk plays in the passing game propelled the UT offense to its early lead. Sam Ehlinger had passes for 72 yards, 47 yards and 42 yards to different receivers in this game. The drives that these three plays were a part of led to 17 points.
However, mistakes late let the Bears have a sniff of a chance in the fourth quarter. Baylor entered the fourth quarter down 27-3, but the first touchdown drive of the game narrowed it to 27-9 after the Bears didn't convert a two-point conversion. Sam Ehlinger threw an interception on the next drive, which led to Baylor's second touchdown drive of the game, and the Bears had narrowed the lead to just 27-16 with 7:37 to go.
But Texas' defense held Baylor's offense at bay on its final drive of the game and allowed UT's offense to kill the rest of the clock.
Texas leaned heavily on its run game early and often, rushing 47 times for 159 yards. Keaontay Ingram rushed 16 times for 57 yards. Bijan Robinson rushed 12 times for 55 yards. Sam Ehlinger rushed 15 times for 51 yards and two rushing touchdowns. Roschon Johnson and Joshua Moore accounted for the other three carries.
"I thought Bijan (Robinson) responded well and I thought our offensive line – we had a few breakdowns, but No. 2 is a hell of a player," Herman said. "Terrel Bernard is one hell of a player and he showed it again today. We have a ton of respect for him. He made some plays against us in the run game. But credit to Coach Yurcich and our staff for sticking with it and when you're playing as good of a defensive player as he is, combined with the talented guys around him, they're going to make a few plays. We had a couple 1-yard, 2-yard runs. That's OK. But we also had some 9-yard runs, 11-yard runs, 12-yard runs. I don't know exactly, to be honest with you - I don't want to give a ton of trade secrets away on what was working - but we challenged the offensive line, we challenged the tailbacks and really we challenged everybody on offense because the perimeter blocking too is a key part of that. Last week, we practiced Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and it was run period, run period, run period. And both sides of the ball improved because of it. We didn't get any of those in a spring ball and we got very limited amounts of those in training camp. We wanted to make the most of the bye week and improve our areas of deficiency, and for at least a week I feel like we did that."
Ehlinger finished the game 15-for-23 passing, threw for 270 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Charlie Brewer finished the game 30-for-43 passing, threw for 256 yards and two touchdowns.
RELATED:
Texas moves to 3-2 on the season and is scheduled to play the Oklahoma State Cowboys next.
Fourth quarter:
Texas 27, Baylor 16
Texas (Baylor 25):
Key moments/plays: Texas ran the ball on three straight plays and forced Baylor to use all of its timeouts. UT went for it on fourth down and converted the first down. UT kneeled the ball to win the game.
Result: End of game. Texas wins, 27-16.
Baylor (Own 9):
Key moments/plays: Charlie Brewer completed three straight passes, but threw an incomplete pass on third and short. Before Baylor went for it on fourth and two, UT called its first timeout of the second half with 2:25 left in the 4th quarter. Baylor went for it on fourth down and committed a false start penalty. On fourth and seven, Brewer's pass was broken up by Chris Brown.
Result: Turnover on downs.
Texas (Own 25):
Key moments/plays: Sam Ehlinger rolled out to the right and completed a 23-yard pass to Jared Wiley. Two runs by Keaontay Ingram set up third and short for UT. On third and two, UT dialed up a reverse to Joshua Moore. An unsportsmanlike penalty backed up UT 15 yards. UT punted the ball away.
Result: Punt.
Baylor (Texas 25):
Key moments/plays: Charlie Brewer completed two passes in a row for a first down and then scrambled for a gain of six yards to the Texas five-yard line. A negative run play set up Baylor with third and six from the seven-yard line. On third down, Brewer threw his second touchdown of the game.
Result: Touchdown. Texas leads 27-16.
Texas (Own 25):
Key moments/plays: After two run plays by Bijan Robinson, Sam Ehlinger threw an interception on a pass play over the middle intended for Jared Wiley.
Result: Interception.
Baylor (Con't):
Key moments/plays: Charlie Brewer connected with Gavin Holmes twice for gains of 13 and 14 yards. Brewer converted another first down to Trestan Ebner for 11 yards. Brewer hit Ben Sims for 21 yards down to the Texas seven-yard line. On third and goal, Brewer threw his first touchdown pass of the game. Baylor went for two and did not convert.
Result: Touchdown. Texas leads 27-9.
Third quarter:
Texas 27, Baylor 3
Baylor (Own 25):
Key moments/plays: Charlie Brewer completed a 13-yard pass to Gavin Holmes. This play ended the third quarter.
Result: End of third quarter. Texas leads 27-3.
Texas (Own 25):
Key moments/plays: Sam Ehlinger hit his third big passing play of the game, a 47-yard pass over the middle to Jared Wiley. Ehlinger finished the drive with a nine-yard rushing touchdown a few plays later.
Result: Touchdown. Texas leads 27-3.
Baylor (Own 39):
Key moments/plays: Charlie Brewer and the Baylor offense drove the ball into the UT red zone. Texas' defense stopped the Bears in the red zone and forced a field goal attempt. The field goal attempt was missed.
Result: Missed field goal.
Texas (Own 35):
Key moments/plays: Sam Ehlinger and the UT offense went three-and-out.
Result: Punt.
Baylor (Own 21):
Key moments/plays: Texas forced Charlie Brewer and the Bears to go three-and-out on the first drive of the second half. UT's defense has forced Baylor into three-and-outs on three of their seven drives in the game.
Result: Punt.
Texas (Own 25):
Key moments/plays: Texas went back to the run game to start the second half. UT started the drive with four straight running plays and got to midfield. Sam Ehlinger took a shot on play action for the end zone, but it was overthrown. Ehlinger converted on third down on a pass to Brennan Eagles. Ehlinger scrambled up the middle to the Baylor 27-yard line. On third and nine, Ehlinger converted the first down pass to Jake Smith. A pass interference penalty on the next play put the ball at the two-yard line. Ehlinger punched it in from one-yard out on the quarterback power.
Result: Touchdown. Texas leads 20-3.
Halftime: Texas 13, Baylor 3
Halftime analysis:
Texas' defense has helped them tremendously in the first half. Baylor started with the ball on Texas' 36-yard line for a drive, and the UT defense forced them to punt. UT's defense has also stopped Baylor on multiple third and shorts in the first half.
Offensively, Texas relied on the run game early and struggled in the first quarter, but UT's offense got a few chunk plays in the second quarter. Sam Ehlinger connected on a 72-yard pass to Tarik Black and a 42-yard pass to Joshua Moore. Moore has caught the only touchdown of the game thus far, too.
UT has run the ball 22 times for 87 yards and Ehlinger is 8-for-13 passing for 146 yards and a touchdown.
Second quarter:
Texas 13, Baylor 3
Texas (Own 10):
Key moments/plays: Ehlinger was sacked on the first play. UT let the rest of the clock run out and go to half.
Result: Halftime. Texas leads 13-3.
Baylor (Own 25):
Key moments/plays: On a crucial third down, Charlie Brewer escaped the pocket and picked up the first down at midfield. Brewer followed up with three straight incomplete passes and the UT defense stands strong again. Baylor punted the ball to the Texas 10-yard line.
Result: Punt.
Texas (Own 20):
Key moments/plays: On third and eight, Texas called an opportune screen pass to Keaontay Ingram to pick up the first down. Sam Ehlinger got another big run play to midfield on a quarterback draw. Ehlinger connected with Joshua Moore on a fade route to the Baylor six-yard line.
Ehlinger capped off the drive with a touchdown pass to Moore.
Result: Touchdown. Texas leads 13-3.
Baylor (Own 25):
Key moments/plays: UT's defense forced a three-and-out after stopping Charlie Brewer short of the first down on a quarterback sneak.
Result: Punt.
Texas (Own 20):
Key moments/plays: Sam Ehlinger was sacked on the first play for a loss of 12 yards. Ehlinger dropped a pass over the middle seam to Tarik Black for a gain of 72 yards to the Baylor 20-yard line.
Ehlinger drove the UT offense inside the 10-yard line with a couple of quarterback runs. On third and goal, Ehlinger looked for Jake Smith in the corner of the end zone, but it fell incomplete. Cameron Dicker hit the field goal.
Result: Field goal. Texas leads 6-3.
Baylor (Own 25):
Key moments/plays: Charlie Brewer looked for R.J. Sneed on back-to-back fade routes. The first was caught by Sneed and the second drew a pass interference penalty. The UT defense hunkered down though and stopped Baylor at the 30-yard line. Baylor elected to punt instead of attempting a field goal.
Result: Punt.
Texas (Con't):
Key moments/plays: On third down, Sam Ehlinger threw only his third pass so far of the game and converted a first down to Brennan Eagles. Two plays later on third-and-six, UT ran the ball again and didn't pick up the first down. On the fourth down, Texas got a delay of game penalty making a 41-yard field goal attempt into a 46-yarder. An offsides penalty moved the ball back up five yards. Cameron Dicker hit the 41-yard field goal.
Result: Field goal. Tie ball game.
First quarter:
Texas 0, Baylor 3
Texas (Own 25):
Key moments/plays: Keaontay Ingram rushed two times to get a first down and this ended the first quarter.
Result: End of first quarter. Baylor leads 3-0.
Baylor (Own 29):
Key moments/plays: John Lovett started the drive with an 11-yard run. Charlie Brewer hit five passes in a row to drive the Baylor offense to the UT red zone. Brewer took a shot for the end zone, which was broken up by Josh Thompson. Brewer took a quarterback draw up the middle to the UT four-yard line. On third and goal, the UT defense stood strong yet again and stopped Brewer at the line of scrimmage.
Result: Field goal. Baylor leads 3-0.
Texas (Own 15):
Key moments/plays: UT ran the ball on six straight plays and were stopped on their second set of downs. Ryan Bujcevski punted the ball for 34 yards to the Baylor 29-yard line. Bujcevski's first punt went 20 yards.
Result: Punt.
Baylor (UT 36):
Key moments/plays: Baylor lost a few yards on the opening play with a fake reverse. Brewer was sacked and the UT defense held on to force the Bears to punt.
Result: Punt.
Texas (Own 14):
Key moments/plays: Sam Ehlinger and the UT offense went three-and-out after a few short passes and a small gain on the ground by Bijan Robinson. Texas punted the ball and Baylor will start with a short field in UT territory.
Result: Punt.
Baylor (Own 14):
Key moments/plays: Charlie Brewer extended the drive with a third down conversion on a 17-yard pass to R.J. Sneed on third-and-six. The UT defense held the Baylor offense from gaining another set of downs and forced a fourth-and-one situation near midfield. Baylor punted the ball to the Texas 14-yard line.
Result: Punt.
PREGAME:
The Texas Longhorns host the Baylor Bears at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 2:30 p.m.
Texas comes into the matchup after a bye week and two straight losses to Oklahoma and Texas Christian University.
Everything you need to know:
A lot. There is a ton to unpack headed into this game.
The University of Texas has not played since its quadruple overtime thriller in the Red River Showdown. The historic Red River Showdown made headlines for more than just the game result, too, which carried throughout the bye week.
RELATED:
A photo showing few players – including Sam Ehlinger – and coaches singing "The Eyes of Texas" after the Oklahoma game circulated online and caused a controversial stir. So much so, Tom Herman opened his Monday press conference in the bye week addressing the school's alma mater.
Ever since, the controversy surrounding "The Eyes of Texas" has dominated headlines. Sam Ehlinger addressed the situation on Tuesday, then it was announced the Longhorn Band will not attend the game to play the song, then UT officials assured the song would still be played despite the band's absence and the Board of Regents doubled down on its stance regarding the fight song. That covers the last two weeks of news regarding "The Eyes of Texas."
Texas also announced this week that the team would be wearing white uniforms at home for the first time since 1950, when UT hosted Purdue. UT traditionally wears its burnt orange uniforms at home.
On to football, Baylor will be playing its first game in three weeks after having games canceled due to COVID-19. Last season, Baylor handed Texas one of its five losses in 2019. UT struggled against the Bears and lost 24-10.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING: