{"id":53471,"date":"2023-10-22T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-22T15:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=53471"},"modified":"2025-09-13T15:54:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:54:46","slug":"texas-wins-grudge-match-over-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/10\/22\/texas-wins-grudge-match-over-houston\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Wins Grudge Match Over Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

The quarterback got hurt, the coach got a little “too cute”, and Texas barely<\/em> survived a tougher than expected grudge match, 31-24, against Houston.\u00a0 The Longhorns turned in another inconsistent performance against the Houston Cougars and that\u2019s putting it mildly. \u00a0Texas dominated at the start and seemed poised to run away with it before Houston gave the visitors a scare.<\/p>\n

The game was the first action for Texas (5-1, 3-1) after its loss to Oklahoma two weeks ago. \u00a0The Longhorns seemed ready to unleash all the angst from that painful defeat against Houston. \u00a0That was until the Cougars flipped the script and took the game down to the wire.<\/p>\n

The Longhorns appeared to shake off the malaise that plagued them throughout the first half of the season.\u00a0 They seemed on the verge of a blowout win before Houston clawed its way back.\u00a0 Texas struggled to eke out a victory over a heavy underdog.\u00a0 The win kept hopes alive for a conference title, which Texas fans will surely cling to as they look forward to next week\u2019s home game with BYU.<\/p>\n

Texas Wins Grudge Match Over Houston<\/h2>\n

Make It Make Sense<\/h3>\n

The Longhorns were favored by three touchdowns coming into the game and appeared ready to prove the oddsmakers correct.\u00a0 The offense was hitting on all cylinders and the defense smothered Houston from the beginning.\u00a0 Texas overwhelmed the Cougars and led by three touchdowns before the game was 18 minutes old.\u00a0 The Longhorns were about to exorcise the demons from the Oklahoma game and cruise to victory against Houston.<\/p>\n

Flash forward to how it ended.\u00a0 Quinn Ewers<\/strong> finished the game wearing a sling after sustaining an injury.\u00a0 He was one of several Longhorns who got hurt.\u00a0 Backup Maalik Murphy<\/a> came into the game and attempted two passes while Texas leaned on the running attack to salvage the win.\u00a0 Texas was underwhelming on defense for the second game in a row.\u00a0 Head Coach Steve Sarkisian<\/strong> called a trick play on special teams that Houston stuffed, then went down the field on offense and got back into the game.\u00a0 Sarkisian’s trick play didn’t cost the Longhorns the game, but his decision to go with a gimmick when his team was in control may raise eyebrows among Texas fans.\u00a0 One of the few bright spots of the day was Oklahoma\u2019s lackluster performance in a 31-29 win against UCF, giving Texas fans hope for a rematch with the Sooners down the road.<\/p>\n

How It All Went Left<\/h3>\n

The Longhorns started the game like they were still angry over the Oklahoma game and took it out on Houston. \u00a0Ewers completed 7 of 8 passes for 61 yards including a 14-yard strike to Adonai Mitchell<\/strong>.\u00a0 The march was on from that moment and Texas raced to a 21-0 lead.<\/p>\n

Then the game turned into a grudge match.\u00a0 Houston quarterback Donovan Smith<\/strong> revived the Cougars in a way that may have had Texas experiencing a brooding sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.\u00a0 Smith played for Texas Tech last season when he led the Red Raiders to a win over the Longhorns.\u00a0 The game changed once he started clicking. \u00a0Smith finished with 378 yards on 32 of 46 passing, hitting nine different receivers in the process.<\/p>\n

However, the turning point of the game came before halftime when Sarkisian called a fake field goal that bombed and gave Houston a spark.\u00a0 Ahead 21-7 with 2:33 before the half, placeholder Ryan Sanborn<\/a> took the snap and threw a pass to kicker Bert Auburn<\/a> that failed to get a first down.\u00a0 Houston took over on downs and scored less than two minutes later to draw within 21-14 and set the stage for a nailbiter in the second half.<\/p>\n

Ewers Gets Injured<\/h3>\n

Things went from bad to worse when Ewers came out of the game with an apparent collarbone injury early in the fourth quarter.\u00a0 He finished 23 of 29 passes for 211 yards and two touchdowns, but none of that matters anymore. \u00a0The sophomore has been a big part of the Longhorns\u2019 success this year despite committing three turnovers against Oklahoma. \u00a0Ewers can ease a lot of concerns by returning to health this week.<\/p>\n

Ewers wasn\u2019t the only Longhorn to suffer an injury.\u00a0 Linebacker Jett Bush<\/a> got hurt early in the second quarter and did not return.\u00a0 Elsewhere on defense, edge rusher Ethan Burke<\/a> left the game with an injured knee, lineman Alfred Collins<\/a> was hurt, and cornerback Gavin Holmes<\/a> went out.<\/p>\n

Was It Really That Bad?<\/h3>\n

This question is a redux from the Oklahoma loss two weeks ago.\u00a0 The answer, unlike before, is an unequivocal YES! \u00a0The Longhorns are in trouble and better play the rest of the season at DEFCON 1 if they entertain any hopes of making it to the Big 12 Championship in December.\u00a0 They can\u2019t afford to look past anybody as they return home to host BYU next week.<\/p>\n

The defense that imploded at the end of the Oklahoma game was on full display for much of the day against Houston.\u00a0 Ewers\u2019 health is a major concern going forward.\u00a0 Murphy may have to shoulder the workload after barely seeing any action all season.\u00a0 The coaching staff has opened itself to criticism based on everything from having the team prepared to play calling to game management.<\/p>\n

At the top of the list of concerns is the defense.\u00a0 It\u2019s a unit that padded its statistics against backup quarterbacks but looked frail in the last two games.\u00a0 BYU quarterback Kedon Slovis<\/strong> and the Cougars\u2019 coaching staff must be licking their chops as they look ahead to next weekend.\u00a0 And with Texas warming up its own backup quarterback the next few days, the situation for the Longhorns seems precarious at best.\u00a0 The BYU game is suddenly shaping up to be the turning point of the season one way or the other.<\/p>\n

The Natives Are Getting Restless<\/h3>\n

At the risk of saying ‘we told you so’, the college football world was notified over the summer<\/a> about the Houston grudge match.\u00a0 Texas fans have gone from circling the wagons to setting them on fire.\u00a0 They lit up the social media landscape before their beloved Longhorns even stepped off the field.\u00a0 Among the prime targets of their ire was a defensive secondary that got torched yet again.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t as if they haven’t seen this before.\u00a0 Smith picked apart the Texas defense for 331 yards and two scores last year when he led Texas Tech to a win over the Longhorns.\u00a0 The defensive secondary didn\u2019t get much help from the team\u2019s front seven despite Burke, Collins, and Anthony Hill Jr.<\/strong> each recording a sack.\u00a0 Every aspect of the Texas program was taking heat in the aftermath of the Houston game. \u00a0That is including how Sarkisian is being viewed in his third season in charge.\u00a0 It all adds up to what should be an interesting week ahead in Austin.<\/p>\n

\"Texas
Photo Credit: Sara Diggins\/American-Statesman \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The quarterback got hurt, the coach got a little “too cute”, and Texas barely survived a tougher than expected grudge match, 31-24, against Houston.\u00a0 The Longhorns turned in another inconsistent performance against the Houston Cougars and that\u2019s putting it mildly. \u00a0Texas dominated at the start and seemed poised to run away with it before Houston […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4486,"featured_media":53494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2,35576],"tags":[10444,10711,18,79,16538,89,5353,7180,5095,204],"class_list":["post-53471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big12","category-featured","category-texas-longhorns","tag-adonai-mitchell","tag-anthony-hill-jr","tag-big-12","tag-college-football","tag-donovan-smith","tag-houston-cougars","tag-kedon-slovis","tag-quinn-ewers","tag-steve-sarkisian","tag-texas-longhorns"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4486"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79468,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53471\/revisions\/79468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}