As the high of the miracle comeback in Starkville starts to wear off, it’s time to breakdown the performance. There were a number of surprises in this game, but the top for many Longhorn fans is the defense giving up 38 points.
That marks the most points the Texas defense has given up since the 2023 CFP Semifinal vs. Washington, and they hadn’t given up 38 or more since 2022 against Oklahoma State. So how concerned should Longhorn Nation be?
Let’s start with the reasons to be concerned, because there are multiple.
This season, Texas has played two top 50 offenses, Ohio State(21st) and Mississippi State(43rd). Given it was Julian Sayin’s first start, Ohio State seemed to play relatively conservatively in that opener. The rest of the way, the worst offense the Longhorns will face is Georgia, who it’s at 39th. Could it be the Texas defense just feasted on poor offenses, but will struggle moving forward?
Mississippi State was able to throw for 382 yards and 5 TDs against a Michael Taaffe-less Longhorns secondary. Davon Booth wasn’t dominant on the ground, but was able to find holes from time to time. Brenen Thompson, Anthony Evans III, Ayden Williams and Seydou Troare all went for over 60 receiving yards, along with Davon Booth. The Longhorn defense gave up five explosive plays, a season high, as well.
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All of the things I just described are things Vanderbilt, Georgia, Arkansas and Texas A&M can do as well. The Texas defense has to be much better this weekend and moving forward if the Longhorns are going to stay alive for the CFP. This weekend possibly most importantly, because of the prospect of Matthew Caldwell being under center.
Now, for the reason the Mississippi State performance might be more of an anomaly than the new normal.
The biggest thing is the obvious: they’ve been on the field a lot. Kentucky controlled the game in Lexington, being on offense for 40+ minutes of gametime. On Saturday, the Texas defense was on the field consistently, and more importantly, the Mississippi State offense is as fast-paced an offense as you will find in the country. The Bulldogs ran 86 plays on Saturday, so it is not a surprise the Texas defense struggled.
The other part of this is, yes Mississippi State scored 38 points, the Texas defense was still a massive reason Texas was in the game. The turnover on downs in the first half gave Texas a short field, that they converted into a TD, came up with another at a critical moment in the 3rd quarter and got three straight stops to finish the game. It was far from a perfect performance, and there are reasons to be slightly concerned, but even at their worst, the defense stepped up in a big way.
Overall, there are reasons to be slightly concerned moving forward about the Texas defense, but I am having a hard time seeing the poor play continuing into next week. One of the major reasons is Vanderbilt runs 60.9 plays/game compared to Mississippi State’s 76.9. That should give the Longhorns time to rotate consistently and get back to playing at an elite level. It’s impossible to promise anything, but I would bet on Pete Kwiatkowski and the Texas defense putting together a much stronger performance against Vanderbilt on Saturday.