A study of NFL teams in the 2000s<\/a> found that teams \u201ccannot maintain any consistency with respect to recovering fumbles,\u201d but there are techniques that players have to bring to bear on the field. The most important is making a quick and sound decision about whether a fumble is a \u201ccity\u201d fumble or a \u201ccountry\u201d fumble. A city fumble is a ball in traffic that requires players to use their dive technique, reaching for the football with two hands, pulling it into their stomach, and going into the fetal position. A country fumble in the open field can allow for a running fumble scoop, but players still have to make sure to slow down, bend their knees, and secure the football before accelerating.<\/p>\nWith those techniques in mind, it\u2019s worth individually looking at the four fumbles by Kentucky to determine whether Texas was a victim of bad fumble luck or the result of bad technique, and the impact a recovery might have had on the game.<\/p>\n
The first fumble was a muffed punt late in the first quarter at the Kentucky 19-yard line.<\/p>\n
Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Ryan Niblett, the team\u2019s gunner, was in the best position to recover the fumble with good coverage on the play, but it bounced past him, and sophomore safety Jordon Johnson-Rubell also had a chance, but went in with one hand as the ball bounced to a Kentucky player who used his dive technique well.<\/p>\n
Verdict: Bad fumble luck.<\/p>\n
Impact: With the game still scoreless, a recovery would have given Texas the ball within field-goal range and afforded a chance to gain some offensive rhythm in a sudden-change situation at the edge of the red zone.<\/p>\n
Forced fumble by Hero Kanu<\/p>\n
The second fumble was arguably the most impactful missed opportunity. With Texas leading 7-0 in the third quarter after going three and out to open the second half, the Longhorns senior defensive tackle Hero Kanu combined with freshman nickel back Graceson Littleton to force a fumble by Wildcats running back Seth McGowan on the fourth play of the Kentucky drive.<\/p>\n
Junior cornerback Manny Muhammad had the first chance at a recovery in traffic with several other players grasping for the football, impacting his inability to effectively use his dive technique as the ball squirted away. Reaching for it, Muhammad knocked it away from junior linebacker Anthony Hill Jr., who judged it as a country fumble and opted for a running scoop.<\/p>\n
Verdict: Bad technique \u2014 Hill misjudged the fumble and should have used his dive technique instead because there was enough traffic around the ball to impact the play, which is exactly what happened.<\/p>\n
Impact: Had Muhammad not knocked the ball away or if Hill had used proper technique, Texas would have recovered the ball around the Kentucky 30-yard line, within field-goal range. In a best-case scenario, Hill would have gotten away with trying to scoop the ball and could have scored.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Longhorns defense was unable to get off the field on the drive by the Wildcats, which ultimately went 53 yards over 15 plays, ending with a made 46-yard field goal. Just as importantly, the drive took 8:44 off the clock, helping Kentucky for 10:17 in the third quarter and 39:20 overall, dominating the time of possession.<\/p>\n
The second muffed punt came early in the fourth quarter, coming in a critical time of the game when Kentucky had just tied the game at 10-10 on quarterback Cutter Boley\u2019s 16-yard touchdown scramble and Texas had just gone three and out when redshirt sophomore quarterback Arch Manning took a big hit under quick pressure on 3rd and 5, causing him to sail a ball over sophomore wide receiver Emmett Mosley, who had created separation on his slant route.<\/p>\n
A strong effort in coverage by senior cornerback Jaylon Guilbeau forced punt returner Ty Bryant to call for a fair catch and put Guilbeau in position to recover the subsequent fumble, which bounced right back to Bryant after deflecting off his shoulder.<\/p>\n
Verdict: Bad fumble luck.<\/p>\n
Impact: By the fourth quarter, it was clear that the Texas offense needed all the help it could get from the defense and special teams, so recovering a fumble inside its own 15-yard line should have produced a field goal and the lead at worst.<\/p>\n
After the Wildcats recovered the muffed punt, Longhorns sophomore edge Colin Simmons started to make a big impact on the game, sacking Boley on back-to-back plays, knocking the ball loose on the second sack.<\/p>\n
As the ball came loose, Texas senior defensive tackle Travis Shaw reacted to the fumble with the quickness that made him a consensus five-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting class, but wasn\u2019t able to control it with his dive technique.<\/p>\n
Verdict: Bad technique. There\u2019s some bad fumble luck involved here, and Shaw made the right decision to judge this as a city fumble, but when the ball started to bounce away to his left, he didn\u2019t bring his right arm to get both hands on the football, contributing to his inability to recover it.<\/p>\n
Impact: The fourth fumble to come in Kentucky territory, the potential recovery by Texas was within field-goal range and should have produced at least three points.<\/p>\n
Barring a turnover or subsequent penalty after a fumble recovery \u2014 neither out of the question at all for this Longhorns offense right now \u2014 each missed opportunity to recover a fumble by Kentucky cost Texas between three and seven points worth up to 28 points in total.<\/p>\n
In a close, low-scoring game that went to overtime, even one fumble recovery would have been enough to end the game in regulation.<\/p>\n
As for technique, the Texas coaching staff should spend time emphasizing it in practice week to ensure that further opportunities don\u2019t go lacking during the remainder of the season. Some balancing of the team\u2019s poor fumble recovery luck wouldn\u2019t hurt things, either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the wake of Saturday\u2019s 16-13 overtime win by the Texas Longhorns over the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,536,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-12869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-texas","9":"tag-texas-headlines","10":"tag-texas-longhorns-football","11":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}