Josh Pate: Washington is ‘not the best matchup in the world for Texas’

Washington’s No. 1 pass offense in the nation will test the Texas secondary.

The Texas pass defense faces perhaps its most difficult test of the season in the Sugar Bowl. It faces the Washington Huskies (13-0) led by Heisman runner up Michael Penix at quarterback.

We mentioned that Penix doesn’t always protect the football, and I’ll stand by that notion. Nevertheless, it hasn’t prevented him from being productive. He leads the No. 1 passing offense in the country with the team averaging 343.8 yards through the air.

The Longhorns have a great run defense, but according to college football analyst Josh Pate that might not make a difference in this game.

“Texas is a Top 5 run defense in the country. Washington doesn’t care. … The reason why I said it’s not the best matchup in the world for Texas is because the purple team here comes in with the No. 1 passing offense in America, and Texas is sitting there with a 96th rated pass defense.”

While Texas has excelled in run defense with the nation’s No. 4 rush defense (80.9 yards per game), its pass defense has left something to be desired. The Longhorns allow 240.8 passing yards per contest ranking No. 96 in the country.

Despite the stats for the year as a whole, the Longhorns have adopted a different defensive approach recently. In its regular season finale, Texas effectively told Texas Tech they could have what they wanted in the running game and took away the pass.

In the above game, Texas Tech running back Tahj Brooks ran for 95 yards on 19 carries while quarterback Behren Morton threw for 88 yards on 36 passing attempts.

We are not suggesting that Texas can do to Washington what it did to Texas Tech. Texas Tech is not comparable to Washington. Albeit, it is likely the Longhorns will aim to flood the secondary with defenders and dare the Huskies to run the football. If in the process they can limit offensive explosion or break up the Washington passing attack, such a game plan could put the game in their favor.

Washington likes to attack downfield. Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski prefers to conservatively protect against the deep ball rather than play aggressively. The matchup might actually be within Kwiatkowski’s comfort zone.

If Penix and company insist on throwing lower percentage downfield throws and miss, the Longhorns could turn over the Huskies offense and take an early advantage. We will see the matchup unfold on Jan. 1 when Texas faces Washington in the Sugar Bowl.