For the fourth time this year, Texas is on the losing side in frustrating fashion. Suffering a soul-crushing defeat to Iowa State on Saturday, a lot went wrong for the Longhorns. Offensively struggling all game and a couple of mental errors is the difference between a disappointing season and one with potential still in sight.
Here are three reasons Texas lost to Iowa State:
The offense’s poor play
Throughout the season, the Texas offense has been a strong suit for the team and the defense was the reason for the losses. Against Iowa State, the script was flipped. The Longhorns punted the ball a total of nine times and eight of them were after the offense went three-and-out. The inability to move the ball was something Texas had not shown all season.
Running backs Roschon Johnson and Keaontay Ingram struggled, combining for 14 carries and 27 yards. Quarterback Sam Ehlinger had the same amount of rushing yards as the two combined but on 12 carries. Even when designed plays were called for Ehlinger to run it, he got stuffed.
Throwing the ball, Ehlinger only completed 55% of his passes. In the first half, he was only able to get out 12 attempts due to the constant three-and-outs. He has been the glue to this offense all year and when he does not play well, the entire offense suffers. That was evident in Saturday’s loss.
Deshaunte Jones’ 75-yard touchdown
Going into halftime, Texas finally got some momentum, scoring a touchdown in 30 seconds to cut the Iowa State lead to three before the break. Texas kicked the ball off to start the second half and ruined all the momentum they had built up. On the first play of the third quarter, Purdy escaped pressure by scrambling to his left, launched the ball downfield, and found a wide-open Deshaunte Jones.
Iowa State beats #19 Texas 23-21 on a game-winning FG at the buzzer
Brock Purdy : 30/48 for 354 yards, 2 TD's & an INT
Deshaunte Jones : 7 catches for 144 yards & a TD pic.twitter.com/uvzenN1jhB— Lee Harvey (@AyeThatsLee) November 17, 2019
Without this total collapse in the secondary, Iowa State is going for a game-winning touchdown instead of a field goal in their final drive. The Cyclone offense struggled the rest of the second half, kicking two field goals, punting the ball four times, and turning it over on downs once. If the Longhorn defense does not allow that touchdown, the game could have been different.
Jumping offsides on the field goal attempt
After scoring touchdowns on two straight offensive possessions, the Texas offense went three-and-out (again), giving Iowa State the ball back with three minutes left in the game. After a couple of big plays from Brock Purdy and a pass interference call against Caden Sterns, Texas stopped the Cyclone offense and forced a field goal with two minutes and 16 seconds left in the game. Theoretically, that would have been enough time for Ehlinger to go win the game for himself.
However, Joseph Ossai jumped offsides on the field goal attempt, giving Iowa State a fresh set of downs from the Texas 20. Using their timeouts on the previous three plays, the Longhorns had no way of stopping the clock to give themselves an opportunity to win the game. The Cyclones were able to drain the clock down to four seconds before Connor Assalley hit the game-winning field goal from 36 yards.
This loss was a detrimental one to the Longhorns who are nearly out of the Big 12 Championship discussion. A miracle would be required and is looking more and more unlikely. Beating Iowa State would have allowed the Longhorns to control their own destiny, but now can only play the role of spoiler to Baylor.
Texas will face Baylor on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CST on FS1.
