Texas Football: Longhorns Must Fix 3rd-Quarter Woes

It happens in every college football game: The second-quarter clock hits zero, and both teams head to the locker room.

As every college football fan knows, this is referred to as halftime.

What happens inside the locker room could make or break the outcome of the game.

But for the Texas Longhorns, halftime has not been a friend. In fact, it has been the exact opposite.

The Longhorns have reached the midway point of the season with a 2-4 record. A lot of the losses have begun in the third quarter.

Against BYU, the Texas defense shut out the Cougars offense. The team entered halftime down 6-0.

Then the third quarter happened.

BYU put up 28 unanswered points and handed the Longhorns their worse home loss since 1997.

Fast forward to Week 3 of the season. Texas faced then-No. 12 UCLA in Dallas. The Longhorns entered halftime leading 10-3 over the Bruins.

The offense could not find the end zone in the third quarter, and the defense allowed the Bruins to come back and beat Texas 17-13.

This trend has continued.

Texas	Pts.	Poss.	3rd down conv.	Yards
vs. BYU	7	6:53	1-4	72
vs. UCLA	0	6:27	0-4	54
vs. Kansas	0	5:08	0-2	26
vs. Baylor	0	7:16	0-4	68
vs. Oklahoma	0	8:15	0-4	59
Total	7	33:59	1-18	279
Opponents	49	40:51	8-20	723

The blame cannot be placed on the Texas defense. In fact, if it wasn't for the defense, the Longhorns could be in a much worse situation before halftime.

Since Week 2 of the season, the team has been outscored 49-7 in the third quarter alone, which brings up the following question: What is happening during halftime?

Head coach Charlie Strong said his message to the team at half against Oklahoma was there is still 30 minutes left on the clock, so the team has to finish.

But the first-year coach has not been able to put a finger on what is happening in the third quarter.

"I wish I could. I don't know what it is," Strong said. "We have to do a little something because, the third quarter is sitting there and we're not getting anything out of it.

"Even on defense, they have moved the ball some on us. It's not so much that we're relaxing. It's just we have to come back and play the game. There is 30 minutes of football left, and we have to continue to play."

The coaches put a lot of pressure on the defense, but the offense is partly to blame for the third-quarter slump. The offense has not scored a third-quarter touchdown since Week 2 against BYU.

"It's a matter of coming out and getting in a rhythm. Those are all things we have to address as a staff," quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson said. "I know now how to create rhythm now for Ty (Tyrone Swoopes); I think he is our rhythm. When we get Ty going, that creates our rhythm as an offense. I better know, better understand what gets him going and what he needs."

Since Swoopes took over, the Texas offense has struggled to get in the end zone in the third quarter, which has put the defense in a vulnerable position and hurt the team's chances at winning games.

This has to stop if the Longhorns want to make it to the postseason.

Texas has six games left on the schedule, and it is not an easy road ahead.

The Longhorns have three ranked opponents remaining on the schedule; two of those are on the road with Kansas State and Oklahoma State.

If Texas hopes to turn around the season and make it to a bowl game, it has to pick it up in the third quarter.

"We have a senior class here right now that doesn't want to be known as the senior class at The University of Texas that didn't get it done," defensive coordinator Vance Bedford said. "It's not where we want it to be, it's not what they want it to be, but again, we're trying to go one game at a time. You're going to see our best shot."

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.

Taylor Gaspar is Bleacher Report's featured columnist covering the Texas Longhorns. Follow Taylor on Twitter: @Taylor_Gaspar.