Texas vs. Texas Tech: September 18 Is a Night of Firsts

Saturday night was a night of firsts in Lubbock.  Texas gave Texas Tech’s head coach Tommy Tuberville his first conference loss as a Big 12 coach.  Texas Quarterback Garrett Gilbert not only threw his first interception of the season, but he managed to throw his first three in the first half against the Red Raiders.

Texas (3-0) defeated the Red Raiders 24-14, in what was one of the sloppiest performances given by the Longhorns, thus far.  Although many did not think that the Longhorns were Top Ten Ranked material after their previous two games, their defense definitely deserves the game ball for this performance.  Texas’ defense held Texas Tech to 142 yards and forced three turnovers.  They also accomplished their one goal of stopping Tech’s Quarterbacks Taylor Potts and Steven Sheffield with a total of five sacks.

The Longhorn defense may have shown up at the game and impressed many, but the offensive line was either M.I.A. or a one man show.  For much of the game, Gilbert was throwing incomplete passes, throwing interceptions, or getting sacked.  The Longhorn offense led in all categories, regardless of the powerhouse their defense was creating.  The mistakes made on Saturday is what force people to believe that the Longhorns deem as championship contenders…even more so, it makes people question how we got to where we were last year. 

Granted, Texas does not have magical chemistry between the quarterback and any receivers yet, one cannot overlook up and coming Wide Receiver James Kirkendoll.  Despite his lack of touchdowns, he led the O-Line with the most receiving yards of 159.  That’s almost half of his receiving yards from the 2009 season, and we’re only in Week Three. 

In the last 13 games played, this was the first game in which Texas did not score more than 28-plus points against Texas Tech.  Texas' offense has much work to do, but its defense is making sure the Longhorns are still winning games and that’s all they can ask for…for now.  Hopefully, they will pull it together for the most important game of the regular season against OU (which is only two weeks away)—because if they don’t Longhorn fans won’t be as understanding as they were after the BCS Championship loss.