Texas Football: Grading the Longhorns' Game vs Texas Tech

The Texas Longhorns became bowl eligible with a 52-20 demolition of the Texas Tech Red Raiders a year after missing out on the postseason.

For the second consecutive game, the Longhorns reveled in their ability to pound the ball as they racked up over 400 yards on the ground.

Joe Bergeron rushed for 191 yards on 29 carries while scoring three times just a week after setting a season-high for the Longhorns.

Defensively, Texas was very stout, keeping the Red Raiders to just 30 yards rushing. Against Texas Tech's prolific passing attack, however, the Longhorns struggled at times.

It was a game that the Longhorns controlled in the trenches, using their superior physicality to wear down a Texas Tech team that looked overmatched and outclassed.

With the win, Texas is now 7-0 in the Mack Brown Era against Texas Tech in Austin.

The report card is in, and the grades are very pleasing.

Quarterback

Grade: B+

Given the nature of the game plan, it would be silly to expect the quarterback to light up the stat sheet.

Instead, David Ash picked up where he left off against Kansas, leaning on the running game for offense. With Texas Tech loading up the box, we saw Ash look downfield for huge plays. Twice he found Mike Davis, with Marquise Goodwin hauling in another. Those three completions alone amounted to 109 yards, production that should be attributed to the Horns' dominating running attack.

Ash definitely showed progress from weeks before with his downfield looks, and though he did miss Davis early on, he stuck to the game plan and made big plays later.

In mop up duty, Case McCoy stepped into a similar role as Ash, handing the ball off for an eventual downfield look. In a 31-yard hook up, the sophomore connected with Darius White for a score.

Between McCoy and Ash, the two passed for 156 yards on 5-of-9 passing. We finally are seeing this highly capable running game opening things up for the signal callers.

Running Back

Grade: A+

No Malcolm Brown, no problem.

The Longhorns were without their star freshman running back, who was sidelined with turf toe, though he did suit up, against Texas Tech. But that did not seem to rattle the Texas game plan.

Joe Bergeron, who seems to be a star in the making himself, followed up his great performance against Kansas with an even better one against the Red Raiders.

Bergeron set a team season-high in yards last weekend, and did the same on Saturday, outdoing himself by picking up 191 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries. Fozzy Whittaker added another 83 yards on 10 carries.

No Texas running back, including walk-on Heath Hohmann, had an average of less than six yards per carry.

Overall, the Longhorns ball carriers rushed for 439 yards and 6 touchdowns on 54 carries for an average of 8.1 yards per attempt.

Credit the Texas offensive line for playing its second mean game in a row, but Bergeron and Whittaker ran with ferocity, tenacity and a nose for the end zone.

Texas came into the game wanting to run the ball, and it aced that test.

Receivers

Grade: B+

The Texas receivers essentially get the same fate as the quarterbacks, put in a position that is on the outskirts of the game plan. Still, the group did well in limited opportunities, feasting on big plays created by the Longhorns' powerful rushing attack.

Mike Davis demonstrated his ability to stretch the field, catching two passes for 72 yards. Marquise Goodwin picked up another 37-yarder.

The only other receiver to get on the stat sheet was Darius White, who caught a 31-yard touchdown score late in the game from Case McCoy.

Chemistry with the quarterbacks has seemed to improve since the beginning of the season, but until the Texas offense takes on more in the passing game, expect the receivers to keep their limited roles catching the ball, but maintain their impact in the running game.

Offensive Line

Grade: A+

Another outing, another impressively dominant performance from the big boys in the trenches. The addition of a blocking tight end in Luke Poehlmann, listed as offensive lineman, and the recent play of the line has helped foster an identity for this team, one that is physical, powerful and hungry.

David Snow, Dom Espinosa and Josh Cochran all had great performances, but the scheme and breadth of ability between the running backs and the receivers has become a catalyst of sorts for the offensive line to shine. Both the line and the skill positions have mutually benefited from one another.

The Texas ball carriers were able to rip off longs of 51, 15, 47, 31, 19 and 12. They scored six touchdowns and ran for just over 8 yards per carry.

The Longhorns came into the game with a clear game-plan in mind, and they never once seemed to deviate. Rather, the Red Raiders never forced Texas' hand to alter its tactics.

It was telling execution by the line against another weak defense, but the confidence of this group has to be soaring.

Defensive Line

Grade: A+

If the pace of production from the running game and the defensive line continue at this rate, Texas will be one salty piece of meat come bowl season.

The Longhorns' defensive line recorded another solid outing against Texas Tech, holding the Red Raiders to just 30 yards rushing on 27 attempts, while the likes of ends Alex Okafor and Jackson Jeffcoat and tackles Kheeston Randall and Ashton Dorsey wreaked havoc on quarterback Seth Doege's backfield.

Texas put up four sacks on Saturday, two from Okafor, one-and-a-half from Jeffcoat and a half from freshman Cedric Reed. The entire line had nine tackles for loss totaling 36 negative yards.

While the run stopping once again was dominating, the pass rush still looks to be work in-progress, though credit should be given to the fluidity and proficiency of the Texas Tech spread attack.

Nevertheless, the Longhorns are finally getting some tangible results from a unit that was expected to be a big strength for the Texas defense.

The bar has now been raised for the defensive line. This is what we expected from this group.

Linebackers

Grade: B

The linebackers were nothing special, but they were very solid in every sense of the word.

They kept the Texas Tech running game in check and successfully patrolled the middle of the field with a purpose.

A lot of nickel and dime sets meant that the Longhorns were subject to mostly two and one linebacker looks, a scheme that had Emmanuel Acho and Keenan Robinson combine for 20 tackles and three for loss.

It is an effort to build on moving forward, and it is tough to expect explosive production from this unit week-in and week-out given the fluctuation of production on the defensive line, the linebackers have been solid all season long.

Secondary

Grade: C+

The standard in the defensive backfield has been very high in Austin this season, and the young cornerbacks have pushed themselves to maintain that level throughout the year.

Coming into the game, everyone knew that the Red Raiders would be throwing the ball. The Longhorns got the stops they needed, but also gave up 381 passing yards in the process.

Quandre Diggs and Carrington Byndom each had suspect halves, but the grand scheme of it all had them both play quality games despite some miscues.

The safeties also had some mistakes of their own, sometimes falling out of position leading to significant gains through the air. Blake Gideon and Kenny Vaccaro had solid performances, but the Red Raiders created some matchup problems for both.

Texas has definitely had better performances against better opposition, but it was not at all a terribly played game from a quality secondary.

Special Teams

Grade: A

The Longhorns got another solid game out of their special teams unit, a group that struggled early on, but has found better footing of late.

Texas' coverage game maybe put up its best performance so far, holding seven Texas Tech kick returns to just an 18.7 yard average. The Horns, meanwhile, picked up a few good returns between Fozzy Whittaker and Quandre Diggs on kickoff and punt duty respectively.

Place kicker Justin Tucker nailed a career-high 52-yard field goal last weekend against Kansas, and made his lone 48-yard attempt Saturday look like a chip shot.

There was not a whole lot of flash from the unit, but consistency will be critical moving forward.

Coaching and Game Plan

Grade: A

Texas' coaches appeared to have come into the game with a concrete strategy: pound the ball on offense and prevent touchdowns and red-zone scores on defense.

The nature of the Texas Tech offense should automatically generate yards, but some stiff red-zone defense and timely stops proved fatal for the Red Raiders. On their first offensive drive, Seth Doege and the Red Raiders took 12 snaps inside the red-zone, but had to settle for a field goal.

It was a defensive swagger that permeated the Longhorns' defense throughout the game, cutting Texas Tech's average point production in half and holding it to nearly 100 yards below average.

Offensively, Texas controlled the tempo and physicality against a seemingly overmatched and outclassed Red Raiders team.

The coaches know and the players know exactly what and who this team is now, and expect the Longhorns to maintain this standard from here on out.

Intangibles

Grade: A

This could have been a terrible loss or a statement win, and Texas pulled away with the latter.

With bowl eligibility on the line, the Longhorns came out right away and began imposing their physical will on the Red Raiders. Offensively, it was dominance and Texas kept its foot on the pedal.

Defensively, the players understood how Texas Tech would play and responded with a type of bend, but do not break mentality. The Red Raiders would get their yards, but they struggled to get points on the board to match Texas' production.

With a relatively straight-forward strategy, Texas maintained its focus and flexed its muscle for the rest of the conference to see.