Texas Football: Grading the Longhorns' Game vs Baylor

By way of a second-half stumble, the No. 22 Texas Longhorns (7-5, 4-5) dropped their final regular season game, 48-24, against No. 17 Baylor (9-3, 6-3) Saturday afternoon.

The Horns played at an even keel throughout most of the first half, as the two teams went into the break with the Bears holding a 24-21 advantage.

Baylor went on the trounce the Longhorns in the second half, outscoring Mack Brown's side 24-3 to put a damper on the emotional win Texas managed on Thanksgiving.

Though its 7-5 campaign figured much better than Texas' 5-7 season in 2010, the Horns ended 2011 with a disappointing loss.

The report card is in, and the grades are telling.

Quarterback

Grade: D+

For the last time in the regular season, the Texas quarterbacks have been a feature as a huge weakness in the Longhorns offense.

Case McCoy had as good of a first half as he has had all season, making few mistakes and hitting downfield receivers for long touchdowns—something the Texas passing game has lacked the entire year.

But late in the first half and into the second half, mistakes and bad decision-making had McCoy and the Texas offense stall as the Horns managed just three points in the final 30 minutes of the game.

McCoy's great start was largely undone with his mistakes as he finished 24-of-39 for 356 yards, three touchdowns and four interceptions. It was the kind of breakout performance the Longhorns had hoped for from the quarterback position, but for a guy who had thrown no picks over the course of the season, McCoy's four completions to the wrong team killed Texas' offensive hopes.

Running Backs

Grade: B

With the Longhorns missing Malcolm Brown, Joe Bergeron and Fozzy Whittaker, Texas surprisingly got very good production from D.J. Monroe, Cody Johnson and Jeremy Hills.

Johnson moved into the feature-back role and rumbled for 60 hard-fought yards on 14 carries. Hills had his share of explosive runs early on as he finished with 52 yards on 11 attempts. Monroe, who typically has served as a change of pace back, led the team with 77 yards on just eight carries.

Perhaps on another day when their quarterbacks do not jeopardize the potential for points, the Longhorns offense will get more done.

Between these three backs, they carried the ball 33 times for 189 yards for an average of 5.7 yards per carry—well in the range of a productive performance.

Receivers

Grade: B+

For the first time all season, the Longhorns receivers put together a memorable performance.

Jaxon Shipley and Marquise Goodwin flashed big-game potential with 78- and 80-yard touchdown catches, respectively.

Mike Davis also showed his athleticism after the catch by zig-zagging through traffic and dodging tackles.

Shipley, Goodwin and Davis combined to catch 14 balls for 121, 129 and 48 yards, respectively, proving that there is something to be had at receiver. Now if the quarterback can put in a big game without the mistakes ...

On the interior, Blaine Irby and Luke Poehlmann made their presences felt with minimal efforts as both caught short-yardage touchdowns, Irby's in more spectacular fashion.

Offensive Line

Grade: C

Given the scope of what the Texas running game has been able to accomplish all season long, the offensive line was pretty average against Baylor.

Although the inclusion of Malcolm Brown and Joe Bergeron would have made the big boys look better than they really were, realistically there is tons of room for improvement for this young Texas offensive line.

There was little that stood out as positives, but there was a hare more that stood out as negatives.

Count it all as experience moving forward, but the Longhorns will need some game-changers in their bowl game and into next season.

Defensive Line

Grade: C-

After a number of weeks with standout performances from multiple positions on the line, the Longhorns defensive front did little to impress against the Bears.

Baylor was able to run the kind of offense it wanted to because there just was not enough consistent and controlled pressure on Robert Griffin to make him uncomfortable.

Alex Okafor had another solid outing, but a less than 100% Jackson Jeffcoat plus virtually invisible performances from the interior line made for a game that Baylor dominated offensively.

Linebackers

Grade: D+

In the final game of their Texas careers, Emmanuel Acho and Keenan Robinson had very forgettable performances.

Though Robinson led the team with nine tackles and Acho chipped in with four, the duo had very few impact plays that stalled a Baylor offense that was simply cooking.

With the line struggling for most of the game, it would be difficult to expect the linebackers to pick up the slack completely.

Secondary

Grade: F

Time to come back down to Earth.

It has not been very often this season where the Texas secondary looked completely helpless and at times incompetent as it was on Saturday trying to defend Baylor's offense.

The Longhorns were forced into a ton of zone-coverage schemes to account for Robert Griffin and the Baylor signal caller tore Texas to shreds. Coverage deep and poor tackling kept the Baylor offense chugging, but it did not help that the Longhorns offense provided little support late.

The reality could just be that the Longhorns have a very talented secondary, but the Bears' offense is that good.

Special Teams

Grade: C-

There was not too much to hold on special teams. A missed field goal early could have changed the immediate future. 

Texas did not punt, but the turnovers surely did not help with field position.

On a day when the offense and defense struggled mightily in the second half, a pick-me-up from special teams could have done wonders.

The Longhorns did not lose on special teams, but they did not win either.

Coaching and Game Plan

Grade: D

Let's start on defense.

Robert Griffin torched Texas' defense and Manny Diaz and his unit could muster little to stop him. The defense was beaten deep, it missed tackles and it failed to get pressure in the backfield and force turnovers at critical junctures.

Offensively, the Longhorns simply could not keep up. This team is not built to score 50 points in a shootout style. Plain and simple, it looked like Texas used all of its ammo early on, and when it began to press, that is when the mistakes came out.

Intangibles

Grade: F

The Longhorns needed something special, and a lot of it, to win this game.

Bluntly, they got none of it.

Blaine Irby's tip-toe touchdown reception was a nice touch, and it was well-timed. But Texas needed a handful of those types of plays to even have a chance to stay in contention.