Nothing was good enough.
Not the quarterback play. Not the blocking. Not the getting open. Not coaching. Not the playmaking. Not the attention to detail.
Nothing... well not until the last 5 minutes and even then it wasn't quite good enough.
I don't know if this registers as breaking news or not, but not doing any of those things is not the way to go about being Ohio State in Columbus.
There's no way to sugarcoat a pretty awful performance. This isn't a season killer by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still not remotely good enough, nonetheless. If this team has been taking forward steps, both on the field and along the sideline, it surely didn't show it on Saturday... with all due respect to a Texas defense that did deserve to have a team score more than once on its behalf at some point.
Let's just do all of the needed callouts right now and get it out of the way...
* Steve Sarkisian: Woof. I've never had such little confidence in a team scoring in the red-zone than I did when Texas got inside the Ohio State 10-yard line. The game plan was vanilla. It trusted parts of the offense that have earned zero trust. He's supposed to be special and it's year 5 and his offense is pretty far from special. They say a team is a reflection of its head coach and it felt like that today.
* Arch Manning: I suppose we can stop talking about the NFL for a while. Nothing about his performance was good. He will be better for having gone through this, but that was an "F" performance by the starting quarterback. Anyone that tries to spin it otherwise isn't being honest. Momma always said there would be days like this... and he had one.
* Texas wide receivers: Can they get open? Is there anyone that warrants being mentioned in the same breath as the receivers on the 2023 and 2024 squads? Even on the Parker Livingstone touchdown catch, he was mostly covered like a glove. What happens when this group goes to Athens? I suppose there's a lot of time for growth between now and then, but it's hard to not think about when the games that define the season are the ones you think about the most.
* Texas running backs: Does anyone have the burst and speed to break off a 20-yard run against a good defense?
* Texas offensive line: Meh. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good, either.
* Playmaking: Where was Colin Simmons? Where was Anthony Hill? Where was Michael Taaffe? Where was Ryan Wingo? Jack Bouwmeester can't be your best player in a game like this. None of the best players on the team made a single play that truly warrants mention... well... no good plays that is.
* Attention to detail: One team committed key penalties in key situations and the one that won the game did not. Steve Sarkisian stressed being good at the key details this week and this game was lost, in part, because of failures in attention to details.
Sarkisian and Manning will rightfully take it on the chin for their performances today, but this was a total team loss. That feels unfair to the defense, but not playing bad enough to not lose isn't the same as making plays to win games.
No created turnovers. No big plays in the first 55 minutes of the game. No sacks. No explosive plays in the passing game. Poor coaching.
The team earned this one together.
[B](Other thoughts...)[/B]
* Arch Manning by Quarter
1st Q: 3 of 5 for 13 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT (81.8 rating)
2nd Q: 2 of 5 or 13 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT (61.8 rating)
3rd Q: 4 of 5 for 12 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT (60.2 rating)
4th Q: 8 off 15 for 132 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT (149.3 rating)
* None of the running backs impressed me today. I know these guys run and play hard. Can they be explosive? Can they put fear into other teams? I felt like this team missed Jaydon Blue badly today.
* Attaboy, Parker Livingstone. Someone made a play!
* Jaylan Guilbeau had one bad play in the entire game, but it went for 7 points and broke the game open. Man, the life of a cornerback.
* Jack Bouwmeester was the best player in a Texas uniform through three quarters and that's no way to win in Columbus.
* I don't really have anything positive to say about Texas in the red-zone, especially 4th down call from the one-yard line. I really don't know that Sark understands his personnel... or maybe he does... and that's is incredibly frightening.
* I thought Alex January caught my eye several times today. That feels very, very promising.
* Graceson Littleton was big-time today. How about an attaboy for the only true freshman that made a dent today?
* Why on earth did it take 22 minutes of game time to go out of the way to get Ryan Wingo involved in the offense? That can't happen with the best player on your offense.
* Just a massive face-mask penalty on Colin Simmons on a third down when your defense gets off the field. When Sarked talked about the need for execute and be on the right side of the fine margins, this is what he was talking about. That penalty costs Texas points.
* Liona Lefau with the best quarter I think I've seen him play in the first quarter.
* The Trevor Goosby injury proved to be fairly insignificant.
* I would have liked to have seen some gadget plays.
* Brandon Baker with two false starts in his first career start. Who could see that kind of thing happening?
* No looks for Ryan Wingo on the opening drive of the game. Or the first quarter....
* 4th and 2 on the opening drive of the game and Sarkisian trusted the left side of that offensive line and it did not reward him for the faith.
* All you need to know about the confidence that the Texas coaches have in C.J. Baxter's knee was seeing him involved in the kickoff return unit.
* I may or may not have groaned when I realized that Gus Johnson was on the call.
