Texas Toasted: Georgia’s Upset in Austin

Overnight, Texas went from being the No.1 team in the country with an undefeated record to a No.5 team being told they can’t handle the Southeastern Conference. After the Longhorns’ loss, there are now zero undefeated teams in the SEC.

Oregon is now the fourth team to take the No.1 spot in the AP Poll Rankings. Playing at Texas for the first time since 1958, Georgia gave the Longhorns their first loss of the season. Texas was the last remaining unbeaten team in the SEC.

Georgia moved to the No.5 spot and finally won an SEC game to be proud of. Head coach Kirby Smart has been waiting for his Georgia Bulldogs to pull together a performance like this since their loss to Alabama in Week 4. Three weeks after Georgia fell behind by four touchdowns in the first half of a 41-34 loss at Alabama, the Bulldogs flipped the script and grabbed a 23-0 lead at halftime against the Longhorns.

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What went wrong for Texas?

Georgia’s defense sacked Texas’ quarterbacks seven times and had 10 tackles for loss. The Longhorns finished with 259 yards of offense, including 29 rushing. Texas went 2-for-15 on third down and 1-for-5 on fourth. Georgia’s defense has given up 85 points in the last three games, tied for the most since 2016.

Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian made the choice in the second quarter to replace the uneasy starter Quinn Ewers with prodigy Arch Manning. Ewers was 6-for-12 passing for 17 yards with one interception in the half. He was sacked three times and lost a fumble.

The Longhorns had just 15 yards on 23 plays when Manning came into the game. Manning, the nephew of former NFL quarterbacks Eli and Peyton Manning, didn’t do much better. Texas punted on his first drive, then Manning was sacked by linebacker Damon Wilson II and fumbled on the second drive. Walker recovered the ball at Texas’ 30-yard line.

Takeaways

At the end of the day, the Longhorns started slow, gained momentum, then finished slow.

Texas did what they needed to in the third quarter to get back in the game, scoring 15 unanswered points to close the game to one touchdown. But the first-half deficit meant that Georgia changed the entire game’s momentum with a some long drives, even if they didn’t result in points. Then, one long scoring drive was effectively a knockout blow, changing how the offense approached the game.