AUSTIN, Texas — When the lane opened and Jaydon Blue reached open grass to finish a 77-yard touchdown run that gave 5-seed Texas a game-deciding, 38-24 fourth-quarter lead, Blue called the moment a “sign of relief.”
Nothing happened easily for Blue this season. Due to bouts of fumbles and stretches of ineffective play, Blue lost his starting job. His 146 yards and two scores in a first-round College Football Playoff win over 12-seed Clemson (10-4) represented a reversal of fortunes.
You could say the same of Texas’ offense overall.
Despite likely draft picks at quarterback (Quinn Ewers), offensive tackle (Kelvin Banks, Cam Williams) and weapons all over the place across the wide receiver and running back room, Texas’ offense has suffered through bouts of inconsistency all season despite ranking 35th nationally in yards per play. There were 49-point explosions like Texas managed against Florida. There were also the days — like four of Texas’ last seven SEC games — where the Longhorns failed to clear the 20-point barrier.
Many of the critiques of Texas this season have focused on its quarterback situation. Quinn Ewers vs. Arch Manning. You know the trite storyline. But a much bigger issue has been the Longhorns’ inability to consistently establish the run against high-level competition.
Look at Texas’ rushing production in its two losses and only other truly close games this season:
- Georgia (Regular season): 29 yards (1.1 ypc)
- Vanderbilt: 104 yards (3.1 ypc)
- Arkansas: 139 yards (3.4 ypc)
- Georgia (SEC Championship Game): 31 yards (1.1 ypc)
See a pattern?
It’s why Texas coach Steve Sarkisian challenged his team entering the playoff and on the heels of yet another dud of a rushing effort against the Bulldogs in Atlanta.
“We need to run the ball to advance in the playoffs,” Sarkisian said. “That’s what playoff football is all about.”
If Saturday is any indication, the Longhorns very much got the message in totaling 292 yards and four touchdowns on 6.1 yards per carry. Texas’ run game had to step up against a Clemson defense that ranked 90th nationally in rushing yards allowed per touch, and it did so emphatically.
“The run game is really important for us on a lot of levels,” Sarkisian said. “Our offense is better when we can run it. Then the balance can really kick in to run it, throw it, screen it and the RPO.
“It opens up a lot that we do.”
It certainly made Ewers’ life easier. After weeks of criticism about Ewers’ inconsistent play, he had his best performance in a month, finishing the day 17-of-24 passing with 202 yards and a touchdown.
Take Ewers’ longest throw of the day, a beautiful 43-yard bomb in the second quarter to Matthew Golden. Texas, which used five straight runs to score a touchdown on the previous drive, brought a receiver in motion behind Ewers and ran play-action to give the defense some eye candy to consider. All those fakes helped create space on the third level for Ewers to hit Golden on a post route.
That symbiosis can work the other way, too.
Blue had a pair of long touchdown runs on the afternoon. Sarkisian said Ewers checked into both plays when he saw Clemson’s defensive alignment. Those are the moments most fans fail to notice — and really only happen because a veteran QB has extended reps in a system, something that Manning, for all of his talent, can’t claim — can really show up and result in huge plays.
“That’s just time together, time on task (Quinn) and I,” Sarkisian said. “Kind of a cool moment having a three-year starter who’s been in the system.”
An offensive breakout occurred at the perfect time for Texas because this is the first day in months the Longhorns’ No. 1 defense appeared fallible. Clemson is only the second team all season to hit the 24-point barrier against Texas, and it could have been even worse. But, of course, Texas’ defense stepped up when it had to. It earned back-to-back goal-line stands with around 8 minutes to go in the game, preventing Clemson from cutting Texas’ lead back to seven points.
The defense, for the first time since October, needed its offensive counterpart to explode. That’s why Blue’s 77-yard run, which expanded Texas’ fourth-quarter lead back to 14, meant so much.
“That’s the beauty of this team, and we haven’t been faced with this a ton, but we can win games a lot of different ways,” Sarkisian said “We can win low-scoring, tight defensive games, But we can also score points when we have to and extend leads when we can do that.
“Blue’s long touchdown run to open it back up to a two-score game, that’s what this team gives us the ability to do.”
Texas showed Saturday that it doesn’t have to be a one-dimensional, defense-first team. That’s a notable occurrence with three games remaining in Texas’ playoff path.
The Longhorn defense will be there every Saturday.
If this version of the Texas offenses shows up, there are few holes, if any, to be found in Austin.
“I think we played great, complementary football tonight,” Texas tight end Gunnar Helm said. “If we can continue to play complimentary football, I think we’re going to be really tough to beat.”
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