Texas football beats BYU: Our staff takeaways from the Longhorns' 35-6 win
Texas emerged victorious on the field thanks to its backup quarterback and won again in the Big 12 standings thanks to the Kansas Jayhawks, and its defense led the way in Saturday's 35-6 win over BYU at Royal-Memorial Stadium. No Quinn Ewers? No problem, at least for this first game without him.
Our staff takeaways from Texas' win:
A roller-coaster start for Maalik Murphy
As expected from a quarterback making his first career start, Maalik Murphy had a bit of a roller-coaster ride during Texas’ 28-6 win. He had moments of brilliance, including two touchdown strikes to Adonai Mitchell and a feathery ball to tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders for an 18-yard gain that may have been his best throw of the game. But he also forced several throws, especially off his back foot. He threw an interception and lost a fumble on a sack but ended the game with 170 yards on 16-of-25 passing.
A strong showing by the D
After allowing 486 yards in a loss to Oklahoma three weeks ago and 392 yards in a win over Houston last week, the Texas defense responded with its best showing since a win over Kansas on Sept. 30. BYU finished with 292 yards thanks to some garbage-time gains with Texas holding a 28-6 lead. Defensive end Barryn Sorrell had arguably his best game of the season with a sack and three quarterback hits, and defensive backs Terrance Brooks and Michael Taaffe each had an interception. In all, the Texas defense finished with three turnovers, two sacks and held BYU to a 2-of-13 conversion rate on third downs.
Oklahoma's loss was Texas' gain
A roar erupted across DKR when the ending of the Oklahoma-Kansas game was shown on the big screen. The Jayhawks' 38-33 win in Lawrence has officially turned this Big 12 race wide open, and it's exactly what the Longhorns needed. Now next week's Texas-Kansas State game takes on even bigger meaning, since the Wildcats also are 4-1. But OU's win over Texas meant Texas needed to win out, get back into the Big 12 championship game, win that and hope for a CFP selection committee invitation.
No. 7 Texas will surely move up in Sunday's rankings.
... but why not see what Arch Manning's got?
First, Arch Manning can play in as many as four games this season and still retain his precious redshirt. Second, BYU looked either unable or uninterested in mounting much offensively. Third, this was a matchup Texas had in control for most, if not all, of this game. Fourth, Murphy's first start was hardly squeaky clean. So why not put Manning out there and see what the freshman can do?
What this potentially means is that if Ewers misses another start next week — remember, he missed three games last year with a sprained collarbone — then the Longhorns will go with Murphy, who certainly was up and down in this first start, yet won't have gotten Manning any meaningful snaps. Or, actually, any snaps at all, which would make an appearance next week that much tougher for a debut. The closest we got was seeing Manning warm up on the sideline with 6 minutes to go.
Red zone issues. Again.
Red zone issues again emerged as a source of trouble, especially at the goal line. Texas went 2-of-5 in the red zone and couldn’t punch the ball into the end zone from inside the 5-yard line on two separate drives. On one fourth-down play from the 2, Murphy swung it out to Sanders, who got stopped a yard short of the touchdown. On another fourth-down play, Jonathon Brooks got stuffed for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the 2. Texas remains one of the most inefficient teams in the nation when it comes to scoring touchdowns in the red zone.
Texcetera
Xavier Worthy's 74-yard punt return in the first quarter is Texas' longest touchdown play of the season. ... Brooks finished with 98 yards, just short again of a fifth 100-yard effort for him this season. And the other one that he didn't reach 100 (last week against Houston), he had 99. ... Brooks is 77 yards away from 1,000 for the season; he's got 923. ... Taaffe, a backup safety, had his second interception in as many weeks when he picked off a tipped pass in the fourth quarter. He started out as a walk-on from nearby Westlake High School before he was placed on scholarship last December.
Next up for Texas: Kansas State
Next Saturday at Royal-Memorial Stadium
Quick: who's the defending Big 12 champions? TCU, which made it to last season's College Football Playoff? No. It 's Kansas State, which carries an identical 4-1 conference record into Austin. The winner of this one still has legit Big 12 title hopes and CFP aspirations. The loser, not so much. The Big 12 hasn't announced a starting time or broadcast information for next weeks' game.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Longhorns football beats BYU Cougars 35-6: Our takeaways
