No. 16 Texas 27, No. 3 Texas A&M 17 : Five observations and Saturday chat

This is one of those times I don’t mind being wrong — I will be upfront and say that I picked the No. 3 Texas A&M Aggies to win Friday’s matchup against the No. 16 Texas Longhorns in a close one.

So, of course Texas wins it by double digits and gets their biggest win to close out the season, a 27-17 victory over the Aggies at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

It didn’t look pretty early on, but in the second half there was no question who the better team was between the two in-state rivals. The Horns found their legs and confidence and put the Aggies on the deck. It has been such a weird year for this Texas team in a number of ways, but with all of their chips in the middle of the table, they found a way to piss in the cheerios of Texas A&M for the second year in a row.

They say in rivalry games you have to throw out the records and conventional thinking because they are so volatile. That rang especially true in this one. This was a sweet one for Steve Sarkisian and his staff, and they deserve to enjoy it.

It was a tale of two halves for the Texas in this game

Listen. It was not very pretty for Texas in the first half of this game. Particularly on the offensive side of the ball, as they struggled mightily to get any kind of sustained success for two quarters. The offense only generated 112 yards of total offense, while Arch Manning struggled mightily with a gross 8-of-21 passing performance for 51 yards. On top of that, Quintrevion Wisner only had 29 yards on five touches.

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It was looking very suspect for Sarkisian and the Texas offense and they were fortunate the defense played well for most of the half. With that said, the defense conceded a late half touchdown that put A&M in a position to double dip coming out of the half since they deferred. You also can’t forget the drive by Texas just before half, where Manning and the offense short circuited when they had an opportunity to get points.

It felt like Texas was on the ropes even they were only down a score because the offense was not doing anything to inspire confidence.

Then the second half kicked off. The defense forced the A&M offense to punt four straight times to start the second half with three of those possessions being three and outs. The Texas offense followed that up by putting together three consecutive scoring drives (field goal, touchdown, touchdown) and suddenly the Horns had the momentum and a 10-point lead.

I thought Arch was going to run, then I thought he was going to be over the line of scrimmage, then I thought he might have overshot Wingo. That play was a rollercoaster of emotions. Wingo has dropped some easy ones this year, but I am glad he was able to haul that in. That was a momentum shifter.

Hell of a call here by Sark. Townsend has gone in that split-zone motion so many times this year and this time they break tendency and hand it off. A&M was caught completely flat footed. Beautiful stuff.

This was the dagger. Manning used his legs several times in this game, but mostly buying time and scrambling. This was a designed quarterback run all the way and he shows patience, good change of direction, and the ability to run through contact on his way to the end zone. Inject this stuff directly into my veins! This wasn’t Arch’s best game by any stretch, but he made some big-time plays that will show up on the tape. The throw on this game drive to Endries after evading pressure was big time.

Chef’s kiss. Arch has made plays like this throughout the season and he was doing it again on Friday. When you look past the box score and look at the tape and the context, it is easy to see why people are still high on him.

Manning aside, Texas outscored A&M 24-7 in the second half of this matchup. Complementary football was played and they looked like the more physical team. Credit to this team for rallying in the locker room and coming out to handle business in a big spot.

Quintrevion Wisner and Jack Endries earned game balls

The Texas run game has been lackluster all season, but that didn’t make a shit last night. Wisner once again terrorized Texas A&M on the ground after gashing them for 200 yards from scrimmage last year. The Longhorns hadn’t had a 100-yard rusher all season, but Wisner changed that on Friday, totaling 155 yards on the ground on 19 touches, while also chipping in with two catches for two catches for 19 yards.

Being able to get some balance from the run game was absolutely HUGE for Texas and really made things pop for the offense in the second half. Folks in College Station are going to HATE Wisner for a long time with how he has carried the mail against them the past two matchups.

Wisner wasn’t the only offensive skill player who came up clutch on Friday. Tight end Jack Endries has had a fairly quiet year after transferring in, but he produced his best performance of the year against the Aggies.

This was the type of catch-and-run ability that we had been waiting to see from Endries this year. He lead the way receiving for Texas on Friday night with four catches for 93 yards — 23.3 yards per catch from your tight end ain’t too shabby. Game ball for the man from Berkeley. I hope he hangs around one more year since this year didn’t go as expected. He still has the ability to be a weapon within this offense.

Seniors Michael Taaffe and Ethan Burke came up big for Texas

One time for the seniors from Westlake! Taaffe and Burke both left their mark in their final ride in DKR on Friday.

Burke was Texas’ most disruptive component up front on Friday, as he logged nine tackles, half of a tackle for loss, a pass deflection, and of course the blocked field goal early on. Colin Simmons got most of the headlines this year, but Burke was a very steady and productive component for Texas this year.

You really can’t say much more about Michael Taaffe, aka Moooooookkkkiiieeeee. Dude absolutely lived the dream during his time at Texas. Walks on, earns his stripes and scholarship, becomes an All-American, and closes out his career as a two-time winner against A&M with interceptions in both games. Such a fantastic story and a good dude on top of that. I am wishing him all of the success in the world as he prepares to take his talents to Sundays.

Texas had a good game plan against Marcel Reed

Marcel Reed has been good for A&M this year and no doubt made some strides for them this season. But for the second year in a row Texas had a pretty good game plan against him and help him in check. You knew he was going to use his feet to extend plays and break the pocket, which he was able to do at times (12 carries for 71 yards), but would he be able to do the dropback quarterback things and brutalize you from the pocket?

Reed ended the night 20-of-32 passing for 180 yards and he threw two interceptions in the last two drives of the game. Through two games against Texas, he has yet to score against the Longhorns defense.

The Texas defense was down star linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. in this game and had overall had been giving up a lot of yards in the weeks leading up in this matchup. They managed to turn in a solid performance against an offense that can put up points in a hurry, so you have to tip your hat to them closing out the season on a high note, all things considered.

Special teams turned in a winner to close out the season

Texas is really going to miss their specialists next year. Jack Bouwmeester and Mason Shipley were both plus additions for Texas this year and they closed out their last regular-season game with nice performances. Bouwmeester averaged 49 yards per punt (long of 58) and dropped three of them inside A&M’s 20-yard line, while Shipley was perfect on fields goals and PATs, with his longest boot coming from 46 yards out.

You can’t take good specialist play for granted and Texas is going to have to replace two good ones over the offseason. You also need to make sure that Ryan Niblett stays put, because you know there will be teams trying to poach him with the year he had as a return man.

What a win.

I don’t know what the committee is going to do on Sunday, but at this point it is out of everyone’s hands. Enjoy this one because the rivalry W’s are always sweet, and this one tastes even sweeter with the Longhorns playing spoiler to A&M’s perfect regular season aspirations and their chance to play in Atlanta.

No 24-hour rule this week. Enjoy it wholeheartedly and we will see what awaits the Longhorns come Selection Sunday.

Hook ’Em!