While the offense was great, the Texas defense made huge strides in WVU win

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Texas Longhorns had been nonetheless pissed off about their loss to Texas Tech final week, so their plan is to take their anger out on the subsequent workforce.

Enter, West Virginia.

“Final week was a slap within the face for us as a result of we didn’t really feel like we had been enjoying at our greatest,” Longhorns linebacker Jalan Ford mentioned after a 38-20 win over the Mountaineers. “Particularly going there and feeling like you need to have received… It’s extra painful than dropping a recreation outright. Everybody has a chip on their shoulders and so they’re all enjoying to their benefit.”

West Virginia entered the sport with a median of 217.5 dashing yards per recreation and had a strong efficiency towards Virginia Tech. The Longhorns held the Mountaineers to 61 dashing yards on 30 carries and largely dominated West Virginia’s passing offense. Quarterback JT Daniels threw for 253 yards with only one landing. He tried 48 passes, his most all season, and that will need to have been affected by his lack of ability to play towards the sturdy Texas high seven.

Ford mentioned the line of defense performed nicely, which is why he was capable of full a team-high 14 tackles, together with seven unassisted stops.

“These are my folks,” he mentioned. “Linebackers don’t make it with out them. If I make a steal, it’s due to them and so they’re doing their job. Nobody on this workforce is egocentric.”

Texas led 28-7 at halftime thanks largely to an environment friendly offense, however the protection didn’t enable the Climbers to attain till the ultimate drive of the primary half. Even so, the climbers take a very long time to attain, so whereas the offense retains accumulating factors, the protection doesn’t enable for explosive play. West Virginia had just one recreation over 20 yards, with Daniels throwing a 32-yard move to Bryceford Wheaton within the third quarter, when Texas had taken a 35-7 lead.

Working again Billy Robinson’s Longhorns rushed for 101 yards and touchdowns on 20 carries, and he felt the workforce additionally performed with an angle.

“That loss final week harm,” he mentioned. “It’s nice to see us seem the best way we got here after.”

Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian echoed Robinson’s sentiments in his postgame information convention.

“Defensively, we went off within the first half and we performed complementary soccer,” he mentioned. “Jaylan Ford may be very energetic, Barryn Sorrell is chasing behind the quarterback. I believe our protection this week, our corners are higher linked. I believe when issues go mistaken, we’re making key stops more often than not. ball.”

West Virginia went to 3rd down 18 instances, with 9 transitions, and the Climbers additionally transformed three fourth downs in 5 makes an attempt. These don’t have the identical influence as they did for Texas Tech as a result of the protection doesn’t enable a bunch of those transitions in a row.

“I believe we’ve executed a greater job of working collectively on the back-end and the front-end to take a number of the strain as a result of our protection is narrower,” he mentioned.

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