Horns247 Board

It may have been to honor Darrell Royal, but it was classic Bryan Harsin.

The Horns, as Mack Brown had promised, came out in the wishbone, only to motion out of it.

Jaxon Shipley took a backwards pitch from David Ash, rolled right and threw another lateral back to Ash.

Ash gathered himself and hit Greg Daniels in stride nearly 50 yards downfield.

Great execution and what a tribute to Coach Royal.

Because of the success of the play, you can be sure it'll be on all the highlights shows this afternoon and evening across the country.

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While the trick play may have got Texas started, it's not what sustained the offense.

Texas ran and passed the ball well almost the entire game.

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609 total yards against one of the better defenses in the Big 12.

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David Ash finished 25 of 31 for 364 yards and two TDs.

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Ball protection continues to be a major positive for Ash and the Texas offense as a whole.

Texas did not turn the ball over all day long.

Ash threw into double coverage deep one time (it was somehow caught by Jaxon Shipley). He fumbled once on a QB scramble.

Joe Bergeron, who has had more issues fumbling than the other backs, did not bobble it on his 12 carries yet still ran hard.

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For the second consecutive week, Mike Davis was the recipient of a deep play-action pass from David Ash for a one-play touchdown drive.

This one went for 61 yards and put Texas up by two scores.

Ash is getting much better at making the throw earlier and on time since the beginning of the year.

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Texas had to make a move at field goal kicker. Anthony Fera has been erratic since taking over five games into this season.

Today, Fera had a kicked block from straight up the middle and later missed a PAT (his second of the year).

Nick Jordan replaced him in the second half.

Jordan was tested on the first drive of the third quarter. And he came through.

Jordan nailed a 37-yarder. It was important because it gave Texas a three-score lead and put even more pressure on the ISU offense.

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Jaxon Shipley led the Horns with eight catches for 137 yards. Even though he didn't score a touchdown, it was clearly Shipley's best day of the year overall.

He had three great catches.

There was a leaping grab on the sideline where he got one foot in on a third down drive.

There was another leaping grab over the middle in the third quarter for another first down on third down.

Then there was the catch in the fourth quarter against double coverage (a ball Ash shouldn't have thrown).

But Shipley also made the little plays that counted, like a first down catch on a low ball underneath on the last play of the third quarter.

Ash looked more for Shipley this game than he has in any so far this season.

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Iowa State had a hard time defending the Texas run game.

When Texas motioned for the jet sweep in the first half, it took one player out of the box for the Cyclones and Texas, Johnathan Gray specifically, took advantage of it by cutting back on an inside zone play.

That motion really opened up the running lanes.

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I know Texas gave up just 7 points on defense but they also allowed four drives into Texas territory in the first half alone.

Why?

Iowa State had a ton of success running the ball. They rushed for 111 yards in the first half alone.

ISU averaged 4.6 yards per carry and only abandoned the run after the Longhorn offense put the pressure on ISU to score more to keep up.

Texas can not give up 4.6 yards per carry to a relatively weak offense and expect to beat better teams.

In the first half, Texas continued to play some junk defenses, mugging its linebackers on the outside, running zone blitzes, etc.

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Carrington Byndom and Josh Turner both had easy picks on poor throws by the ISU quarterback.

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Lots of freshmen got playing time - more than usual at least.

Shiro Davis saw his most extensive action of the season at defensive end and made one tackle for loss and had a couple of pressures on the quarterback.

Cayleb Jones caught Case McCoy's only pass for a 20-yard gain on a nice sit-down route over the middle.

Marcus Johnson and Kendall Sanders also got plenty of reps in the 4th quarter.

Kevin Vaccaro played nickel on ISU's last drive and Duke Thomas manned the corner spot.

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But the real story for the freshmen was the start of Peter Jinkens. Jinkens has moved ahead of Demarco Cobbs in the Horns base nickel package.

Jinkens missed one tackle on a run play in the first half but otherwise was solid the rest of the afternoon.

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Luke Poehlmann subbed most of the second half at guard for Mason Walters.

Garrett Porter played quite a bit, too. But it looked like the Horns settled with Poehlmann in the role after Walters exited with an injury.

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On ISU's four trips into Texas territory in the first half, here were the results:

- Punt
- Interception
- Missed field goal
- Touchdown

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On the lone touchdown by ISU, I thought it was a poor effort by the DBs on the play that allowed ISU to waltz into the end zone.

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I really liked the play-action playcall on third down to Greg Daniels.

Bryan Harsin really did a nice job keeping the ISU defense off balance.

About the only questionable play-call I had was the play-action to the tight end on 4th and 1.

I thought going deep to the tight end was asking for a little too much in a tight situation.

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For those not at the stadium, I can tell you that the wind was a significant factor in the game.

Texas' two true deep attempts both came with the wind.

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Happy for Barrett Matthews to get the TD.

He's a senior who is primarily a blocker and one of the team's most unsung players.

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IMO, it was the second best offensive performance of the year behind only the explosion at Ole Miss.

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The defense still played too much bend but don't break for my taste, particularly against the run.

Too often, the Texas defense didn't just let its players make plays. Instead, the Horns got cute on D.

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Against TCU, the Horns will have to play better run defense.

The Frogs have a better running QB and a better RB than the Cyclones do.

The Frogs also have a very talented defense.

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Texas is now 8-2 with two games remaining on the regular season schedule.

After losing to OU 63-21, how many people thought Texas would win its next four?

I put the blame for the OU loss squarely on the head coach, the coaching staff and the players.

In the same way, I'm putting the season's turnaround on those same folks. Texas has both out-played and out-coached its last two opponents.