As the No. 3 Texas Longhorns pulled out a 20-10 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville on Saturday, one of the notable elements of how the game played out was the ability of Arkansas defensive coordinator Travis Williams to limit the Texas passing game.
Longhorns redshirt junior quarterback Quinn Ewers finished the win 20-of-32 passing for 176 yards and two touchdowns, averaging just 5.5 yards per attempt with the longest completion a 30-yard gain by sophomore running back Quintrevion Wisner on a wheel route. Of those 176 passing yards for Ewers, 119 yards came after the catch (67.6 percent), even though Ewers had an average depth of target of 9.4 yards, setting his season high by besting the Florida game by 0.1 yards.
The most notable miss by Ewers was a post route intended for junior wide receiver Matthew Golden on the game’s opening drive — the Houston transfer created some late separation, but Ewers overthrew the pass.
So how were the Razorbacks able to keep the Longhorns from producing the explosive plays that Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is always seeking even though Ewers did take some shots downfield?
With the benefit of two weeks to prepare for the Horns after a 63-31 loss to the Rebels that featured Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart throwing for 515 yards and six touchdowns, the Hogs turned to the three-high safety defense popularized by Cyclones defensive coordinator Jon Heacock in one of the most important defensive innovations of this century.
Because of that defense, Ewers was 1-of-6 passing for 20 yards on throws 20-plus yards downfield, according to Pro Football Focus, accounting for half of his incompletions with two more coming on dropped passes.
“They played exclusively with the three-safety defense with guys deep and they were going to try to make us earn it and see how patient we would be moving the football,” Sarkisian said after the game. “That’s when you get in the locker room at halftime and you make those adjustments. I thought we played really efficient football in the second half, so, I was proud of the guys that way.”
With Arkansas dominating the time of possession the third quarter, draining 11:25 off the clock while running 23 plays to just nine for Texas. In the fourth quarter, however, the stat flipped with the Horns gaining 118 yards on 22 plays that took 10:38.
The game’s most important drive came early in the fourth quarter after Arkansas had scored 10 straight points to make it 13-10. Texas responded with an eight-play, 75-yard drive to extend the lead back to 10 points, then finished the game with a grinding 14-play, 43-yard effort that took the final 6:55 off the clock.
“They were going to make it really difficult for us to hit some shots down the field. We’ve got to look at the film to see exactly what and why, but every game is different, every game takes on a life and a personality of its own, and then it’s my job to adjust things, to put ourselves and our team in the best position to try to win the game,” Sarkisian said.
“I felt like we had to re-establish ourselves on the ground coming out of halftime. I told the team at halftime that was the plan, so that we could stay ahead of the sticks, stay out of third and longs, extend drives, and play efficient football. So you have to adjust.”
For a team that committed eight penalties and turned the ball over four times in the 30-15 loss to Georgia, with the turnovers coming in part because of numerous communication errors along the offensive line, and saw penalties play a huge role in a closer-than-necessary 27-24 win over Vanderbilt in Nashville, Arkansas made a smart calculation that forcing Texas to execute consistently was a potential pathway to winning.
Ultimately, the Horns played clean enough football to win with just two penalties for 15 yards and the team’s first turnover-free performance since the road win over the Wolverines.
But to truly assess how well Ewers played in a performance that saw the Texas quarterback show some poor pocket presence at times, it’s important to understand that the three-safety defense is explicitly designed to take away big passing plays, puts the middle safety in position to defend glance-route run-pass options over the middle by helping the linebacker put into conflict on those plays, and ensures that there are deep defenders to clean up any leaky runs or keep yards after the catch from turning into huge, game-changing plays.
Beyond the coverage bust on Wisner’s wheel route, Arkansas largely played assignment-sound football on the back end, a critical factor in keeping the game close until Texas put it away in the fourth quarter.
The three-high defense is also why calls to bench Ewers in favor of redshirt freshman Arch Manning fall so absolutely flat — sure, Manning has proven that his deep-ball accuracy is better than Ewers, at least against the overmatched opponents Manning faced early in the season, but against the so-called flyover defense employed by the Razorbacks, that deep-ball accuracy isn’t capable of serving as a difference-maker for the Longhorns because of how the three-high structure takes those plays away.
Manning has also struggled under pressure this season, fumbling three times.
To accomplish the team’s goals, Texas will likely need better play from Ewers, but the running game remains a bigger concern because if teams are going to play with deep safeties, whether it’s a two-high or three-high structure, the Longhorns have to be able to run the ball consistently and avoid negative plays like tackles for loss or penalties.
Do that and as long as Ewers can make smart decisions and deliver throws with accuracy to allow his pass catchers to create yards after the catch, his playmakers can do enough to ensure Texas has a chance to win titles.