Failed toss sweep part of further red-zone woes for Texas in loss to Ohio State

ARLINGTON, Texas — Without T’Vondre Sweat, the jumbo package for the Texas Longhorns just doesn’t have the same jumbo to it.

On Friday, that helped lead to another failed effort in the red zone for head coach Steve Sarkisian’s program at AT&T Stadium, ending a second straight season in the College Football Playoff semifinals because of an inability to score touchdowns in the red zone.

This year, the failure was more egregious than the loss in the Sugar Bowl that required Texas to score a touchdown against the clock from the Washington 12-yard line and 13-yard line, but also reflective of struggles that surfaced in recent weeks — the Horns failed to score a red-zone touchdown in three trips in the SEC Championship game loss to the Bulldogs and went 1-of-3 in red-zone touchdown rate against the Sun Devils in the Peach Bowl.

Thirteen months ago, in the last game Sarkisian’s team played at AT&T Stadium, the 360-pound Sweat hit the Heisman pose after a two-yard touchdown reception in the Big 12 Championship game against Oklahoma State to give Texas a 21-7 lead late in the first quarter.

Working with fellow defensive tackle Byron Murphy in the jumbo package, Sweat gave the Horns some heft in short yardage. And perhaps his self-advocacy played a role in Sarkisian’s play-calling decisions.

“I was going to Coach [Kyle] Flood all the time and Coach Sark because I was waiting on this opportunity to get this touchdown and they told me there was the game, I was gonna get the touchdown. Coach told me that was going to be the first play he called when we got on the goal line. He wasn’t lying,” Sweat said.

Without Sweat and Murphy, Sarkisian doesn’t have the same blocking ability in the jumbo package — or the big personalities clamoring to have their big moment.

Perhaps those factors weighed on Sarkisian’s decision making when he went away from the jumbo package after inserting freshman running back Jerrick Gibson on his first-down play call at the 1-yard line following a pass interference penalty drawn by junior wide receiver Matthew Golden on a glance-route run-pass option, a staple play in the Texas offense.

The inside run to Gibson came behind redshirt freshman offensive lineman Jaydon Chatman, who delivered a crushing block on the edge, but with Gibon’s depth nine yards behind the line of scrimmage, the play took long enough to develop that Ohio State’s high-level defensive line was able to create some penetration and receive all the support they needed from the compressed second and third levels to stop Gibson for no gain.

“When we got down to the one, we went to a heavy package, which is Jerrick’s package. We ran it, and we obviously didn’t get much movement at all,” Sarkisian said.

So Sarkisian immediately went away from the jumbo package or any attempt at a play-action pass or even from the Arch Manning package to a play that the staff carried into the game on the Texas head coach’s call sheet for the goal line — a gun run toss sweep to sophomore running back Quintrevion Wisner.

“We had a plan to try to get the ball on the edge when we got down there. They went to big people. I can’t quite tell — It was on the far side of where it got leaky,” Sarkisian said. “But that’s one of those plays, if you block it all right, you get in the end zone, and we didn’t, and we lose quite a bit of yardage.”

Texas lost seven yards on the play when unanimous All-American Caleb Downs and first-team All-Big Ten selection Lathan Ransom screamed through the line of scrimmage and into the backfield to bring down Wisner.

The All-American for the Longhorns, junior left tackle Kelvin Banks, was pulling on the play expecting Wisner to be able to cut off of him.

“I thought it was gonna be a big hole behind me because that’s kind of how the play is designed,” Banks said.

Instead of the play unfolding as it was drawn up by Sarkisian, Banks said he heard a scream and turned to see Downs making the play. The scream served as the death rattle for the Texas football season after Ewers was put into obvious passing situations on third and fourth down thanks to the awful play-calling decision by Sarkisian.

Given the stakes of the moment, it might have been the single worst of his career, coming down seven points with a little more than three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and a berth in the national title game on the line.

“At that point, you’re kind of stuck behind the eight ball because we knew we were in four-down territory because of the score of the game,” Sarkisian said.

Those obvious passing situations led to Ewers reacquainting himself with star Ohio State defensive end Jack Sawyer, his old roommate from the semester the Texas quarterback spent in Columbus.

On third down, Sawyer beat Texas junior right guard Cole Hutson on an inside move, forcing a hopeful throw by Ewers towards freshman wide receiver Ryan Wingo, who was battling some physical coverage in the back of the end zone.

The fourth-down call had little chance of success, too, as Sawyer used a speed rush on junior right tackle Cam Williams, who missed the Peach Bowl due to the knee sprain he sustained in the win over Clemson. Sawyer soundly whipped Williams on the play, leaving the big right tackle out over his toes and off balance and Sawyer immediately pressuring Ewers, forcing a fumble and returning it 83 yards for the game-sealing touchdown.

“I was okay even if we didn’t score — not that I didn’t want score — but thinking, ‘All right, they’re going to have to be backed up, and we’ll probably get one more possession with good field position,’” Sarkisian said.

“The last thing you think is the sack, and it’s going to bounce right to the guy, and he’s going to run for a touchdown. So, it’s unfortunate that that was the circumstances, because it was a really nice drive by the offense to get all the way down there. First and goal on the one and we don’t score, you, quite frankly, probably don’t deserve to win that way.”

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