In the closing seconds of their Sugar Bowl game against the Washington Huskies, the Texas Longhorns came dangerously close to pulling off a historic victory, but they were unable to score in the red zone.
NEW ORLEANS — After it appeared all hope was lost a few minutes earlier, the Texas Longhorns had a chance to punch their ticket to the National Championship in the final seconds of Monday night’s College Football Playoff game against the Washington Huskies at the Sugar Bowl.
ESPN’s Analytics gave the Huskies a 99.9 percent chance to win with 1:02 remaining, but the Longhorns managed to tie the score at Washington’s 13-yard line after trailing 37-28 with 1:10 remaining in the game.
A gift-wrapped opportunity was lost by the Longhorns, 37-31, as quarterback Quinn Ewers threw three straight interceptions in the final ten seconds, bringing a bitter end to the team’s season.
The play-calling and execution in those crucial seconds will probably be questioned by Texas supporters; this is something that Ewers and Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian were both questioned about at the beginning of the postgame news conference.
A swing pass to running back Jaydon Blue with 15 seconds remaining was one of the more puzzling plays. Blue went out of bounds on the play and lost a yard, but he also squandered five crucial seconds that could have been used to get Texas back to the 13-yard line.
Sarkisian discussed this play and the overall ending scene in great depth.
Regarding the swing pass to Blue, Sarkisian stated, “Yeah, he was more of a tick down on the play.” “We were hoping to find JT (Ja’Tavion Sanders) or J Whitt (Jordan Whittington) with an opportunity. We’re attempting to set up a one-on-one confrontation so those guys can high-point it. They played excellent defence, of course, and Quinn did a great job of just finding Blue in space when he had a chance, but he had to get out of bounds.
The fact that you are out of timeouts makes the issue difficult. Therefore, we must use extreme caution to avoid finishing a ball short on the goal line, as doing so will effectively terminate the game. Thus, when
Ewers had a poor start but picked up steam in the second half, which is why the Longhorns had a late chance to win in the first place. But with the final second of the game ticking away, his final pass attempt to Adonai Mitchell was swatted aside. On the last drive, Mitchell was the intended receiver on three incompletions in the end zone. Mitchell had scored a one-yard touchdown earlier in the fourth quarter to keep Texas in the game.
“We’re trying to take a shot at the end zone, obviously if it falls short the game’s gonna be over,” Ewers stated. “I was looking to give my guys an opportunity to go make a play at the end of the day.”
The Longhorns’ disappointing last drive of the season has supporters wondering what might have been, and that’s something that will probably be on their minds all offseason.
