Sarkisian Talks Riding the Defense to Win Games

 It’s no secret that the defense has been the best part of the Longhorns’ team up to this point; Texas has had one of the best defenses in the country, which also includes a stop rate that is close to the best in the nation.

The defense continued as the star of the show when it took the field in Lexington on Saturday, especially when it stopped Kentucky on the goal line for four straight plays in overtime to effectively give Texas the win.

The defense had a rough game against Florida a few weeks ago, but it seems as though it has worked through its problems. Since then, it’s held a good Oklahoma team to just six points, and helped secure the win over the Wildcats.

After the win on Saturday, head coach Steve Sarkisian was asked if the team needed to ride the defense to win games.

“I think at the end of the day, you play to the strengths of your team,” Sarkisian said. “The strengths of our team right now is our defense and our special teams. Every team around the country is different. If we won today 43-35, you guys would be asking me about our defense. Well, we’re fortunate enough that we’re playing really good defense right now. That’s a good place to start, playing good defense. We’re playing good special teams. You can ride that. To do that, you’ve got to play efficient offensive football. And we’re not playing efficient enough. We’re going to keep riding those guys because they deserve it and they’re doing it. We’re going to continue to try to shrink the game and slow the game down. These guys running upwards of 90 plays; sooner or later, the dam will break. We’ve got to be more efficient offensively to keep our defense off the field.”

If Sarkisian wants Texas to have a more efficient offense and take pressure off the defense, then he’ll have to address a multitude of problems, which also happen to include questionable play-calling by himself.

There are issues surrounding the entirety of the offense, and it needs to be addressed quickly. However, the Longhorns are running out of time; they will have to travel to face Mississippi State this weekend and then head back home to face a No. 10-ranked Vanderbilt before taking advantage of a bye week to prepare for No. 5 Georgia.

The schedule doesn’t get any easier from there, though. Texas will still have to face Arkansas and No. 3 Texas A&M after Georgia.

The offense looked good against Sam Houston State, arguably the worst team in the country, and it looked fairly decent against Oklahoma, but these issues have stayed consistent since Week 1. So, something will need to change.

If no improvements are made, the. Texas could be in deep trouble. There is already a level of concern surrounding the program; we’ll see whether or not the concern should drop or rise after Texas takes on Mississippi State on Saturday.