Texas’ third-quarter problem goes beyond the halftime script

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian treats halftime like a second kickoff — the staff meets, the adjustments get made, and the players walk out knowing the first calls of the second half, the same way they know the openers before a game.

For five seasons, that routine worked. This season, the halftime script keeps running into the same wall a few snaps after it starts.

In the six games since the opener, the opening snap of Texas’ first second-half possession has gained 37 yards combined. The other 15 snaps on those possessions lost 10 yards. That adds up to 27 yards on 21 plays and no points. The opening possessions of those same games produced three touchdowns and a field goal.

Against Ole Miss, the cost was immediate. Texas led 24-3 at halftime, then an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty after the touchback started its offense at its own 12-yard line. On the fourth snap, Blake Purchase stripped Arch Manning and Kam Franklin recovered in the end zone. Ole Miss won the quarter 14-0 and outgained the Longhorns 63-19.

Just over a minute into the fourth quarter, the 21-point lead was gone. Texas won 34-27 anyway, but only after building a lead for the second time that night.

The quarter Texas keeps losing

Through seven games, Texas is 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the SEC. It has outscored opponents in every quarter except the third.

As of Oct. 28, Texas ranks 110th nationally and last in the SEC in third-quarter scoring at 3.9 points per game, according to TeamRankings. Twenty-one of its 27 points came in the 59-7 opener against Texas State. Over the next six games, opponents won the quarter 37-6. In SEC play, the margin is 31-3.

The possession count supports the concern. Texas has gone three-and-out on nine of 23 drives beginning in the third quarter, 39 percent, compared with 13 of 62 in the other quarters, 21 percent. That counts every offensive possession, including those ending a half or game. Against SEC opponents, the three-and-out rate in the third quarter is seven of 13, 53.8 percent.

There are limits to what the scoreboard says about the defense. Fourteen of those 37 opponent points came from Tennessee’s punt-return touchdown and Ole Miss’ fumble recovery, including the extra points. Texas’ offense and special teams have helped turn stalled possessions into immediate damage.

The opener is also the only game in which Texas scored on its first possession after halftime. The next six produced five punts and the fumble against Ole Miss.

Where the drives break down

Sarkisian walked through the routine Monday — a quick staff meeting, adjustments by unit, halftime film with the players, then the opening calls for the second half.

“Just like we would have openers to start the game, here’s what we’re going to call in the second half, and that’s probably on offense the most frustrating part,” Sarkisian said. “Here’s what we’re going to do now. Let’s go do it. And historically, that’s been good to us. It just hasn’t been that way this year.”

He has earned some benefit of the doubt. Texas outscored opponents in the third quarter in each of his first five seasons, 506-295 across 68 games including the postseason, and 108-26 last year alone. He isn’t scrapping the routine, but he said he’s “not opposed to making subtle tweaks and changes to what we do at halftime,” adding, “There’ll be probably a couple things we do different this Saturday night.”

The failures on the field are specific.

Against Florida, Texas reached 3rd and 1 on its first possession after halftime, then lost three yards on a Hollywood Smothers run. Across four SEC third quarters, Texas has converted 2-of-14 third downs, including just 2-of-7 third downs requiring three yards or fewer. Long-yardage situations explain only part of the trouble.

The rushing numbers need the same care. Texas has 24 yards on 30 third-quarter carries in conference play, but five of those attempts were sacks. Remove them and the offense still averages only 2.6 yards on its other runs.

The most useful film example comes from the second possession after halftime against Ole Miss.

On 3rd and 3, Sarkisian called a mesh concept with receivers crossing underneath. In Wescott Eberts’ breakdown, Jermaine Bishop and Michael Masunas nearly collide, the route spacing breaks down, and Andre Cojoe and Dylan Sikorski get hung up on an end-tackle twist. Pressure disrupts Manning’s feet and throw.

Eberts called it a good call for the down and distance, one that works against man or zone. Texas had an answer on the board and couldn’t execute it. That still leaves Sarkisian responsible for making sure his offense can run what he calls.

Cojoe was playing because Trevor Goosby had suffered what ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported was a season-ending knee injury in the first quarter. The protection problem had a personnel context, but the mesh play involved breakdowns beyond one replacement tackle.

Ian Boyd’s Inside Texas review of the Florida game identified one-read, mostly deep passing concepts against six-man pressure, including a protection that left tight end Spencer Shannon alone against an edge rusher. Those are decisions about what the offense can protect and how quickly Manning can deliver the ball. A different halftime message won’t settle them by itself.

There is something to build on

Quarter scoring can hide progress, too.

The touchdown drive that began Texas’ comeback against Ohio State started with 5:47 left in the third quarter, after Kade Phillips fell on Ryan Niblett’s muffed punt at the Texas 9. Texas went 91 yards in 15 plays and scored 41 seconds into the fourth. Most of that possession happened in a quarter in which Texas officially scored nothing.

Against Ole Miss, the go-ahead touchdown came on an 80-yard drive of six straight runs, built around Raleek Brown’s 47-yarder, the longest Texas run this season. Eberts’ separate rushing breakdown identified a larger role for Masunas alongside Emaree Winston in two-tight-end formations, and productive outside-zone blocking.

That is a starting point, with a catch — Eberts also showed how Ole Miss’ slants and twists handed Texas favorable blocking angles, and he doubts many opponents left on the schedule will do the same. Success against one front isn’t proof the offense is fixed.

Across the Oklahoma, Florida and Ole Miss games, Texas outscored opponents 58-20 before halftime and was outscored 61-24 afterward. The Longhorns lost the first two and won the third. Building a 24-3 lead against Ole Miss showed how good this team can be. Recovering after it disappeared showed resolve. Surviving the swing, though, is not the same as fixing it.

Texas climbed to No. 11 in the Oct. 25 AP poll, with the first CFP rankings due Nov. 3. Another avoidable loss could put those playoff hopes in jeopardy. Last year, a 34-10 lead entering the fourth against Vanderbilt shrank to a 34-31 win. That year’s Florida loss was one of three on a 9-3 regular-season résumé that finished No. 13 in the CFP rankings, outside the field. Texas still has time to avoid that finish. Mississippi State arrives Saturday night. The protection, route timing and short-yardage execution have to hold up before another lead gets smaller.

Texas has shown it can put a drive together once a game starts slipping away. What it hasn’t shown is whether it can find one before it has to.