Baylor Roundtable: The farewell tour begins for Texas

Let’s start with the positives. First, the No. 3 Texas Longhorns are 3-0 for the fir- okay sorry everyone has heard that 300 times this week. Second, it’s the third straight week the Longhorns have closed out the opponent in the second half and the second straight week they’ve scored 21 points in the fourth quarter. What’s another positive you took away from last week’s 31-10 win over Wyoming?

Daniel Seahorn (@DanielSeahorn) - Texas flexed its muscles by pounding the rock in the second half, which was something I was calling for when I could tell early that Quinn Ewers was off in the passing game. Texas is going to have to lean into the run game throughout the year, so it was good to see Jonathon Brooks have a breakout game on a night where he had to truly shoulder the load with CJ Baxter being held out.

Gerald Goodridge (@ghgoodridge) - For the second week in a row, part of closing out an opponent featured the running game in a big way. Against Alabama, Texas ran the ball nine times on its final drive to close out the game and leaned on the run to extend the lead to two scores against Wyoming. Jonathan Brooks very clearly needs to get some more volume to get going and it showed against Wyoming, but his ability to pound and avoid negative plays was on display, he had just two of his 21 carries go for no gain or negative yardage in the win, while 14 went for four or more yards.

Cameron Parker (@camerondparker) - Jonathan Brooks is my other positive. With his best performance in a Texas jersey yet, Brooks showed he’s the RB1 and continues to bust out critical runs on 3rd down and spark scoring drives.

On the negative side, Texas continues to start slow and all three games this year have been a one-score game heading into halftime. Although, one of those was Alabama the other two being Rice and Wyoming. On a level of Ja’Tavion Sanders (0) to Vince Young (10), how concerned are you with the slow starts?

Daniel - Adonai Mitchell (5). I’m not smashing the panic button yet, but Texas will need to learn to start fast because the competition only gets tougher from here.

Gerald - Maalik Murphy (6). I know that Texas has the playmakers to get it done and Sark is an elite scripter so I am getting concerned, but I also know they have the tools to get it figured out.

Cameron - Austin Jordan (4). If we see it again against Baylor, I’ll raise it to a Keilan Robinson (7). I’m not going to put too much stock into the season opener with Alabama lurking and the first quarter of the Wyoming game was weird because the Horns only had possession twice and scored at least a field goal.

Your MVP of the team through non-conference play is…

Daniel - Jahdae Barron. That dude is balling and has arguably been the best player on the team through the first few weeks of the season.

Gerald - This might not be everybody’s pick, but Jahdae Barron is mine. He’s third on the team in tackles, has really shown great fundamentals to make key open field plays, and had the game-changing pick-6 against Alabama. Dude just seems to be in the right place at the right time to make key plays.

Cameron - Xavier Worthy. Remember when people wanted him to transfer? Worthy leads the team in receptions and receiving yards and is responsible for two massive touchdowns this season. He’s also Ewers’ security blanket.

Does Texas kick off the Big 12 farewell tour with a win against the Baylor Bears?

Daniel (3-0) - Yes. Baylor is not in a great place right now and they are having to start their backup quarterback this week who hasn’t had great results throwing the ball so far.

Texas 35, Baylor 17

Gerald (3-0) - I think so. Baylor is without Blake Shapen and that offense has really struggled without him. I think Texas 31, Baylor 14

Cameron (2-1) - Texas 34, Baylor 16