Texas Longhorns Offensive Line Continues to Struggle vs. Vanderbilt

The Texas Longhorns offensive line was once again the weakest link for the team.

Texas Longhorns running back Jaydon Blue (23) is brought down short of the first down marker by Vanderbilt Commodores defensive lineman Yilanan Ouattara (5) during the second half of their game at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. / Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The two times the Texas Longhorns gave Vanderbilt the short field, the Commodores took the biggest advantage and tallied 14 points. The turnovers, in addition to 10 penalties by the Longhorns, either took points away from Texas' scoreboard or added more in favor of Vanderbilt.

With a bye week between this game and the home matchup against Florida on Nov. 9, the Longhorn offensive line must work on avoiding these easy mistakes so as not to struggle against the Gators and the rest of the teams in the schedule.

The Texas o-line gave up four sacks in addition to nine tackles for losses, and though that is a small improvement from the six sacks allowed last Saturday against Georgia, it is far from the standard head coach Steve Sarkisian preaches. This line is experienced and has no excuse not to play to the best level, and we know they can be better. In the first six games of the season, the offensive line only allowed six sacks, this number has almost doubled in the past couple of weeks as it reaches 11.

Sarkisian credits a lot of the issues to the amount of penalty calls the team had.

"I was getting a little frustrated," Sarkisian said. "It's one thing you get a holding penalty on a one-yard run, we were getting holding penalties on chunk plays, then you get backward. You get off schedule. I think when we're on schedule as an offense we're really good, and we got off schedule in the second half and things got difficult for us."

Texas was forced into punting four times for 145 yards, which was still less than Vanderbilt's five for 241.

The next two weeks will be crucial for the development of a solid offensive line, which must improve communication and discipline going forward.

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