Texas Defense Leaves Its Mark

Throughout the season, Texas owned opponents in the third quarter, outscoring them, 105-3.

But in Saturday’s Rose Bowl game against Michigan, the Longhorns were the ones taking it on the chin after halftime. With the Wolverines dominating the line of the scrimmage on both sides of the ball, Texas was outscored, 17-7, in the third quarter and trailed, 31-21, early in the fourth.

“It was frustrating because it seemed like we couldn’t stop them,” Texas defensive tackle Rodrique Wright said. “We were making mistakes, and they were killing us on special teams with No. 15 [Steve Breaston], starting drives with a short field.”

Michigan had the ball six times in the second half and came away with points five times. But the one time the Wolverines punted, on their first possession of the fourth quarter, the defensive stand seemed to wake up the Longhorns.

With the football on their 13-yard line, the Wolverines gained eight yards in three plays and were forced to punt. The key play for Texas on the short drive was a seven-yard sack by backup defensive tackle Derek Lokey on Michigan freshman Chad Henne.

“We were not about to panic,” Texas linebacker Derrick Johnson said. “We’ve been down before, and we knew that this was going to be a close game because Michigan is a good team. But we just had an attitude all week that we would not have any regrets after this game.”

With the Wolverines determined to stop Texas running back Cedric Benson, who finished with 70 yards in 23 carries, the Longhorns turned to Rose Bowl most valuable player Vince Young once they got the ball back at midfield.

In eight plays, Young drove Texas 50 yards with his passing and running. He capped the possession with a 10-yard touchdown run to cut Michigan’s lead to 31-28 with 9:51 remaining. It was then up to the Longhorns’ defense to make plays.

“Michigan had exploited a couple of our flaws, and we knew that we had to get the ball back to the offense,” Texas safety Michael Huff said. “We knew that Vince was hot, and our offense was rolling. We wanted to get them off the field, three plays and out.”

That didn’t happen.

Michigan drove 60 yards in 11 plays and held on to the ball for nearly four minutes before settling for a 32-yard field goal by Garrett Rivas to extend the lead to 34-28. Although they had given up points, it wasn’t a touchdown, which left an opportunity for the Longhorns.

“We’ve had a lot of big games this year where we trailed but ended up victorious,” Huff said. “We expected that to happen again.”

On Saturday, Young had to rally Texas twice.

“It was obvious that they did not think twice about our pass game,” said Benson, who had his lowest rushing total of the season.

Michigan’s “stop-the-run-first” defense worked on designed running plays but not when Young dropped back to pass and then ran. He accounted for all 69 yards in a three-play drive, including a 23-yard touchdown run that put Texas ahead, 35-34, with 4:56 left.

But again, the Longhorns’ defense failed to hold the lead. After a 53-yard kickoff return by Breaston, the Wolverines needed five plays to jump back on top with a 42-yard field goal by Rivas with 3:04 remaining.

Setting the stage for the Longhorns’ final drive of the game, Young accounted for 42 yards before Dusty Mangum’s 37-yard game-winning field goal.

“I think that this game definitely makes a statement that we’re a tough football team,” said Johnson, the Nagurski Trophy and Butkus Award winner. “Going into the fourth quarter, things did not look too great for us. But we never gave up.”