Sarkisian points to self-inflicted injury as main reason for Texas Tech loss – The Daily Texan

Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian believes the Longhorns inflicted too many self-inflicted wounds to put themselves in a position to win Saturday’s game against Texas Tech.

Sarcian said Monday that his feeling after the loss to the Red Raiders immediately came true after reading the tape of the game. The Longhorns allowed too many chances to win.

“That’s the frustrating part because I think we’re at this level and I think we have a style of play that we can be proud of,” Sarkisian said. “We didn’t play at that level. We did not play at an acceptable level of performance; This is our responsibility.

He cited his frustration when defenses jumped him for offsides on two separate third-and-long opportunities. Instead of stopping the Red Raiders’ offense on first down and forcing a punt, the Longhorns’ defense twice gave free plays to Texas Tech quarterback Donovan Smith for first downs.

Offensively, Sarkisian said his self-inflicted injury was being stopped on fourth-and-short when Texas was the leader. While it’s easy to blame one part or one moment for the failure, Sarkisian blames the entire team and coaching staff for the loss.

“It’s on all of us,” Sarsian said. “At the end of the day, it’s (the coaching staff’s) job to put the players in the best position to be effective. Then when they finally (the players) trust us to get you there, then it’s your job to execute.

It’s the first game of overtime that doesn’t work like Sarkeesian. Junior running back Bijan Robinson fumbled the ball, allowing Texas Tech to win on any score on its next drive.

Sarcian said that while losing is never fun, he thinks the running back department and the team as a whole did a good job of picking up Robinson after the hiccup.

“We naturally like the people we like and we like everyone on our team,” Sarsian said. We will try to lift each other next Saturday so that they can continue to develop and improve and finally play at a higher level.

The loss on the road to Texas Tech was similar to last year’s team in which they consistently closed out games with leads. In order to reverse the trend of allowing Texas to let a big second half slip away, Sarcian said it just had to happen for the team to take the lead. He also said that the team will gain confidence by taking the lead and performing easily.

“Hopefully, we’ll continue to put ourselves in the position[of the late lead]which means we’re playing good football,” Sarsian said. “Naturally, if you can do it once, you can do it twice. You’ll gain confidence in how you can do it.”