The Craig Way Show
Steve Sarkisian's postgame comments after Texas escapes Arizona State
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At Big R we carry great products from brands you love and trust, like Yeti, Aryan, Mountain Knobs, Carhart, and more. Planning to upgrade your garage? Big R has you covered with tools from DeWalt and Milwaukee. And for your furry, feathered, and four-legged friends, Big R has a wide selection of feed. Whether it is for your dog, cat, horse, or chickens, need your items fast? Shop online for pick up in store the same day. So what are you waiting for? Swing by your local Big R today, or shop online. We're back. It's the Craig Way Show with Hall of Fame Broadcaster in voice of the Texas Longhorns. Craig Way. The Conch football playoff quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl between Notre Dame and Georgia underway. The Bulldogs are already going to have to punt on their opening drive. In fact, under review right now because it looks like Notre Dame actually forcing a phone call as Georgia quarterback Gunnar stalked him with scrambling out to his right, trying to throw the ball away. Actually, the Notre Dame defensive back knocked it out. So it was a live ball, went out of bounds. So Georgia will still have to punt. They'll be backed up a few yards in their own territory. But remember, they're starting to punt her. Brett Thorson out for the year after suffering that season ending knee injury against Texas and the ACC Championship. So Drew Miller, a freshman from Iowa, is about to attempt his first ever collegiate punt in his collegiate career. So keep an eye on that. But Notre Dame's defense looked pretty good. There was a defensive pass interference call that did extend the Georgia's drive. I think they had three plays for negative two yards to start, but then that defensive play defensive pass interference rather gave Georgia a first down. But that was their only first down in that first quarter before getting ready to attempt this punt and get the ball back to the fighting Irish for their first drive in offense. So we'll see what Riley Leonard in this fighting Irish offense can do. They are a one-point favorite in this game. The winner of this game will take on Penn State next week. Let's hear some post-game sound from Steve Sarkeesian in Texas at 39 to 31 in victory over Arizona State in double overtime. You cannot imagine the emotions that Steve Sarkeesian in this Texas team felt down by a touchdown and overtime facing fourth and 13 able to come back and tie it. And then eventually win the game in double overtime after leading by double digits in the fourth quarter. So we'll start with Steve Sarkeesian's post-game opening remarks discussing this victory for Texas. First of all, hats off to Arizona State Coach Dillingham. They showed a ton of fighting, ton of resiliency. It's a really good football team. And, you know, when we went up 16 in the fourth quarter, their ability to come back and take this thing to overtime was very impressive. So congratulations to them on a heck of a season and a game play today. As far as our guys go today, not our cleanest game of the year, then that's okay to say that. But the one thing that I know about our group is when our backs are against the wall and when our best is needed, our best shows up time and time again. And the resiliency that these guys showed today was something that's a coach makes you really proud, you know, that, you know, we weren't at our best and it felt like a NCAA March Madness basketball game with the swings of emotions and things. But fourth and 15 in overtime to score, to come right back and score again, two-point conversion, and then a great play by Andrew Makuba. Just proud of these guys because not every game is going to be pretty, not every game is just going to go exactly how you want it to go. And there's going to be plenty of stuff that we're going to look at this tape and say we've got to do better and be better. But the one thing I won't have to say is that our toughness on our fight doesn't need to be better. And if there's one thing that you want as a calling card for your team is just that. And so I think it's a tribute to these guys up here and their leadership and the culture that we have and their ability to stay calm through the storm and execute when, like I said, when our best was needed. And we have not seen taxes complete a comeback performance this season, of course, really only two games where they've trailed by any margin. Georgia the first time around and got to a one-score game in the third quarter before Carson Beck completed that long third down out of his end zone. Bulldogs would pull away when that went 30 to 15. And then against Georgia in the SEC championship, trailed in the third quarter, got it to overtime, but could not complete the comeback, could not lead in overtime, ended up losing in the SEC championship. So for Texas, to be able to hold on, and then we'll actually really come from behind in overtime. And then when it shows really the determination and the grit from this Texas team, especially from from Quinn Ewers. Next thing from Sark, the third quarter, we talked about the issues in in the third quarters for Texas this season. There's a stat I did not get to share in the Longhorns game day on our pre-game show, but I'll share it with you guys now. Since the Florida game, so now six games, believe six games now, Texas has not scored a touchdown in the third quarter. It scored zero points in the third quarter yesterday. In fact, now, including yesterday's games, the last six games Texas has been out scored in the third quarter 60 to 16, 60 to 16. Now, they've been able to withstand Clemson and Arizona State. I cannot foresee them not scoring any points against Ohio State in the third quarter next week and holding on to a victory. But Steve Sarkeesian was asked about the third quarter in the fact that Arizona State basically controlled the entire third quarter on offense. Third quarter, in my opinion, was somewhat of a by-product of the first half. We only ran 21 plays in the first half of the game. And then the third quarter comes out, we go three and out, the very next play, we get the ball back after the goal line stand, we give up the safety. We just they did a great job. We knew coming into the game that they were a tremendous ball possession team and they do a great job and take care of the ball. Tonight was no different. They held the ball for 38 minutes, right? And they limit your opportunities as an offensive football team to, you know, to take advantage of that. And over time, what that does is that their style of play is they can wear on your defense. And, you know, clearly, we got fatigues on their defense week and their playmakers made some plays. The quarterback was scrambling around and Scataboo was as advertised. You know, he got stronger and it felt like as though you could see him, he was fatigued too. It was like heavyweight fight. He made some really critical plays and obviously on the goal ball. But to me, the third quarter was a little bit of a microcosm of really the first half and almost bled all the way into the second half of just, we didn't have a lot of opportunities and we weren't taking advantage of things on first and second down to stay ahead of the chains. We were getting in third longs, we were putting the ball and it got difficult. Yeah, look at the third quarter summary. Arizona State 125 yards, Texas eight. Eight. They average six yards per rush. Texas average negative point six. Not good. Negative three rushing arts in that third quarter for Texas. 100 for Arizona State. They had seven first downs. Texas would just one. There were two or four on third down. They ran 21 plays. The Texas is six. They average six yards per play. Texas had just one point three yards per play. And then the time of possession, Arizona State 12 and a half minutes, Texas, just two minutes total in that third quarter. The game plan for Arizona State to win this game, a key for an upset, you control the time of possession, you keep the offense on the field. And that was huge, because no matter how many big bodies you have on the defensive line, if you're on the field, for almost the entire game, you will get tired. You are a human being. You will get fatigued and tired. And despite them doing a great job of stopping Kim Skadibu in the first half, eventually the second half, they just did not have the energy to keep up with him. And we saw that in the second half when Skadibu was just running down Texas defenders. So credit to him, credit the Kenny Dillingham for a good offensive game plan. The key for Texas in this next upcoming matchup is just figuring out a way to not have so many three and now it's figuring out a way to keep your offense on the field and get into a rhythm because that goes hand in hand with not being able to run the football. If you only have six plays in a quarter and you run the ball for negative 0.6 yards per rush, you're not doing a great job of establishing the run. And on the other side, Arizona State defense, they're not tired. They're ready to go. So no matter what, if you're not able to get the offense or get the defense tired, you're not going to be able to establish run against Clemson. Texas was able to run a lot more plays and get that defense tired and fatigued. And that led to the second half, that led to Jaden Blue's 77-yard touchdown run. That led to Trey Wise or running over defenders. You need to be able to be on the field for more than just three plays on offense without putting the ball to allow your offense to one, get rhythm, but also to be able to start to wear down the opposing defensive front in Texas just really did not get to do that. Overall, in this game, the amount of rushing yards total, 53. And the fact that Texas was able to win this game averaging 1.8 yards per carry is crazy because the two games where they were not able to run the ball came against Georgia. Those were the two losses Texas had this year. So credit the Quinn Ears in the offensive line pass protection for finding out a way to mitigate not being able to run the ball and also not being able to kick a field goal. Last thing from start before we hit this break, defensively, despite the numbers that Arizona State put up, the defense was nails. And once again, finding ways to get stops on fourth down. Looking at this game overall, there was three different drives where Arizona State would turn the ball over on downs. One of those came on the Texas two-yard line. Now, of course, it did end up resulting in Texas safety on the ensuing play. But this Texas defensive line game after game has figured out a way to get goal line stops and Steve's occasion was asked about it. And here is his response. Well, it's pretty incredible. You know, these guys do such a good job of just saying, hey, protect the end zone. And if it's six inches, one yard, four yards, whatever that looks like, you know, they're going to stand in there. And I think it was there were three, six in the red area tonight, scoring. And that's, you know, I think that's a byproduct of them trusting one another and trusting the scheme. But I think it's also a byproduct of guys understanding when it's their time to make the play. They make the play. They tackle ferociously. There's a lot of white hats getting to the ball and they make catches tough. You know, they can test balls when they're thrown in the air. And I think all those things showed up tonight. And of course, they got the stop that mattered. That final third down interception, Andrew Makuba picking off Sam Levitt, the only Arizona State turnover in this game, I believe. Now, of course, there's three turnover on downs with the only interception or fumble coming to win the game. Andrew Makuba with the big playoff of Sam Levitt update in the all state sugar bowl between Notre Dame and Georgia. Georgia would punt, but not after two, two running into the kicker penalties on Notre Dame. Talk about deja vu from yesterday. Now, on the fortunate side for Notre Dame, it was fourth and 21, not fourth and four. So fourth and 21, then fourth and 16, then fourth and 11. But Georgia would punt the ball away. Notre Dame would end up punting it back. And now Georgia has it. So still zero, zero in the first quarter between Georgia and Notre Dame. More to come from Steve Sarkeesian, Quinn Ewers, Jadi Barron and the Texas football team here on the Craigway show on this Thursday edition. Breaking news. And this one is almost unbelievable. Yeah, it's all about new customers at bet 365 because they get $150 in bonus bets when they bet $5 and even better bonus bets can be used on the spread, totals and player props. There you have it, bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets and see why it's never ordinary at bet 365. Gambling problem? Color text 1 and 100 gambler. 21 plus only. Must be physically located in Colorado. Terms and conditions apply. Hello, it is Ryan and we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we? Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff. That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. 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Hear Steve Sarkisian's postgame comments from the Longhorns' win over Arizona State in the CFP Quarterfinals. Sark discusses the team's resiliency, the play of Quinn Ewers, and the play of the defense.