Forcing turnovers is the missing piece for the elite Texas defense

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Through five games, the Texas Longhorns have been playing high-level defense under first-year coordinator Will Muschamp, ranking second in defensive SP+, tied for second in red-zone touchdown rate at 33.3 percent, and 21st in scoring defense at 16 points per game.

“We’ve been playing really good defense. Do not get me wrong, like fantastic defense,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said on Monday.

Texas is led by a talented and deep defensive front tied for eighth nationally in 18 sacks, paced by junior edge Colin Simmons, who leads the country with 9.5 sacks.

But there’s one glaring area where Muschamp’s defense needs to help the offense — by creating turnovers. The Horns are tied for 97th with five forced turnovers. And three of those takeaways came in the season opener against Texas State, a team with high preseason expectations that is off to a 2-3 start. The turnover forced in the comeback win over Ohio State came on the final play, an interception by sophomore nickel back Graceson Littleton that still ranks at the only interception by the Longhorns secondary.

In the two conference games, Texas hasn’t forced a single turnover despite causing three fumbles.

“How do we go to another level? We’ve got to get the ball off of people and we we are more than capable of doing that. We’ve got to continue to emphasize it. I talk about the dam on offense getting ready to break. I think the dam and creating turnovers defensively is getting ready to break,” Sarkisian said.

A frequent mantra from the Texas head coach is that you get what you emphasize. From the perspective of creating turnovers, that isn’t happening right now.

“We’ve got to keep preaching it. Got to keep practicing it. We’ve got to keep going after it, and I really believe that when we get one, we’re going to get two. When we get two, we’re going to get three,” Sarkisian said.

Some fumble recovery luck would help — opponents have fumbled eight times this season, but the Longhorns have only recovered two, a recovery rate of 25 percent that ranks tied for 117th in the country.

Texas is heavily reliant on the defensive front’s playmaking ability, primarily Simmons and senior linebacker Rasheem Biles, who has two of the team’s three interceptions and forced a fumble that Littleton returned for a touchdown against the Bobcats.

The player who was expected to emerge in that area is senior safety Jelani McDonald. The Waco Connally product ranks second on the team behind Biles in tackles with 33 and hasn’t given up much in coverage beyond allowing a touchdown to Ohio State’s superstar wide receiver Jeremiah Smith. But McDonald also hasn’t been around the ball enough — his only pass break up came on Tennessee’s Hail Mary, an important play, certainly, but the standards are higher for a player who had three interceptions and a fumble return last season.

It’s a similar story for Littleton, who has been rock solid this season. The first reception he’s allowed of more than 11 yards since the season opener came in a big moment on Saturday — the 20-yard catch by Isaiah Sategna against good coverage from Littleton allowed Oklahoma to kick the game-winning field goal, but it’s also the closet thing to a major mistake that Littleton has made this season in notching two pass breakups, the game-ending interception against Ohio State, and six defensive stops while allowing 117 receiving yards on 18 targets.

The rest of the secondary, from senior cornerback Bo Mascoe to sophomore cornerback Kade Phillips to senior safety Kobe Black to senior safety Derek Williams, haven’t made any game-changing plays yet this season, although Black certainly delivered the hit of the year so far against Texas State.

But it’s also telling that Black’s big play, like two of the takeaways by Biles, came against the worst opponent on the schedule.

Beyond the poor turnover luck, opponents haven’t taken a lot of risks against Texas. Texas State and UTSA didn’t really try to throw the ball down the field. Even Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer managed to end his streak of turnover-plagued performances by generally sticking with the short passing game until the final drive.

Tennessee’s Faizon Brandon scrambled 10 times and took 10 sacks instead of putting the ball at greater risk, but also got away with three turnover-worthy throws, according to Pro Football Focus, probably the biggest missed opportunities for the Texas defense in that category.

The offense and special teams could help by playing more complementary football. In favorable positions against the Volunteers and the Sooners, the special teams gave up crucial touchdowns that allowed the opposing offenses to remain more balanced instead of trending towards the type of one-dimensional play that often leads to turnovers. And the offense hasn’t been consistent enough to open big leads in conference play.

In the Ohio State game, it was the offense that had to play from behind when the defense had its worst half of the season while struggling to defend Smith, although Muschamp’s unit also got a couple crucial stops, including after the fumble on the first Texas play from scrimmage.

The bottom line remains — the Longhorns defense is too talented to force so few turnovers.

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