Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian didn’t mince words when asked about his team’s red zone struggles on their penultimate offensive drive against Ohio State.
The Longhorns were down 21-14 and had a first-and-goal situation from the Ohio State one-yard line. However, a pair of negative rushing plays followed up by Jack Sawyer’s 82-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown ultimately ended Texas’ chances of reaching the National Championship Game.
Sarkisian broke down the entire red zone series in his postgame press conference, while also admitting that Texas’ “didn’t deserve to win” after failing to score from the 1-yard line.
“The first two plays, we threw the ball towards the back of the end zone and got back-to-back PI’s [pass interference calls],” Sarkisian said. “When we got down to the 1-yard line, it went to a heavy package, which was Jerrick’s [Gibson] package, so we ran it and obviously didn’t get much movement at all. We had a plan to get the ball to the edge but they brought in some big people. It’s one of those plays that if you block it all right, you get into the end zone and we didn’t and lose a quick bit of yardage.
“At that point you’re stuck behind the 8-ball because we knew we were in four-down territory because of the score of the game,” Sarkisian added. “I was okay thinking if we didn’t score because they would’ve been backed up and that we would get one more possession with good field position. The last thing you think is that the sack happens and the ball bounces right up to the guy who will run it in for the touchdown. It was unfortunate that it was the circumstance because it was a really nice drive by the offense to get all the way down there, but if you get to a first-and-goal from the 1 and don’t score, we probably don’t deserve to win.”
