AUSTIN — After performing like the best defense in the country with the No. 1-rated stop rate, the Longhorns’ defense could never get a grasp of the Florida offense, which contributed to the 29-21 loss that Texas suffered on Saturday.

The defense never seemed comfortable in the backfield, and it led to major plays for the Gators’ offense. No pressure was created from the defensive line, and coverage in the backfield was atrocious at times.

After the game, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said that he knows the run defense wasn’t there, but he’s not entirely sure what led to the Longhorns not being able to stop the run as efficiently as they have been able to.

“I didn’t think we played great. I know what we’re capable of; we got out of our gaps a couple of times in the run game,” Sarkisian said. “We didn’t get off as many blocks as I’m accustomed to seeing.”

Getting off blocks, creating pressure, acquiring tackles for losses, and sacks have all been something that this Texas defensive line has been struggling with. It’s been better in some games and terrible in others.

This was a game in which doing all of those things was terrible. On top of all that, the Texas defense surprised us with an inability to make general tackles, but specifically open-field tackles. It was something that Sarkisian noticed as well.

“I thought their runner did a good job of falling forward,” Sarkisian said. “We were making contact at three or four yards, he’d fall forward and get five, six, seven.”

Not only were the Longhorns unable to ever make complete tackles, finish through, or push the runners back, but the defense was also complacent in allowing the Gators to move the ball down the field effectively.

The Longhorns are going to need to ensure that they’re able to force stops quicker, so that offenses aren’t in manageable, short situations and able to convert to keep the drive alive.

“Then they were in some really manageable third downs where they could convert those things. That makes things drastically different when you’re playing in third and two, third and six as opposed to third and nine to third and 12,” Sarkisian said. “Your margin for error is much better when you’re there over time… We’ve got to win more on first and second down and put people in more third and long situations, which we’ve done historically. We weren’t able to do it tonight.”

Sarkisian and the Longhorns are going to put the effort in during practice this week to correct this issue, because if they don’t, then Oklahoma will have a field day with the Texas defense on Saturday, regardless of the Sooners start at quarterback.