Texas Football: 3 takeaways from upset loss at TCU in Week 9

3. The TCU defense spooked Sam Ehlinger into some bad throws

Sam Ehlinger has been a solid quarterback, and the Longhorns would have been nowhere near performing as one of the top 15 programs in the country without his abilities on the football field. But Ehlinger also has a propensity for making a string of mistakes at inopportune times, and the loss in Fort Worth proved one of those times.

Ehlinger struggled against one of the top 15 passing defenses in the country. While he finished with 321 passing yards and two touchdowns, the quarterback proved unable to complete even half of his passes. In the end, Ehlinger finished with only 22 completions on his 48 attempts as the Horned Frogs made his life miserable all day long.

While he was sacked just once, Ehlinger was consistently spooked in the pocket as he danced around trying to make things happen. His reluctance to let things go when nothing was available proved costly, as the quarterback tossed four interceptions that allowed the Horned Frogs to pull away for the victory.

It wasn’t quite the level of Sam Darnold seeing ghosts against the New England Patriots, but Ehlinger was obviously spooked into making some terrible decisions by the Horned Frogs. With several other strong defenses left on the schedule, there could be more rough patches on the horizon for the Longhorns.