A lot of Texas comes down to the fact that there's no time to think during a football game.
When the play went quickly, and Quinn didn't have time to question himself, he made brilliant throws. He intrinsically knows the right thing to do. Then, you got the plays where it was too good to be true. Typically, Xavier Worthy would beat his coverage cleanly. Quinn would see it, recognize it, but then he'd look again to verify. By the time he convinced himself, the ball was thrown very late and very long.
Keep in mind that ULM also kept 2 safeties deep to mitigate the deep shots.
Similarly, on defense, the LBs weren't thinking during the plays. They saw their gap and attacked them violently. Last season, they wanted to consider the issue, and by that time, it was too late. The old adage of a good plan violently executed now versus the perfect plan a week from now.
Freshmen did freshman things. The OL saw the stunts and loops that killed them last season, and properly passed them for the most part, but nothing succeeds like experience. Lots to clean up. A lot of good tape for practice.
My primary take away is the emergence of JT Sanders. He's the TE we've needed for over a decade. He changed the strength of the formation several times, occupied defenders, and of course calmly converted 3rd and 7's when the first two plays were off schedule.
On to Alabama. Texas doesn't get to play with house money often, but this is certainly a game they're supposed to lose. Yeah, my fandom is hoping for one of those outlier games that make CFB exciting, but that's not the way to bet. Use the game as a measuring stick and see how far you have to go.
