The Longhorns surrendered 578 yards of total offense to West Virginia, allowing 7.7 yards per snap and 232 yards rushing – and it still took a two-point conversion to beat them Saturday.

It’s okay to give credit to Grier and the potent Mountaineers attack (those guys are going to rack up yards on most every team they face) but the fact that Texas did not force a turnover or record a sack in the loss is problematic, at the least, moving forward.

“Our offense did a great job — as a defensive leader I take a lot of the blame for the loss today because I didn’t have our guys ready,” Texas nickelback P.J. Locke III said. “We have to do a better job of tackling, a better job of stopping the run. We have to go back to the drawing board to figure out the mistakes we made, how we can correct them and not let this game beat us twice.”

Texas was hampered in the loss by injuries to cornerback Davante Davis (who suffered a shoulder and neck sprain early in the first quarter and did not return), defensive end Breckyn Hager (dislocated elbow in the first quarter, did not return), defensive end Marqez Bimage (dislocated shoulder) and ankle injury to starting safety Brandon Jones during the team’s walkthrough at the hotel prior to the game.

If those are long-term injuries, and it seems as if they likely will be, the Longhorns will need other players to make huge strides in the next few weeks to keep Texas from going off the rails.

Outside of Ehlinger – who never blinked in his head-to-head battle with Grier — we have to give the nod to wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey, who had a 21-yard touchdown catch and hauled in two other highlight-reel receptions to set the table for other Longhorns scores.

Humphrey led Texas with nine catches for 143 yards, and continues to be the best option for Ehlinger when he’s flushed from the pocket and needs a receiver to make a play. A pair of those came on Saturday when the quarterback was flushed from the pocket by the West Virginia blitz and heaved passes toward Humphrey that the 6-foot-5 receiver jumped over defenders to snag

“I completely trust LJ when the ball is in the air — I know he’s going to go get it,” Ehlinger said. “I just put it in his area and he goes up and makes the play.”

Humphrey leads the team with 55 catches for 788 yards and five touchdowns through nine games this season.

The Longhorns will travel to Lubbock on Saturday night for a dustup against much-improved Texas Tech, which lost to Oklahoma 50-46 on Nov. 3. After that, Iowa State will come to Austin for another crucial test before Texas ends the regular season at Kansas on the day after Thanksgiving.

Texas’ chances of playing in the Big 12 championship game is now out of its hands – they will have to rely on the outcome of other games between the leaders in the Big 12 standings — West Virginia, who beat Texas, and Oklahoma, which the Longhorns beat.

“The silver lining is that we play in the Big 12, and everybody plays everybody,” Herman explained. “We're not out of any race at this point. We certainly don't control our own destiny. We need a couple things to happen. “

The Longhorns are currently tied with Iowa State for third in the league with three games to play.

“When you think about how close we’ve been in these games that we’ve lost, and that it comes down to a couple of plays, a couple of situations, that’s encouraging,” Ehlinger said. “It’s not ever a good feeling to lose.”