Too often, the knee-jerk reaction to the outcome of a game like the 30-15 loss the No. 5 Texas football team was handed by No. 2 Georgia at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium is to throw out the champagne with the cork.

The Longhorns put an unsavory product on the field that yielded unacceptable results. The 15-point loss to the Bulldogs marked the program’s largest margin of defeat since the infamous 30-7 road loss to Iowa State on Nov. 6, 2021.

Texas (6-1, 2-1 SEC) hung its hat on playing complementary football en route to a berth in last season’s College Football Playoff and winning the first six games on the 2024 schedule, the program’s first 6-0 start since 2009. The Longhorns’ three phases failed to play off one another in spectacular fashion, partly due to the performance of a talented Georgia (6-1, 4-1) team and the home team repeatedly shooting itself in the foot.

The offense had its worst outing (259 total yards, 3.4 yards per play, 2-for-14 on third down, 29 net rushing yards and four turnovers) since a 17-10 home loss to fourth-ranked TCU on Nov. 12, 2022 (199 total yards, 3.3 yards per play, 28 net rushing yards, 1-for-13 on third down and one turnover).

The kicking game wasn’t much better.

A holding penalty wiped out a 64-yard kickoff return by Matthew Golden. With Brett Thorson flipping the field in the Bulldogs’ favor, Georgia’s average starting field position for its five first-half scoring drives en route to a 23-0 halftime lead was the Texas 32-yard line.

Eight penalties committed tied a season-high. The seven sacks by the Bulldog defense were the most by a Longhorn opponent since Oklahoma in 2019.

What happened on Saturday can’t be sugar-coated.

Saturday night wasn’t the memorable triumph everyone in the Moncrief Complex wanted it to be, but the sun came up on Sunday. And Texas is still a team with the depth, talent, schematic edge and culture needed to win a national championship when things are clicking on all cylinders.