Vanderbilt Commodores narrowly miss another historic win against Longhorns

Even though the Vanderbilt Commodores came up close again this time, they didn't have enough chaos for their second top-25 win in school history.

The Commodores lost to the Texas Longhorns 27-24, narrowly missing out on another historic win.

Not to sound like a broken record from the last few weeks, but this was another gutsy performance from all-around quarterback Diego Pavia.

“Pavia has no magic anymore,” was the unfortunately true statement on the show. The team failed to convert on a crucial fourth down, leading to the fan favorite shooting a ball upfield that ultimately turned out to be an easy interception for the Longhorns defense.

It wasn't a stat sheet day, but he battled a knee injury to get back on the field.

After the senior quarterback entered the game with just one interception this season, he threw on one.

The second score led to the Dagger touchdown that gave Texas a two-point lead with less than two minutes left.

The time of possession in this game was much more favorable to the way the Longhorns usually win games. Vanderbilt has typically kept its matchups close this season by running long, methodical attacks and keeping the ball out of opponents' hands. In this case it was much more consistent.

However, that could have been the difference between victory and defeat.

There was a long stretch where Quinn Ewers completed 17 passes in a row. At that point, Texas built a 21-7 lead, which made it seem like things were getting out of hand.

It's hard to compete when you can't stop the opposing team's quarterback from completing a pass.

However, the defense deserves some credit for its role in this game as it was disruptive enough to keep the ball close while the offense struggled to put points on the board.

Sophomore linebacker Bryan Longwell once again led the team in tackles and was nine tackles ahead of his season total entering the day. He didn't bring down Ewers in this game, but shined in run defense.

In terms of sacks, fellow second-year linebacker Randon Fontenette was the most influential. He was involved in bringing down the Longhorns passer on two different plays and also broke up a pass.

Next up for the Commodores is a matchup with the Auburn Tigers.