One side of the Texas Longhorns has played like the No.3-ranked team in the country. Since Quinn Ewers returned from an oblique injury for the Oklahoma game, the offense has only done so against a team whose season was so off the rails its athletic director had to give the head coach a vote of confidence. 

Two things can be true after a 20-10 win over Arkansas: Texas can win in various ways and is a smart bet to reach the SEC Championship Game. Also, the offense will prevent it from reaching the sport's final four if it continues like this.

Let's start on a positive note: Ewers and the offense made complimentary plays with the defense to win this game. 

Ewers threw a 20-yard touchdown to Matthew Golden to capitalize on a Jahdae Barron interception. He turned in his best drive of the game when Arkansas cut the deficit to 13-10, piloting an 8-play, 75-yard drive with his best throw of the day to Golden on a one-yard touchdown. After Alfred Collins forced a fumble, Ewers iced the game by truck-sticking an Arkansas safety on a 4th-and-2 read option, prompting the normally reserved Ewers and Sarkisian into a boisterous celebration. 

Sometimes, in a hostile environment when the offense doesn't have its best, the quarterback needs to make an attitude play, which Ewers did on that drive.

Two weeks after Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart went 25-for-31 for 516 yards and six touchdowns, a performance that forced Arkansas to hold open tryouts in the secondary over the bye week, Ewers put up a more pedestrian 20-for-32 for 176 yards and two touchdowns. Of course, Arkansas gears up for Texas in a way it doesn't for Ole Miss, and the only thing that matters is the win. Color commentator Jesse Palmer praised Ewers for avoiding the disaster plays. 

Behind a top SEC defense, that's good enough to beat 5–4 Arkansas. It's not good enough to beat college football's elite. Here are three problems Texas needs to fix if it wants to contend for a national championship.

Slow Starts

Minus the Florida game, here are the four first quarter outputs since Ewers returned. The Longhorns are averaging seven points in the opening frame. 

The defense has played well enough to overcome these shaky starts and win three out of four. But Georgia is the only CFP-caliber team Texas faced in this stretch, and it lost 30-15.

Sacks

In every other game except for Georgia, Vanderbilt and Arkansas, Texas has allowed seven sacks in seven games. But in those three games, they've allowed 13. It's not that Texas's offense is getting manhandled - they're getting confused. Of the 13 sacks, 8.5 are from second-level linebackers and safeties blitzing. But is it the offensive line getting confused, or Ewers getting confused? It's impossible to know the answer without knowing the playbook, but the naked eye can see Ewers is holding the ball a tad long.

Ewers' arm talent contends with the best quarterbacks in college football, and it's why he's a projected First Round NFL Draft selection. But he's struggled to process through multiple reads this season, leading to more time in the pocket. Texas will only reach the CFP's final four if Ewers proves he can consistently make a play happen, with his arm or legs, when his first read is not open. 

His best play of the afternoon was the 3rd and 12 incomplete pass to Silas Bolden, when he spun out of two Arkansas defenders' arms and fired a strike.

Lack of run game

Part of the reason Texas's offense feels like it's built out of screen passes is because the running back room is at the same time injured and doesn't have a bell cow like Bijan Robinson or Jonathon Brooks. Steve Sarkisian has had a 1,000-yard rusher in every season as an offensive play caller since 2009. With two games left in the regular season, Tre Wisner is the leader with 468. 

The silver lining is that Texas leaned on the rushing attack in the second half to chew clock against Arkansas. Jaydon Blue had three carries for 41 yards on the final touchdown drive, and nine of the first 11 plays were runs in Texas's game-ending, nearly seven minute drive.