The former No. 1 team in the country got its hindquarters kicked and its quarterback had to digest a benching.
The unblockable Georgia Bulldogs routed the Texas Longhorns 30-15 and there were plenty of fingers to point after the disappointing showing in front of 105,215 at Royal-Memorial who showed up expecting the Longhorns to deepen its early imprint on its new league.
Adding spice to the proceedings was coach Steve Sarkisian sitting starting quarterback Quinn Ewers for redshirt freshman Arch Manning near the end of the first half.
None of it mattered. Sark could have inserted a prime Peyton Manning behind that surprisingly porous offensive line and the result would have been the same.
Any concerns about Ewers coming back against Oklahoma last week after missing nearly a month with an abdominal strain could have easily been dismissed as a product of rust despite some obvious discomfort in the pocket but it got much worse against a monster pass rush that took away any semblance a comfort level from the opening snap.
Ewers coughed up two fumbles — the first couldn’t be helped because he was nearly separated from his senses by defensive back Daylen Everette’s blindside blitz hit in the first quarter — and threw an interception, putting inordinate pressure on his defense to hold the offense’s shallow water.
He finished 25-of-43 for 211 yards and a pair of touchdowns but he never appeared in command of all around. He took
ownership of his performance but we left the stadium Oct. 19 with the reality that he hasn’t played a complete game worthy of the preseason Heisman hype since he lit up overmatched non-conference opponents Colorado State, UTSA and Michigan by completing 73% of his passes for 691 yards with eight touchdowns and only two interceptions. He also enjoyed tremendous protection with only one sack in 58 pass attempts.
Part of his unease against the Bulldogs was the struggles of an offensive line that didn’t live up preseason mentions of being in line to compete for the Heisman of offensive lines.
More: Steve Sarkisian explains why he briefly benched Texas QB Quinn Ewers for Arch Manning
It quickly went from Joe Moore to No More after the team’s most experienced unit gave up seven sacks. Even left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., arguably the best at his position in America, got beat on a speed rush that led to a strip sack in the late going.
Worse yet, the Horns mustered only 29 yards on 27 carries, easily one of worst ground outputs by a No. 1 team in college football history. With Longhorn luminaries like Kevin Durant on the sideline, the Horns delivered an airball in only the third top-five matchup in stadium history.
What’s going on with Quinn?
There was a time when a team could win college football championships with average quarterbacking and a good running game but that doesn’t cut it in present day.
Ewers didn’t have it in a showcase game and concerns about his viability as a championship quarterback are understandable given the expectations that he helped create over the last season-plus as the starter.
It’s not all about one guy but when that guy is the one playing the most important position in sports, the expectations are exponentially higher and rightfully so.
Perhaps Ewers’ first-half benching in favor of talented redshirt freshman Arch Manning was a subtle reminder of what’s at stake here.
The nightmare of that loss to Alabama behind them, the Georgia Bulldogs, who walked into DKR as an underdog for the first time in 50 games, left the ATX the owners of a statement win, a frustrating result given the totality of how it went down.
If I told Sarkisian before the game that Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense would limit the Bulldogs to 283 yards of offense and intercept Carson Beck not one, not two but three times, he would have likely assumed the Horns would still be undefeated still ranked No. 1.
This week, ESPN Draft guru Mel Kiper had Ewers and Beck as his fourth and fifth rated QB prospects, respectively, behind Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Miami’s Cam Ward and Alabama’s Jalen Milroe. Neither delivered a sterling performance and Ewers may have fallen behind players like Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier in the pecking order.
More: SEC issues statement on officiating in Texas-Georgia game, fans throwing debris
Ewers and Co. went 2-for-15 on third down. That wouldn’t cut it against Slippery Rock’s JV team and definitely not the UGA Dawgs.
The benching
Georgia end Mykel Williams and linebacker Jalon Walker made life miserable for the offensive line in the first half and Ewers paid the price by being sacked three times. After he completed 6-of-12 passes for 17 yards with an interception Sarkisian pulled his starter aside and delivered some sobering news.
More: Texas vs Georgia grades: The worst report card of the season includes an F for the Longhorns
“I felt Quinn was a little uneasy, and I just felt like giving him a chance to kind of step back and regroup,” Sarkisian said. “I didn't know if we'd get a series or two with Arch, depending on how much time was on the remaining in the half on the clock. So we just told Quinn, ‘Hey, we're gonna go with Arch here, five you a chance to get into the locker room. Let's regroup and then come back out in the second half. And so that's what we did.’”
And how about getting pulled then reinserted to start the third quarter?
“It felt like a weird position to be in,” Ewers said.
Ewers responded in positive fashion and led the Horns to a couple of touchdowns, the first coming after one of the most polarizing pass interference reversals ever. After fans pelted the north end zone with water bottles after Jahdae Barron’s 36-yard interception return was nullified by a pass interference penalty, the officials overturned the call and Ewers hit running back Jaydon Blue with the first of two touchdown passes, the first of a pair of scores that cut the deficit to eight.
It provided a modicum of hope but little else.
As they prepare for what’s all of a sudden a gut check at Vanderbilt, Ewers and the offensive line must figure it out. It’s obvious he’s far from 100% physically. He admitted as much when asked about the oblique.
“It's there a little bit, but I feel like that's just how injuries go,” he said. “You're gonna feel it whether that's just my mind thinking about it too much and I feel it, or it's just there a little bit, but it's, i not, it's not a big issue or anything like that.”
Ewers is miles better than the soft-spoken kid who arrived from Ohio State one season after skipping his senior year at Southlake Carroll and he’s also reached a maturity level where he understands the stakes at play. It’s a results based business and his output — albeit against the nation’s No. 9 defense — wasn’t nearly enough to beat an elite opponent.
The slow starts are a major concern. Over the last two first quarters, he’s 7-of-17 for only 25 yards with a fumble and an interception, a harsh departure from leading the high octane attack that crushed its non-conference opponents. To his credit, he played much better in the second half but the die was cast with a 23-0 deficit at the intermission.
“I just think that we we didn't start the way that we obviously wanted to and playing catch up is tough for an offense but I think we stayed poised and composed throughout the entire game,” Ewers said. “There were moments that probably people thought that Georgia was gonna start pulling away but either we scored or our defense got to stop. That just kind of kept us in it, which, which is cool to see, but we definitely did not play our game today.”
Sarkisian will start Ewers at Vanderbilt with the second bye week to follow but he has shown us that he will sit his guy in the best interest of this team. Expect Ewers to bounce back but his leash just got shorter.
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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas football takes the 'L', QB Ewers' leash just got shorter | Golden
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