Late in the second quarter with his Texas Longhorns trailing 20-0 at home to Georgia, Steve Sarkisian turned to backup quarterback Arch Manning to provide the team with a “spark” before halftime. Starting quarterback Quinn Ewers completed his first four passes before finishing the first half 1 of 7. Overall, he was 6 of 12 for 17 yards and an interception when Manning subbed in. 

Turns out that Ewers wasn’t the only problem. The Georgia pass rush, which accounted for seven sacks and 10 tackles for loss in the 30-15 win, was hunting no matter which former five-star quarterback was engineering the team in burnt orange. Manning was 3 of 6 for 19 yards and a lost fumble in his two drives before half. Ewers was inserted back into the starting lineup to start the third quarter. 

“I just felt like giving (Ewers) a chance to step back and regroup,” Sarkisian said after the loss. “I didn’t know if we’d get a series or two with Arch depending on how much time was remaining on the clock. So, we just told Quinn, ‘Hey, we’re going with Arch here, give you a chance to get into the locker room. Let’s regroup and then come back out in the second half.’”  

It was the right decision. Quarterbacks are treated too often with kitten gloves. As if they’re exempt from the same pressures everyone else on the field plays with. No one bats an eye when a running back is sat down for a drive or two after a fumble, or a linebacker after a missed tackle, or a defensive back after a blown coverage. The Longhorns couldn’t move the ball. They allowed Georgia to start four possessions inside Texas territory in the first half alone. 

Sarkisian’s job is to help Texas win football games. Especially those types of football games. Had the Longhorns not gone back to Ewers, the conversation would be different. No way Ewers stays engaged with the team if he’s permanently made the backup for his famous understudy. I mean, you’ve seen the Dr Pepper commercials. But for a drive or two? If that is too much for Ewers’ psyche, so is the NFL. 

Ewers led Texas on two touchdown drives in the third quarter to cut the Georgia lead to 23-15 with 2:12 left in the game. He finished the 25 of 43 for 211 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. He lost 34 yards on the ground running from his life as the Texas offensive line turned in its worst performance of the season. As a team, Texas ran the ball 27 times for 29 yards. If adjusted for sacks, Texas averaged 4.4 yards a carry, but 21 of its 88 yards gained were on a Manning scramble. 

“I just think that we didn’t start the way that we wanted to and playing catch-up is tough for an offense, but I think we stayed posed and composed throughout the game,” Ewers said postgame. “There were moments that probably people thought that Georgia was gonna start pulling away, but either we scored, or our defense got a stop. That kept us in it, which is cool to see, but we definitely did not play our game today.” 

Sarkisian received criticism for his decision to bench Ewers, but let’s visit an alternate reality where Manning isn’t inserted into the game. What if Ewers’ play worsened in the third quarter and Texas was beaten by 30 points instead of 15? The national and local talking points would concentrate on Manning and if he could lead Texas to wins against teams like Georgia. 

After 105,000 folks in DKR saw that Manning isn’t a miracle worker ready to take the job from Ewers, none of those distractions will exist on the Forty Acres heading into the Vanderbilt game. 

Sarkisian nipped any quarterback controversy in the bud when he stated that Ewers was this team’s quarterback moving forward. In fairness, he barked at a reporter when asked what it would take to bench Ewers heading into the Georgia game and that turned out to be a hit dog will holler situation in retrospect. 

But what is the point of stacking the quarterback room with five-star talent if you can’t take them out of the holster in the biggest game of the year. Ewers will be fine. So will this Texas team. None of the Horns’ goals were erased with the loss to Georgia. They can still win the SEC. They can still make the College Football Playoff. And they can still win the national championship. If your star quarterbacks can’t handle what happened against Georgia, you weren’t reaching those other goals anyway.