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Texas football had a disastrous first half against Georgia on Saturday night. Despite protecting the No. 1 overall ranking and playing at home, the Longhorns got blitzed right out of the gate and couldn't get anything going against Kirby Smart's Georgia defense, as the Bulldogs raced out to a 23-0 lead in the first half.
With a few minutes left before halftime, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian made the shocking decision to bench star quarterback Quinn Ewers in favor of redshirt freshman Arch Manning. Manning played two series for Texas before halftime, and the Longhorns weren't able to get any points on the board.
Sarkisian put Ewers back into the game at the beginning of the second half, and the Texas offense started to find its footing. However, it was a case of too little, too late as Georgia pulled away for a 30-15 win. After the game, Sarkisian explained the move to briefly turn to Manning, according to Andy Backstrom of On3 Sports.
“My feeling in the game was 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, per Backstrom. “I didn’t know if we’d get a series or two with Arch, depending on how much time was remaining in the half on the clock. So we just told Quinn, we said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna go 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.’ So that’s what we did.”
What went wrong for Texas against Georgia
Saturday night was a humbling one for Texas, who will almost certainly lose its No. 1 ranking after losing to Georgia. In the first half, the Texas offense had no answers at all for Georgia's defense, and was left behind the 8-ball all night as a result.
Texas managed just 29 total yards across its first six drives — four punts, a fumble and an interception — before Quinn Ewers was benched. In the first half, Ewers threw for just 17 yards on 12 attempts.
The pass protection was a massive problem for Texas in this one. Georgia has a deep stable of talented, athletic edge rushers, and they gave Texas' offensive line problems all night. Even superstar tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. — a potential top 10 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft — couldn't handle the Bulldogs at times in this one. Ewers didn't have much time to operate in the pocket, and things fell apart from there.
Georgia was also very well-prepared for Sarkisian's scheme. His usual diet of unique screens and misdirection plays was not doing anything against a Georgia defense that was flying to the football and making plays all night long. Texas also struggled to run the ball early in the game, so the weight fell entirely on Ewers' shoulders to make plays in the pocket.
It's not time to be concerned about Texas, but this was a poor performance from a team that was starting to look invincible this season.
