Texas finally got its welcome to the hardest conference in the nation with its first loss, 30-15, to No. 5 Georgia despite a tough fight too late in the game.
“(The game was) really a tale of two halves,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “You know, we just (had a) very difficult first half offensively. We just didn’t play our best football … I was really proud of their ability to come to the locker room at halftime and regroup and compete in the second half and fight and showed, in my opinion, the heart of a champion.”
From the firing of the initial cannon, Georgia was dominant. In the first half, the Bulldogs held 170 total yards to Texas’ 38 and led 23-0.
While the Longhorn defense was caught off guard by the fast moving and higher-caliber offense that they haven’t seen this season, the main problem lay in their offense.
After looking a little “rusty” last game, junior quarterback Quinn Ewers continued to play below his usual standard, going six of 12 completions in the first half with one interception. And for the first time all season, head coach Steve Sarkisian made the choice to put in backup redshirt freshman quarterback Arch Manning not because of a major lead or injury, but because of poor performance.
Manning went in with five minutes left in the half going for 3-in-6.
The first half Texas team was not able to find many spaces in the Georgia offense, especially in the run game with two total yards. The Texas defense was also able to obtain two interceptions in the first two quarters, but couldn’t convert any of the turnovers into points. Georgia was able to secure 17 points from Texas turnovers throughout the game.
Despite the setbacks, Ewers returned in the second half and seemed to shake off some of the rust he had in the first half. The offense worked down the field seamlessly for their first touchdown with a two-yard pass to junior wide receiver Isaiah Bond. Then, their next offensive drive resulted in a touchdown by a pass from Ewers to junior running back Jaydon Blue for 17 yards after an interception by senior defensive back Jahdae Barron, a play that caused a lot of controversy of its own.
Despite going into each week and treating each one the same, it was apparent that Texas was thrown by the No. 5 ranked team, going 2-14 for third down conversion, something that the Longhorns are strong at with a 43.2% season rate.
Ewers acknowledged that he was not playing at the level he usually does or he did in practice leading up to the game and took blame for the loss saying “It starts with me.”
“I practiced well throughout the entire week,” Ewers said. “Felt good about it. On our ‘Perfect Thursday’ practice, the first half and the first quarter I felt good.”
Despite the loss, the team and Sarkisian know that they can not hold onto it, especially in an SEC conference where each week’s matchup will continue to push them.
“Losing a game like this doesn’t kill you,” Sarkisian said. “Everything we want is still in front of us. The challenge for us is to be able to regroup and get ourselves back up off the mat and prepare for a Vanderbilt team next week.”
