Texas Longhorns win in Red River Rivalry boils down to one thing involving quarterback Arch Manning
The Longhorns immediately improved from last week
The Red River Rivalry is one of the biggest games of the year in college football, and it lived up to the hype.
After the Oklahoma Sooners scored the first six points on first-half field goals, the Texas Longhorns scored the final 23 points to get the win 23-6. It was a physical game on both sides of the football, with both teams showing up like they desperately wanted a win.
Going into the game, the quarterbacks were on full display. Arch Manning was coming off a brutal performance against the Florida Gators, where he was under constant duress, and John Mateer was just 17 days removed from surgery on his right thumb.
Texas Longhorns protecting Arch Manning sealed the victory
In the Longhorns’ last game against the Gators, they showed an immense amount of struggles on the offensive side of the football. Manning missed multiple deep shots down the field where the Longhorns would have had multiple sure touchdowns.
The biggest reason for that was the offensive line. They struggled mightily in protecting Manning, allowing 35 pressures and six sacks on 44 dropbacks. It manifested in the worst way for the Longhorns at the end of the game, as a sack ended up forcing the spike that ended the game. It was a brutal showing for the offensive line, as Manning was running for his life the majority of the game.
That wasn’t the case in Dallas on Saturday afternoon. The Longhorns offensive line was much improved over the previous game. Manning still had to deal with pressure from the Sooners and got sacked once, but had much more time to make decisions and attack down the field. When he didn’t have that time, he thrived in making things happen.
“I said this to the team on Friday before we left to come to Dallas. Arch took a lot of hits last week, and the biggest thing that impressed me about his game was that he didn’t miss one rep of practice this week,” said head coach Steve Sarkisian. “He came back Monday, and he was not 100%. He was beat up, but he took every rep. And I think coming out of a game like that, you earn the respect of your teammates. That’s the toughness you have to have, and that’s the preparation that you have to have.”
Manning did just that on Saturday afternoon, proving a lot to not just his teammates, but everyone.
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