Texas, Arch Manning must do a better job of finding advantageous matchups moving forward
Here’s the good news. Texas won’t have to play Ohio State again for a while. If the Longhorns can make it to the College Football Playoff. But, Saturday showed us one thing: if Arch Manning and the Texas cannot get DeAndre Moore and Ryan Wingo open, the ball will be stuck in neutral on the […]
Here’s the good news. Texas won’t have to play Ohio State again for a while. If the Longhorns can make it to the College Football Playoff. But, Saturday showed us one thing: if Arch Manning and the Texas cannot get DeAndre Moore and Ryan Wingo open, the ball will be stuck in neutral on the field.
Last weekend, new defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and the Buckeyes’ secondary did a marvelous job keeping Manning guessing and forcing him to take underneath throws. Manning did take some checkdown progressions, but he is a quarterback who thrives when he can stretch the field. And he couldn’t do that last weekend.
I expect Manning to have a little more success this weekend against San Jose State. But, after a three-week warmup, the Longhorns travel to Florida to take on the Gators. Once the ball is kicked off in Gainesville, things will get tougher.
ESPN’s Bill Connelly got into this very trend in his latest column.
“Manning completed three passes for 65 yards late in the fourth quarter in Texas’ lone TD drive of the game. Manning was nervous and inaccurate for large portions of Saturday’s affair, and when he had time to look for an open receiver, none came open,” Connelly said. “With Ohio State’s all-world safety Caleb Downs lurking in the back, leading returning receivers DeAndre Moore Jr. and Ryan Wingo combined to catch four of 12 passes for 41 yards, and the Buckeyes secondary blanketed Manning’s options.”
As I alluded to on my recent video, Ohio State disguised coverages well and at times confused Manning with its back end. The Buckeyes dropped seven and eight into coverage, making Manning look at anyone but Moore and Wingo. But, the difference between planning and executing a lot of the times is talent.
“There are quite a few differences between coaching at the pro and collegiate levels, but the biggest one might be that, at the right school, you can lean heavily on talent advantages than you can in the pros and put players where they need to be to exploit those advantages,” Connell said. “What we saw Saturday certainly suggests Ohio State will have massive advantages over just about any offense it will face over the next three months.”
Despite losing the game, the Texas offense outperformed the Ohio State offense.
The end result wasn’t what you wanted, but as a Texas fan you have to take solace in the offense still managing to look good in the box score. It’s something to build on for sure.
- Total yards: Texas 336, OSU 203
- Yards per play: Texas 5.0, OSU 3.8
- Success rate: Texas 43.3 percent, OSU 33.3 percent
- First downs: Texas 16, OSU 11
The biggest bugaboo, as most remember fondly, is the red zone struggles. Most Texas fans have harped on this the last few years and it reared its ugly head again Saturday. Twice in the red area, the Longhorns went for it on fourth down and came up empty. This cannot happen. If it continues, it will be very hard for Texas to make it back to the SEC Championship and the CFP.
