While Texas entered Saturday's Red River Rivalry game against Oklahoma as the No. 1 team in the nation, the Longhorns still faced plenty of questions about whether the offense was a championship-caliber unit. A 27-24 loss to the unranked Sooners did little to alleviate those questions, particularly after Texas unraveled in the second half. Few players in the country receive as much attention as Arch Manning, and he gave people plenty to discuss on Saturday with a rollercoaster performance.
Manning delivered a few phenomenal downfield passes, but those were offset by a pair of back-breaking interceptions -- one a pick-six to give Oklahoma the lead and the other at the end of regulation to set up Oklahoma's game-winning field goal. On Monday, coach Steve Sarkisian was asked about Manning's processing and offered a defense of his star quarterback, insisting the conversation would be different if there was a different last name on his jersey. "I think that he's processing fine.
Playing really good offensive football is all 11, playing 11 as one. I think it's scheme, I think it's momentum of the game," Sarkisian said. "I think if you took the name off the back of his jersey and you said here's Joe Smith playing quarterback at the University of Texas and here's a guy who's beaten four top-10 ranked teams in his last 13 starts, we'd be praising the guy.
But the expectations are high for him, and he understands that. The expectations are high for all of us, so we gotta put our nose back to the grind and get to work." The Texas offense has been boom-or-bust all season, which was on full display again on Saturday against Oklahoma. The big plays, like the opening touchdown strike from Manning to Cam Coleman, are fantastic, but the lack of consistency continues to dismay Texas fans -- and Sarkisian.
The Longhorns are in the bottom half of the country in third-down conversion rate (39.2%), and the constant three-and-outs have become an issue. A fourth-year player like Manning, who continues to have issues with turnovers and keeping the offense on track, raises questions about his development. These are the same issues that have been apparent in Manning's game since he took over as the starter last year, but Sarkisian insists he's progressing nicely.
"Everybody's a little bit different...I think Arch is on a nice trajectory," Sarkisian said. He had two interceptions in the fourth quarter of that game, when, quite frankly, I thought he played pretty good up until that point. And that's the frustrating part, but that's the level of consistency that's needed.
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