4 overreactions from Texas football’s dominant win over ULM

Quinn Ewers’ deep ball will be a work in progress this season

Another Longhorns player that experienced some real highs and lows in this game was redshirt freshman quarterback Quinn Ewers.

On one hand, Ewers made some pretty lofty mistakes, most notably the bad interception on his first drive of the game. Ewers tossed a pick while rolling out of the pocket to the right on his second passing attempt. That throw isn’t one that should ever be made in traffic like that.

Ewers also had two turnover-worthy plays in this game, leading to a turnover play rate north of seven percent, which isn’t a good look.

A potential area of concern for me with Ewers moving forward could be the deep ball. There was a point in time when Ewers looked very confident with the deep ball, both in the open practice back on Aug. 16 and in the spring game back in late April. But Ewers struggled to hit the deep ball in this one, missing an open Worthy a few times.

In fact, most of the passes that Ewers had in this game that went beyond 10 yards didn’t go very well. Ewers finished up this game with four completions on 10 passing attempts of at least 10 yards, good for 74 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and two turnover-worthy plays.

The intermediate and deep balls for Ewers will certainly be a point of emphasis moving forward this season.

However, the fact that Ewers was able to respond so well following that first interception of the game is something that stands out to me. A freshman quarterback getting the first start of his career at just 18 years old putting this play behind him so fast is a good sign of where Ewers’ head is at.

We also saw some really nice throws from Ewers in this game, which highlight the insane arm talent he brings to the table for Sark and the Longhorns. One that stuck out in that regard was the third-down throw where Ewers stepped up in the pocket and had a money toss to sophomore tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders.

If you discount that first drive of the game, I mostly have positive things to say regarding Ewers’ performance in his first career start. I also have to give some credit to Sark and this staff for drawing up the offensive concepts and plays in a way that was easily digestible for Ewers that got him in rhythm.