4 overreactions from Texas football’s impotent loss to TCU

Hudson Card should’ve filled in for Quinn Ewers at some point before the fourth quarter

The struggles Texas had at the quarterback position in the last few weeks have sparked the debate as to whether Sark should’ve pulled Ewers for junior Hudson Card. In the loss to the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Oct. 22, Ewers’ struggles originally brought up the discussion as to whether it was the right decision to keep the freshman in the game.

At the time, though, I was a fan of Sark sticking it out with Ewers on the road. That was really the first off day through and through for Ewers as Texas’ starting quarterback. And he made some good throws to give Texas a chance to win, and then tie the game, late against the Pokes in Stillwater.

But his receivers just weren’t making the necessary plays to move the ball effectively and either even up the score or take the lead late against Oklahoma State.

Many of the same issues that Texas faced against Oklahoma State re-surfaced in the loss to TCU this weekend. Ewers was completely out of sync with his wideouts and Texas couldn’t get any sort of rhythm going offensively.

Ewers was rushing his reads, clearly getting shaken in the pocket, and was mistiming throws where his receivers were open had he gotten the ball out at the right time. Those issues were especially pronounced in the red zone, where Ewers completed fewer than 30 percent of his passing attempts on the night.

While there were some major issues that Ewers had in this game, I don’t put all of the blame on his shoulders.

I think that Sark didn’t make the necessary in-game adjustments to let Ewers get some easy throws out to the flats and on crossers between the numbers, where there was clearly open space for guys like Jordan Whittington and Ja’Tavion Sanders. Bijan Robinson also should be more involved in the passing game than he was against TCU.

I also firmly believe that Ewers’ receivers need to make more plays to help him out. The fact that his receivers have dropped more than 10 percent of catchable balls from Ewers in three of the last four games is really problematic.

Yet, the fact of the matter is that if Ewers is still struggling next weekend against Kansas, I believe a quarterback change should be in order. Considering how important it is for Texas to win its next two games, Sark can’t afford to have another off-day from Ewers that winds up costing the Longhorns in the win column, as it did against TCU and Oklahoma State.

Texas has too much on the line against Kansas next weekend, both in terms of the momentum on the field and on the recruiting trail, to falter due to bad quarterback play and/or a bad gameplan offensively. If Card is the spark Texas needs, he should get his shot against Kansas.