Texas football and head coach Steve Sarkisian had a tough fight on their hands on the night of Dec. 29 in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio against a solid No. 12 ranked Washington Huskies squad. First-year head coach Kalen DeBoer brought in a Washington squad that was undefeated against top 25 opponents during the regular season into an important Alamo Bowl game for both teams.
As far as the Longhorns are concerned, this was a really important bowl game mostly for one player. Redshirt freshman quarterback Quinn Ewers needed to have a good bowl game to head into the offseason with some confidence that his play was headed in the right direction.
And for the most part, this was a solid outing for Ewers. He was relied upon more to move the ball down the field for this offense than we saw in the last few games of the regular season. Without the services of star junior running back Bijan Robinson and senior running back Roschon Johnson, Ewers became the player that Sark relied on the most on this offense.
Yet, the efforts from Ewers on the night weren’t nearly enough. Despite finishing up with a career-high 369 passing yards on 31 completions and one passing score, Ewers and the Longhorns still fell short by the final score of 27-20 in the Alamo Bowl.
Texas just wasn’t able to come up with the big plays when it was needed tonight. Here’s a look at the social media reactions coming out of Texas’ loss to Washington in the Alamo Bowl.
Social media reacts to Quinn Ewers and Texas football’s up-and-down performance vs. Washington in the Alamo Bowl
The second drop from Xavier Worthy pic.twitter.com/yBnzFCRs9F
— Hook'em Headlines (@HookemHeadlines) December 30, 2022
While some nice plays were made from sophomore wide receiver Xavier Worthy in the short and intermediate passing game, he didn’t come up big when the Longhorns needed him to on the deep ball.
The next time Quinn Ewers and Xavier Worthy are on the same page will be the first.
— Unsolicited special assistant to the head coach (@Ian_A_Boyd) December 30, 2022
This is a great way to put it. Worthy just didn’t hold up his end of the bargain tonight with two bad drops in a row on nice balls from Ewers.
Not having Isaiah Neyor was just a massive loss this season. https://t.co/4QEIP9dceN
— Wescott Eberts (@SBN_Wescott) December 30, 2022
This is so very true. Ewers would’ve had a great connection with redshirt sophomore wide receiver Isaiah Neyor this season. Excited to see what these two can do next year.
Quinn Ewers could have easily thrown for 400+ tonight.
— HornSports (@HornSports) December 30, 2022
Ewers just didn’t get enough help from his receivers.
Onside kick was not the move🔥
— Barstool Longhorn (@UTBarstool) December 30, 2022
I disagree with this take. Onside kick was smart. The execution just wasn’t there.
My Longhorns, my Longhorns, why have you forsaken me?#TEXvsWASH pic.twitter.com/2yybn1VG8s
— Kyle Umlang (@kyleumlang) December 30, 2022
Hate losing that game. Sark is going to have to take a long look in the mirror this off-season. Be decisive. This methodical crap is getting old. Moving forward Ewers played well, the OL really held up well and brooks can be that guy he just needs the opportunity. Johntay b ready
— Sidelines - Texas 🤘 (@SSN_Longhorns) December 30, 2022
If you're going to run Keilan Robinson, at least get him to the outside. Dude is not Bijan.
— Tarik D. LaCour (@realscientistic) December 30, 2022
I wasn’t a fan of the usage of both redshirt junior running back Keilan Robinson and redshirt freshman Jonathon Brooks at the outset of this game. Got better as time progressed, though.
Took 25 seconds off clock to run that play. Terrible
— Scott Osborn (@ScottOsborn14) December 30, 2022
Ewers certainly looked like a freshman to end the game. That was quite obviously a horrible final drive.
Following the loss to the Huskies, Ewers and the Longhorns are sporting a record of 8-5 (6-3 Big 12) to conclude the 2022 season. Meanwhile, Washington wrapped up a special 2022 season under DeBoer in his first year in Seattle with a record of 11-2 (7-2 PAC-12).