Texas Football: 5 overreactions from Longhorns’ escape vs. Houston

Arch Manning is the answer (if Ewers misses extended time)

The early prognosis for Ewers after he left the Houston game this weekend with the shoulder injury did not look good. Ewers was seen in a sling on his right arm and in street clothes on the sidelines late in this game after suffering a shoulder injury in the fourth quarter against the Cougars.

In his postgame press conference on Oct. 21, Sark said Ewers suffered a shoulder injury. And while he tried to fight through the injury, he couldn’t go. Redshirt freshman quarterback Maalik Murphy took over at quarterback in the second half once Ewers left the game with a shoulder injury.

Murphy was decent in the two drives he led down the stretch in the fourth quarter for the Longhorns.

But he didn’t get much of a shot to create offense, getting only two passing attempts. Those two attempts resulted in one completion for seven yards. Murphy also missed junior wide receiver Adonai Mitchell on an intermediate throw outside the hashes that he threw behind his target on third down.

It’s also noteworthy that Murphy was dealing with an ailment of his own coming into the Houston game this weekend. The staff apparently wasn’t sure whether Murphy would be able to lead multiple drives for the Longhorns in this game due to lingering ailments he dealt with in practice in the week prior.

Murphy ultimately got the job done in the final drive he led in this game at quarterback. Texas scored the game-winning touchdown on the 16-yard run by Baxter to take a 31-24 lead late in the fourth quarter.

The attention now turns to Ewers’ status with the shoulder injury. It was reported on Oct. 22 that Ewers is being evaluated for a separated shoulder. He is set to undergo an MRI late this weekend or early next week to get the official prognosis and timeline for his recovery.

Texas could be looking at a situation where Murphy or true freshman quarterback Arch Manning takes the starting reps under center for multiple games down the stretch, depending on Ewers’ status. And with Murphy dealing with ailments of his own during the Houston game, it looks like we could see Arch before we expected to.

The original plan was to redshirt Arch this season, but those plans could change down the stretch depending on the health of the other quarterbacks.