Former Longhorn Reacts to Texas Loss

 After Texas’s loss to No. 3 Ohio State to start the season, many questions and concerns have been raised from not just fans, but also former players. Former Texas linebacker Emmanuel Acho is one of those former players.

Acho played for the Longhorns for a three-year span that began in 2008 and was over after the 2011 season, when Acho entered the NFL Draft and was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the sixth round.

Well, after QB Arch Manning and the Longhorns underperformed on Saturday, he shared some words on X.

“Sark, I wish we would have seen more, knowing how much your quarterback was struggling,” Acho said. “I wish you would have given him a couple easier completions, a couple easier outlet throws.”

For Acho, it seemed as if maybe the majority of the blame could be shifted to Sarkisian, which is understandable. However, when it came to Manning’s performance, a lot of the mistakes could be put on the quarterback. Sarkisian is at fault for many of the mistakes that occurred during the game, but Manning’s performance is not one of them.

But it does seem that Acho came to a realization after the fact, releasing another video on X, breaking down some film from the game, pointing out and acknowledging the major mistakes that Manning made.

To start the video off, Acho began by breaking down the first play of the game, a play that resulted in an incompletion, but potentially could have gone for a potential touchdown, as Acho explains.

The first play of the game was a play drawn up by Sarkisian, where a receiver runs in motion, allowing the QB to determine whether or not the defense is in man zone coverage. Then, the two receivers will flood to the right side of the field while one receiver goes deep. Manning had a man open, but completely missed the opportunity.

Acho then broke down the play in which Acho threw the interception. Manning didn’t have many options, but he could have made a better play. It was obvious the Buckeyes were in man coverage, and with little pressure from the defensive line, Manning could have taken off and scrambled. Instead, he chose to throw the ball, lobbing it up to a receiver far downfield in coverage, instead of a tight bullet pass that would get to the receiver quicker. Velocity was an issue the whole game for Manning.

Then, Acho broke down the second-to-last play of the game, which was yet another incompletion. The motion check drawn up by Sarkisian allowed Manning to identify the coverage, but it still couldn’t be taken advantage of.

Manning had the running back on a wheel route open on the left side, while a wide receiver was open on a drag route to the right side of the field. Manning, in a clean pocket, doesn’t set his feet and throws the ball sidearmed to the receiver on the drag, forcing the ball to be inaccurate and behind, resulting in a dropped ball.

This is something that Manning and Sakisian will have to work on together through practice, and hopefully improve on quickly before Texas gets to conference play. If Manning can make the tweaks, then he might be able to put himself back in the Heisman conversation and see success with the Longhorns for the rest of the season.