The start of the 2025 didn’t go as planned for the Texas Longhorns. UT fell at Ohio State on Saturday 14-7. The Horns offense looked completely lost at times, highlighted by a notably poor first half performance from Arch Manning. But the Texas QB rallied some in the second half. Like the rest of the team, Manning’s day truly was the good, the bad and the ugly.
Or maybe in Manning’s case it should be the ugly, the bad and the good. While it may seem like doom and gloom the day after, there were a lot of positives from the Longhorns. Certainly the defense looked elite most of Saturday. If you can hold a team like Ohio State to 14 points, you should win.
But there was a lot of negatives. Penalties, which plagued UT last year, were a problem all day. No receiver stepped up to help Manning until late in the game.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian didn’t have a good game either. Sark had a game plan that was a head scratcher from the opening kickoff.
The Good
Run Defense
This was the biggest plus on the day to me, mainly because of the changes that were made to the interior of the defensive line. Ohio State averaged only 2.5 yards/carry, only going for 81 yards on the day. That is an incredible job against an offensive line and a duo of RBs that I believe will be one of the best in the nation. This is something people from the outside were questioning coming in, and Texas answered that in a big way.
Graceson Littleton
Not enough can be said about the true freshman yesterday. He came out of the game as the highest graded player on the Longhorns, according to PFF. He made a number of huge plays throughout the day, including an incredible pass breakup against Jeremiah Smith. The nickel position was a relative question mark coming into the season and coming out of the game yesterday, it’s Graceson Littleton’s going forward.
Jack Bouwmeester
This is another transfer portal pickup that Texas hit on, no doubt about it. Bouwmeester had four punts on the day and three of them landed inside the 20-yard line, with two falling inside the 10. Incredible performance from the Utah transfer, winning Texas the position battle in this game. Texas started their drives on their own 33-yard line, while Ohio State started on their own 18-yard line. Special teams was a massive emphasis in the offseason and at least one half of that equation looks to be answered.
Offensive Line
This might be a hot take among Longhorn fans, but the Texas offensive line looked the part on Saturday. Replacing four starters and going on the road to Ohio State is incredibly tough and they handled it as well as they could’ve. There were a few misses from Brandon Baker, but as a whole, it was a great performance from a group that was handed an incredibly tough challenge to deal with. In the run game, outside of the QB sneak miss, they got tons of push in the run game, averaging 4.6 yards/carry.
The Bad
Pass Catchers
This is harder to confirm without looking closer, but there were multiple plays where Arch Manning had nowhere to go with the ball. It was partly due to the incredible play from the Ohio State defense, but also because the pass catchers for Texas really struggled to get consistent separation. That needs to be fixed, and I believe it will be fixed moving forward, but the new crew of pass catchers left some to be desired in this game.
Offensive Game Plan
This was up and down, in my opinion. Coming into this game, Sarkisian and company were always going to be a run-first gameplan. I believe that was the correct way to approach this game with Arch Manning making his first road start. That being said, the pass game did not give Arch Manning many high-percentage passes early in this game to get his rhythm. The screen game was not employed the way it was last year, and I think it should’ve been at times. It’s hard to say how much had to do with Ohio State’s defense, but the gameplan was not as inspired as it has been in the past under Sarkisian.
The Ugly
Arch Manning’s Play
This is clear as can be. Arch Manning played a game that would like to quickly forget, throwing 11/30 passes “off target” in this game. The comfort level was incredibly low, his throwing mechanics seemed to suffer throughout the game. The mistakes he made were both a product of a great Ohio State defense and him not playing on time the way he needed to. There is plenty of blame to go around, but much of it falls on the shoulders of #16.
Penalties
This was how Ohio State was able to get seven points in this game, and a reason the Texas defense didn’t have a dominant day. 5 penalties for 60 yards is not entirely egregious, but the timing of those penalties were terrible. A facemask by Colin Simmons on a huge 3rd down and a hold on Malik Muhammad gave Ohio State life and put Texas in a hole they would never find themselves out of.
Red Zone Execution
This is the biggest one, and the most frustrating one. Texas missed the mark in the red zone last year and it was something they had emphasized to fix heading into this year. They started the season going 0/2 in the red zone, getting stopped at the one-yard line and the nine-yard line. The offensive line struggled to get the needed push in short yardage situations, Arch Manning missed open receivers for walk-in TDs and Sarkisian did not get very creative in the playcalling. The issue that plagued Texas in 2024 did not look close to fixed in game one of 2025.
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This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: The good, bad and ugly from Texas Football’s loss to Ohio State
Reporting by Tommy Bresee, Longhorns Wire / Longhorns Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
