Joel Klatt: Texas, Quinn Ewers fell apart completely at end of Sugar Bowl

Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt said Texas and Quinn Ewers completely fell apart at the end of the Sugar Bowl.

Gifted an opportunity to complete a miraculous comeback, the Longhorns came up short. Ewers got them down the field, but couldn’t make the throws in the end down in the red zone.

What’s worse is, Texas had the opportunity handed to the offense on a silver platter following some mismanagement by Washington.

“But because (Dillon Johnson) goes down late in that game, Washington had to take a timeout,” Klatt said on his podcast. “So they were going to just give the ball back to Texas who had to score a touchdown on their next possession to win the game. 

“And they were gonna have what like 15 seconds left or less than that? But because of the injury and the timeout, then all of a sudden they’ve got to give the ball to them with 45 seconds left, Then they get the penalty and the long pass and it’s like oh my goodness is Texas actually going to win this game?”

During the last sequence, Texas had multiple shots at the end zone and managed to keep one second on the clock for a final play. Ewers’ pass to AD Mitchell in the end zone was too far to the right and ultimately fell incomplete.

“And then you get the last sequence and Texas falls apart completely, Quinn Ewers fell apart completely n the last few plays,” Klatt said. “One, you cannot throw a swing route on first down with 15 seconds left. Like I don’t know what that was. Second down, he basically threw out of the back of the endzone. Third down, you get pressure, I guess that’s a smart play, gets it off and lives to fight another down. 

“And then on fourth down, he basically throws it out of the endzone again. Quarterbacks: 100% of the passes that you throw out of bounds are going to be incomplete. I know that’s shocking. I know that’s shocking. 60% of the time it works every time.”

Ewers finished the game 24-of-43 passing for 318 yards and one touchdown. In the end, it was enough. There was a serious lull in the third quarter after the game was tied 21-21 at halftime.

The expectation is Ewers is back in 2024 and Texas could run it back. But for now, this Sugar Bowl might sting for a while.