Steve Sarkisian reveals the good and bad of Texas' vertical passing game, Quinn Ewers

Steve Sarkisian had some comments on Quinn Ewers and the Texas vertical passing game as a whole following their win on Saturday.

Ewers was solid as a whole — passing for 225 yards and two touchdowns — but Sarkisian recognizes his offense is far from perfect, especially with Alabama coming to Austin next Saturday.

“From a critical standpoint, we’ve got a lot to work on still. This was not a perfect game,” began Sarkisian. “We had an opportunity in the red area and kind of stubbed our toe with a sack and penalties and things, where we had to settle for a field goal. Didn’t generate the vertical passing game the way we would’ve liked. Took some shots, and that didn’t play out the way we would’ve liked it to. So that was a little bit frustrating, but that’s part of it. We’re going to keep taking those shots when they present themselves, and we’ll hit them.

“So I thought it was good for Quinn to get his feet wet, it was good Hud (Hudson Card) had a chance to get in there. That offensive line unit he was with was a little bit new, took him a minute but then they put together a heck of a drive there. I think it was a 12-play drive to go and score. So all in all, it was a positive day, but yet plenty to work on. We’ve got to get focused on making sure we’re getting ourselves right, because that’s the most important thing. It’s not always about the opponent, but about what we do and how we go do it.”

Continuing, Sarkisian elaborated on how he’s been brining Ewers along, including what his plan was for his quarterback on Saturday.

“We kind of stuck to the plan. We had some things called down the field that I thought he did a nice job of finding his check-downs on. We can’t expect him to ride this bike and do it with training wheels on. I’ve got to let him go. We did that tonight,” stated Sarkisian. “I thought that again, guys made some nice plays around him. I thought there were some really cool fourth down conversions that we executed well. Maybe our third down call wasn’t as aggressive, because we knew we were going for it on fourth down. Then he made some critical throws in those fourth down scenarios, which were big time plays.

“So from a grade standpoint, I don’t know. I thought he played well. I’ve got to look at the tape and look at different things. I felt like there were some things that we could’ve done a little better around him. There was probably a handful of throws he’d love to have back. That’s part of playing the position, and hopefully he’s better next week.”

As you can see, Steve Sarkisian and Texas are enacting their plan when it comes to Quinn Ewers, but time will tell how things go next weekend when the staunch Crimson Tide come to town.