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A Breakdown: Arch Manning throws (play-action) bombs

On3 imageby:Ian Boyd•05/15/25•

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Arch Manning
Brett Patzke-Imagn Images

There’s likely to be a few different flavors to the Texas offense with Arch Manning at the helm. The RPO game could increase, the quarterback run game will increase, and drop back passing might expand due to the addition of strong inside options like Emmett Mosley V or Jack Endries.

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But ultimately the 2025 Longhorn offense is going to be powered by play-action, much like every other Steve Sarkisian offense. Sark wants to take shots down the field, he’s going to draw some up in every game, and Manning’s ability to either hit them in every game or force overcompensation from defenses is what will truly determine if the offense finds a new ceiling or not.

The prognosis for this based on 2024 results is very positive.

Arch’s numbers on play-action in 2024

For the full 2025 season, Manning was 61-90 for 939 yards at 10.4 ypa with nine touchdowns to two interceptions. However, I went through all of his plays (hat tip to Nash) and broke it all down further based on whether he was throwing off play-action or a different passing game scheme.

When throwing off play-action, which I defined as a play with a run fake to the running back but excluding RPOs in which the offensive line was run blocking, Arch was 18-28 for 401 yards at 14.3 ypa with three touchdowns, one pick, two sacks (-6 yards), and a 26-yard scramble. Overall that’s 31 plays which netted Texas 421 yards at 13.6 ypp, three touchdowns, and a single turnover.

Arch throws bombs.

PFF has Manning going 29-41 on play-action for 555 yards at 13.5 ypa with four touchdowns, four sacks, two scrambles, and an interception. You can extrapolate from the difference that PFF counts RPOs as play-action (I do not) and assuming they didn’t miss RPOs in which Manning didn’t bother with the mesh (holding the ball out for the running back) before throwing the ball he must have gone 11-19 for 154 yards at 8.1 ypa with a touchdown, zero picks, two sacks, and a scramble in the RPO game. Having pored through all of Manning’s snaps a few times that sounds about right but I can’t be sure they didn’t miss some in which the line was run blocking but Manning didn’t bother executing a fake hand-off before getting the ball out.

This would make Manning 32-43 for 384 yards at 8.9 ypa with five touchdowns and one interception on his quick game and pure drop back pass attempts. With the caveat applied that Manning didn’t face the toughest competition Texas’ 2024 schedule had to offer, it’s still remarkable how lethally effective he was in everything Sark dialed up for him.

The pure play-action numbers in particular were absolutely devastating. He dropped several deep bombs along with some rollouts and intermediate shots, all of which I’ll demonstrate.

The full gamut of the play-action game

Texas has one of the wider arrays of play-action concepts in college football, even though play-action is often the name of the game for much of the passing game at this level. Sark has multiple designs and is notorious for frequently introducing plays every week which feature a run scheme from a new formation with a screen and play-action shot attached. Within just a few starts, Arch had the chance to show off his acumen at much of it.

Here he is taking a shot behind max protection with two receivers running routes and a late check-release from the running back:

The outside receiver on bottom threatened the middle of the field with a deeper cross before breaking back out to the sideline. Normally that route comes wide open but Manning caught the post safety peaking at it and managed to fire this one over his head. As you porbably noticed, he’s both considerably more aggressive than Quinn Ewers on how often he throws the post route and he also tends to put the ball in a place where his receiver has a chance to make a play on it.

Here’s one of the more potent play-action schemes in Sark’s bag:

The Longhorns pull a guard to the tight end side but release Gunnar Helm on a crossing pattern while Isaiah Bond runs a deep in after him. To the wide side of the field Sark releases two running backs in succession allowing the first to become a lead blocker for the second on a check down. Sark has become a big fan of these concepts in which the quarterback has a check down to throw a swing pass with a lead blocker in front. This floods defensive zones to help open up the deeper shots and makes it possible to do real damage on “safe” options underneath.

Here’s Manning throwing intermediate for a key gain:

I’m not sure he can match Ewers’ touch feathering in intermediate crossers that come open under the deep safety on these concepts but he’s certainly far from incompetent.

Finally, Arch is very effective in the play-action rollout game, even when rolling to his left side.

Ewers was always theoretically strong in the rollout game yet it wasn’t a common feature to the offense. Manning is outstanding in these concepts and brings the added threat of being able to pull the ball down at 6-foot-4, 225 pounds and run through defenders with their backs turned in man coverage.

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Sark’s offense has always been oriented around setting up the chance to land knockout blows in the play-action game. Manning is far and away the most skilled bomber to take off from Sark’s platform at Texas and his 14.3 ypa are likely a good taste of what’s to come now he’s at the helm for the 2025 campaign.

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