What went into Arch Manning's two touchdown tosses to DeAndre Moore
During his Monday press conference, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian heaped a considerable amount of praise on both quarterback Arch Manning and wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr.
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Manning, starting for the second consecutive game, was a hyper-efficient 26-for-31 for 324 yards and two scores. His stat line could have been gaudier if it weren’t for a dropped deep pass plus a number of holding penalties called against the Longhorns.
His two touchdowns both went to Moore, who caught four passes for 103 yards.
On Monday, Sarkisian broke down both of those scoring passes that came during important junctures during the game.
The first was a 49-yard pass late in the second quarter. Manning stood strong in the pocket and found Moore deep downfield near the front pylon.
“I did not think they were going to zero blitz us on third and long,” Sarkisian said. “We were at right about the 50-yard line there at the end of the first half. We actually were anticipating coverage. We were trying to get three verticals. Matt Golden was actually running down the middle of the field
“They actually zero-blitzed us. When I say zero blitz, there’s no safeties and they’re bringing one more than we have to block. The beauty of it was, one, that the offensive line picked up the five that they could. The second part of it was Arch knew who the free rusher was going to be, and the third part of it was he knew where his man answers were to take a shot. At that point, it was — we call it dealer’s choice. He could have went to (Isaiah Bond), he could have went to DeAndre. It wasn’t designed for one. It was best matchup. He went with Dre to the field, and it was a heck of a throw and a heck of a catch.”
It was part of another standout performance for Moore, who Sarkisian described as the captain of the wide receiver room on Monday. Moore has emulated Jordan Whittington since his arrival at Texas and is playing like a true threat to defenses on a weekly basis despite various bumps and bruises.
“Studied his mannerisms, studied how well he learned the offense, what he did from a recovery standpoint to get his body back week in and week out,” Sarkisian said of Moore following Whittington. “The versatility from position flexibility, the special teams work, he does all of that and that’s playing off.”
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Just about 20 minutes of game time later, Manning and Moore connected again.
There was a lot more to this play than meets the eye. This actually broke some of the typical schematic norms associated with mesh.
Typically on mesh, the quarterback’s first read is the wheel route to the running back, the second read is the crossing route to the wide receiver running to the same side as the wheel, and the third is a hitch in the middle of the field.
Quintrevion Wisner ran the wheel.
Gunnar Helm ran the crossing route.
Moore was supposed to run the hitch, at least that’s what the defense thought.
Look at Manning and where his eyes take him. There’s no look toward Wisner or Helm. He understood the play-call and the idea that Sarkisian was breaking a tendency in order to catch the defense by surprise. Manning then stepped into the throw to Moore on the deep over and more points on the scoreboard was the result.
“It was tremendous protection and it allowed Arch to really step into that throw because he had to make a heck of a throw,” Sarkisian said. “It was one thing to get it over the DB, but it was another not to throw it out the back of the end zone.”
What happens going forward with the Longhorns’ quarterback situation wasn’t fully revealed by Sarkisian on Monday. There’s plenty of time for Quinn Ewers to heal up ahead of Texas’ annual rivalry battle with Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl.
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In the interim, Manning made the most of his opportunities against ULM and Mississippi State and kept the Longhorns undefeated, with two quality touchdown throws against the Bulldogs to his name.
