Top-ranked Texas spread a total of 29 yards on its first six drives in a 30-15 loss to No. 5 Georgia Saturday night at DKR Memorial Stadium. Four of those drives ended in punts, one ended in a fumble and another ended in an interception.

Georgia took advantage of Texas’ offensive ineptitude, especially the two quarterback turnovers Quinn Ewerswhich Bulldogs running back Trevor Etienne scored two of his three touchdowns that night.

With Georgia leading 20-0 late in the second quarter, Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian made a change. Sophomore signal caller came Bow Manning for Ewers, a third-year starter who at the time was just 6 of 12 for 17 yards through the air.

“My feeling going into the game was that I felt like Quinn was a little bit uncomfortable, and I just wanted to give him a chance to take a step back and regroup,” Sarkisian said after the game.

“I didn’t know if we were going to get one or two heats with Arch, depending on how much time was left in half the clock. So we just told Quinn, we said, ‘Hey, we’re going with Arch here. Give you a chance to get into the locker room. Let’s regroup and then come back in the second half.” So that’s what we did.”

Sarkisian added: “I felt like it was effective. I thought Quinn came out and played a much better second half and in the third quarter as well.”

But first Manning tried the Texas offense. He couldn’t confuse the unit either. He even fumbled during his second and final series. Georgia sophomore outside linebacker Damon Wilson II Manning was stripped and fired, and junior inside linebacker Jalon Walker recovered the rock at the Texas 30-yard line with 25 seconds left before the break. That was enough time for the Bulldogs to score three more points.

In Manning’s brief outing, he completed 3 of 6 passes for 19 yards. His first ride was temporarily kept alive due to a Georgia face mask penalty. Manning moved the chains with a 21-yard run on his second drive, plus an eight-yard completion to the junior running back Jaydon Blue also kept things going. Unfortunately for Manning, back-to-back sacks, including the strip sack at the end of the drive, threw a wrench into any momentum he was building.

Manning was playing for Texas earlier this season when Ewers went down with an oblique injury in Week 3 against UTSA. Manning thrived in relief of Ewers in that game, leading the Longhorns to victories over Louisiana-Monroe and Mississippi State in the following weeks while making his first two career starts.

Along the way, Manning had 10 total touchdowns (eight passing, two rushing) with just two picks. He threw for 806 yards, not to mention his additional 82 yards on the ground, in that three-game run.

Sarkisian dismissed any potential post-game quarterback controversy on Saturday.

“Quinn is our starting quarterback,” Sarkisian said after Texas’ first loss of the season. “I appreciate the fact that we are fortunate to have a backup like Arch who can come into the game and provide a spark in a way. But at the end of the day, Quinn is our starter.”

Ewers completed 19 of 31 passes for 194 yards and two touchdowns in the second half against Georgia. Both scoring hits came in the third quarter, after which Texas made it a 23-15 game.

Except, despite accumulating 106 total yards of offense in the fourth quarter, Texas couldn’t finish drives in the final frame. The Longhorns played catch-up after Georgia scored an insurance touchdown early in the period and turned the ball over on downs on all three of their drives in the fourth quarter, including twice in the red zone.

“I think we have to do better around (Quinn),” Sarkisian said. “I think he would tell you he can play better, but we have to coach better. Everyone has to be better so that our offensive football team can perform better.”