The Longhorns prepared for the look they got, their experienced quarterback made the right decision at the line of scrimmage, and then delivered a strike.
ATLANTA — When a false start by All-American junior left tackle Kelvin Banks pushed the Texas Longhorns into 4th and 13 in the first overtime needing a touchdown against the Arizona State Sun Devils to keep the Peach Bowl and the season from ending, the win probability for the Horns stood at less than nine percent, according to ESPN.
The rare mistake by Banks threatened to leave a final impression on a career that was otherwise phenomenal from start from finish. For the Longhorns and head coach Steve Sarkisian, a loss after pushing the win probability to 99.9 percent midway through the fourth quarter thanks to a 16-point lead threatened to rank as one of the most unforgivable and unforgettable meltdowns in program history.
But if greatness in football represents the confluence of preparation, opportunity, and execution, Texas used each aspect to keep the game and season alive when redshirt junior quarterback Quinn Ewers connected with junior wide receiver Matthew Golden on a 28-yard touchdown pass with Ewers throwing a touchdown pass to senior tight end Gunnar Helm on the first play of the second overtime before senior safety Andrew Mukuba sealed the 39-31 win the College Football Playoff quarterfinal with an interception near the goal line.
4th and 13 – 5-man pressure, 7-man protection. Is that Cover 3? Deep safety sitting on the sticks and got pantsed. What a moment. Quinn Ewers and Matthew Golden with a singular moment in Texas Longhorns history. pic.twitter.com/FrKEBkVMfR
— Bob Sturm (@SportsSturm) January 3, 2025
The preparation by Texas set up the opportunity to take advantage of the call by Arizona State and Ewers delivered a strike to Golden, leaving Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham taking the blame for call and the loss in his post-game press conference.
“To be honest, it’s all on me — we’re in a Cover 0 look. Late in the play clock, Ewers did a phenomenal job checking out, recognizing the Cover 0 look, checking into a max pro, and I didn’t have the ability to get out of it, and that’s on me. So we left our guys iso-ed in a Cover 0 look into a max pro there,” Dillingham said.
“I gotta go into that game with an ability to get out of that call. And like I said, there’s a lot of things that I gotta do better to help our guys to win the football game. That’s one of the many things that as I reflect I gotta be better because our guys played good enough to win. Our guys battled good enough to win, and this game is 100 percent on me.”
Texas was able to take advantage of the defensive look by Arizona State defensive coordinator Brian Ward because they had prepared for it before the game, according to Sarkisian.
“I thought it was a great job of preparation by our coaches in relaying that to our players. We actually practiced that play versus that exact defense during the week,” the Longhorns head coach said.
Just like Ewers took the tools given to him by the coaching staff to check into outside zone runs that produced two touchdowns by junior running back Jaydon Blue in the first-round win over Clemson, the experienced quarterback made the right decision at the line of scrimmage, ensuring that the offensive line could handle the blitz.
“There were some moving parts to that to where Quinn had to change the protection on the play and he did — he got us to a max protection — but even at that, there was some intricacies to handle the pressure the way it was coming inside,” Sarkisian said.
A squeeze call from redshirt senior center Jake Majors on the line helped the interior from allowing pressure up the middle as the running back and tight end handled the pressure off the edge.
As sophomore wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. motioned tighter into the formation, Ewers got a better look at the Cover 4 look by Arizona State that became more difficult with the wide receivers coming off the line of scrimmage stacked.
The execution in pass protection allowed Ewers to execute in a clean pocket and Golden executing by faking a route at the sticks to create separation. As Dillingham explained on Twitter Friday, former Texas safety Xavion Alford was coached to “catch” the anticipated out route by Golden because the blitz should force the quarterback to throw the ball early.
“He did exactly what we coached,” Dillingham said of his star defensive back.
But because Ewers was coached to anticipate the blitz from that look, he checked into the right protection to ensure that Golden’s route had time to develop, executing one of the most iconic plays in modern Texas football history.
“We guessed a little with the call thinking they might come after us, and we guessed right, and he did a great job of getting the protection right and making the play,” Sarkisian said of Ewers.
What an advantage it is in those moments to have good coaching and experience collide to keep the hopes of a national championship alive for the Longhorns.