{"id":333539,"date":"2025-09-01T16:59:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T16:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/333539\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T16:59:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T16:59:14","slug":"paul-finebaum-admits-disastrous-beginning-for-arch-manning-texas-after-preseason-hype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/333539\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Finebaum admits ‘disastrous beginning’ for Arch Manning, Texas after preseason hype"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Finebaum called Arch Manning\u2019s<\/a> debut for Texas<\/a> in 2025 \u201cdisastrous\u201d in the beginning. Unfortunately for Manning and the No. 1 Longhorns, it ultimately led to a 14-7 loss to No. 3 Ohio State<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The preseason hype was unreal from the start. Manning was pegged a Heisman favorite, although saw his odds drop after Saturday, and Texas was a popular pick for the national title. It\u2019s early of course, but it was an eye opener during the first full weekend.<\/p>\n

Finebaum wasn\u2019t ready to pull the plug on Texas and Manning, but it simply has to get better. In fact, he was pretty disappointed in head coach Steve Sarkisian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, the truthful thing to say is, it was a disastrous beginning,\u201d Finebaum said on Get Up. \u201cNow you can look inside and find good things, but mostly he was not ready for the moment, and neither was his coach. I was more disappointed in Steve Sarkisian, who I had believed was the best offensive play caller in America. He just did not dial up very much. He was out manned on the defensive side by Ohio State, and I came away optimistic that Arch would get better, but that\u2019s not what we were expecting and that\u2019s not what we got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manning finished 17-of-30 passing for 170 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He was limited to 38 rushing yards on 10 carries as well.<\/p>\n

Manning struggled throughout the day, missing a few throws and was flushed from the pocket. Finebaum wasn\u2019t the only one who noticed inconsistencies in Sarkisian\u2019s offense either. Analyst David Pollack claimed<\/a> Manning wasn\u2019t exactly operating a Sarkisian offense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cArch (Manning) definitely deserves to be the story a little bit too to talk about because too many misses,\u201d Pollack said<\/a>. \u201cToo many misses for Arch on easy stuff. Easy crossers, the Wingo one late that would have given him a chance on third-and-5. Gotta hit that. Wingo, early, throwing at his feet in the red. Texas had opportunities, but I\u2019m shocked at the way the offense ran like this. This, to me, didn\u2019t look like a Sark offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see all the fun shifts and motions until the fourth quarter, when he went reverse screen. Then, I was like, \u2018OK, that that\u2019s an offense that put me in conflict multiple times.\u2019 He said the pregame presser, \u2018We\u2019re gonna sling it. I want Arch to sling it.\u2019 I didn\u2019t feel like they slang it. I feel like they were very conservative early in this football game, and almost protected him a little bit more, probably, than they needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Finebaum called Arch Manning\u2019s debut for Texas in 2025 \u201cdisastrous\u201d in the beginning. Unfortunately for Manning and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[5242,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-333539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-arch-manning-23-isidore-newman","9":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115130110069717047","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}