Here's What the Film Review of Arch Manning's Debut vs. Ohio State Really Showed

The Texas Longhorns fell in their season opener to the Ohio State Buckeyes in a defense-controlled, low-scoring battle on Saturday.

The Longhorns converted their sole points of the day in the fourth quarter, struggling immensely in the first three quarters to open up the Ohio State defense and failing to convert in the red zone and on late downs.

Texas quarterback Arch Manning was at the center of the Longhorns' underwhelming offensive performance. Brooks Austin of The Film Guy Network studied and reviewed Manning's film against Ohio State in a 45-minute YouTube video. Here are some of the main takeaways from Manning's performance in the 14-7 defeat:

The nerves

"Myself included, thought he was going to be cool, calm and collected. That's not what we saw on tape and that's definitely not what we saw on TV," Austin said early on in his video about Manning.

Throughout his film review, Austin points out how Manning's inexperience shone through. That evaluation began on the opening play, when he made an unnecessarily violent throw on a play-action rollout to DeAndre Moore Jr. He described it as Manning "doing too much":

Much later on, he looks at an inside comeback route that Manning was very late to throw. The play, in which the Texas receiver is noticeably open, exemplifies how Manning really never got comfortable. He stayed indecisive and found difficulty with his timing:

Only minutes after, Austin shows the incompletion to wide receiver Ryan Wingo on a crucial redzone third down. Manning hurriedly lasers the ball into Wingo's lower half:

Austin at one point described it as Manning "just [being] a little bit sped up in [his] own mind."

And that checks out, as Manning seemed to be overwhelmed by the task at hand and never found his groove. Austin made a suggestion to coach Steve Sarkisian and company about how to let Arch be Arch:

"If we have 65 snaps against Georgia when you come to Athens, I think ten of them need to be this," Austin said in that clip. "I think we need to move and convert chains with his athleticism and nice and easy, not make him be Eli Manning or Peyton Manning. Let him be Arch Manning and do stuff like this a couple times. 'Cause he does look athletic, he's big, he makes really, really good decisions. And I think he thinks less when he's doing stuff like this, which is probably good in these bigger games."

You can only expect the gameplan to be different in the coming weeks as the Longhorns look to dominate at home.

The mechanics

"I was a little bit taken aback to see all the mechanical flaws. It's almost as if his entire foundation as a thrower just crumbled because it was a little bit too much on Saturday," Austin said.

Austin mentioned times when Manning's nerves and mechanics collided and translated into panic. He ran himself into pressure despite a clean pocket. He also discussed how mental second-guessing was shown in Manning's physical tendencies.

He used the case of shaky feet:

"Young football players that do not trust what they see (have shaky feet)," Austin said in the clip. "Which, at this point, we're 26 snaps in, about two and a half quarters, I wouldn't be trusting what I see either because everything they're showing me is lying to me."

Just after that, he keys in on Manning relying too heavily on his arm strength when running a simple checkdown screen:

When it came to the interception, Austin points out how Manning's front knee is vertical and locked, while his body as a whole is leaning midthrow. These mechanics caused some speed to come off the ball and allowed the cornerback to undercut it.

"I never thought I'd see this from this kid. And it's very clear that ball dies on him at the end," Austin said.

Through all of this mechanical letdown, Austin does point out two pieces of good news:

1. We've seen the mechanics be right. Manning showed what he is capable of doing in last season's playing time.

2. His nerves translated to panicked decision-making, not necessarily an issue about seeing and reading the field.

Manning has time against weaker opponents to sure up his mechanics ahead of entering Southeastern Conference play.

The Ohio State defense

At times, Austin's video turned into an exhibition of Ohio State's defensive eliteness.

Austin labeled Matt Patricia's defense as "really, really fun to watch" and described the scheme as "freaky." Specifically, he oftentimes highlighted Caleb Downs' ability to roam free and his anticipation of Manning's reads and the playcalls.

He seems to feel that the defensive scheme left Texas offense optionless at some points.

"Can't blame it all on the young quarterback. They're getting everybody right now," Austin said about Saturday's game.

Ohio State was extremely prepared for Texas's system. Austin overviews the Buckeyes' defensive discipline on the fourth-down passing play in the red zone:

Though a frustrating start to the 2025 season, Week 1 will serve as a vital learning experience for Manning. He faced the best of the best of college football, and that was clear in how Ohio State operated and frustrated its opposition.

"I do believe this guy is going to be really, really good. But all young players go through growing pains," Austin said.

Manning will look to put together a bounce-back performance in front of the home crowd against San Jose State on Saturday.