“Apologize to Quinn Ewers”, “Deep ball so ugly”: CFB world divided over Texas QB’s 40+ yard throw vs Clemson

Quinn Ewers and the Texas Longhorns beat Dabo Swinney's Clemson Tigers 38-24 on a first-round game of the College Football Playoff, advancing to face Arizona State in the Peach Bowl on Jan. 1.

The Tigers took an early first-quarter lead, by scoring the game's first touchdown. However, with two minutes left in the first quarter, Texas took the lead, and it never again lost control of the game.

The Longhorns relied more than anything on the ground game, with Quinn Ewers having a quiet day at the office with 202 passing yards, one touchdown and an interception. However, he delivered a brilliant 43-yard pass to Matthew Golden. Fans were impressed by the amount of such deliveries by the Texas signal-caller this year:

"Quinn Ewers 43-yard pass to Matthew Golden was his 8th pass completion of 40+ yards this season, 3 of which have gone to Golden. Texas has 19 plays (14 pass/5 runs) of 40 or more yards in 2024🤘🏼"

Meanwhile, others thought that Ewers's deep ball was not aesthetically pleasing at all:

"Quinn Ewers deep ball is so ugly"

Others pointed out, that only Quinn Ewers, out of all Texas's quarterbacks, can do this:

"Apologize to Quinn Ewers. Arch can’t do that lol."

Others pointed out Quinn Ewers's leadership and management qualities during the game:

"Shoutout to all the Quinn Ewers haters and doubters. #CFBPlayoff #HookEm “game manager” managed his team to a decisive win."

"Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian said Quinn Ewers audibled on both Jaydon Blue touchdown runs"

Fans seemed happy at Ewers' performance:

"Quinn Ewers was amazing tonight NO QUESTIONS ASKED we clean up the drops and this offense is clicking in all cylinders."

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Steve Sarkisian praises Quinn Ewers' performance against Clemson

Potentially the most significant praise of the day came from Ewer's coach, Steve Sarkisian, who said about the quarterback's game:

“He made a lot of plays for us when they were on time, but he made a couple of plays off schedule, which was critical for us as well. I thought he managed the game beautifully, that bad luck again on the interception unfortunately,”

Texas will now look to the quarterfinal encounter against Arizona State, for which they will surely arrive as favorites.

Steve Sarkisian's men can feel they potentially have been handed an easy path to the semifinals. However, the rosy path would end there as they would face Tennessee, Ohio State, or Oregon in the semifinal.