A handful of plays, just like Sarkisian said, Texas over Kansas State 34-27
On Thursday before the Texas Longhorns and Kansas State Wildcats football game in Manhattan, KS, head coach Steve Sarkisian said, “This game quite frankly is going to come down to a handful of plays.”
The game came down to one play. On the last drive of the game for Kansas State that appeared to be headed for a touchdown that would have tied the game and sent it into overtime, with a half a minute left on the clock, Keondre Coburn gets a hand on the ball to force a fumble that then was kicked down the field like a soccer ball and recovered by Jaylan Ford to give Texas back the ball. Texas stops Kansas State for the 13th time, gets the road win 34-27 and is now officially bowl eligible.
Texas played elite football in the first half with six drives that resulted in four touchdowns and a field goal. The Texas defense held Kansas State to one touchdown and a field goal. In the second half, Texas scored three points on a field goal at the beginning of the fourth quarter after 11 plays and 64 yard drive.
Texas had no penalties in the first half and seven in the second, Quinn Ewers threw 18-31 for 197 yards and no interceptions. Bijan Robinson carried the ball for 209 (77.6%) yards of Texas’ 269 rushing yards and scored a touchdown on a 38 yard run up the middle in the first quarter.
Xavier Worthy snagged four of eight passes for 42 yards and two touchdowns. Seven Texas players caught 18 passes for 197 receiving yards (Ja’Tavion Sanders 5-54, Xavier Worthy 4-42, Bijan Robinson 2-34, Jordan Whittington 2-22, Keilan Robinson 2-20, Savion Red 2-20, Jahleel Billingsley 1-5).
Interestingly, Texas had 466 total yards compared to Kansas States’ 468 total yards. Texas had more rushing yards (269) than Kansas State (139) who had more passing yards (329) to Texas’ (197) passing yards.
The defenses went head-to-head. Texas had 64 total tackles (44 solos) and Kansas State with 65 total tackles (39 solo). Jaylan Ford, who recovered the game-ending fumble that gave Texas the win, recorded 10 tackles (six solo), DeMarvion Overshown nine (seven solo), Ryan Watts six (five solo), Jerrin Thompson and Michael Taaffe with six each and four solo each.
Now for the good stuff. Undefeated No. 7 ranked TCU travels to Austin, Texas to play Texas in what we are calling ‘The Game of the Year’ for Texas, or as ESPN has just announced, ESPN College GameDay.
