No. 25 Texas blows a fourth-quarter lead again in loss to No. 12 Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State stayed undefeated with a final quarter blitz of No. 25 Texas on Saturday.
The No. 12 Cowboys (6-0) scored 19 straight points in the second half against the Longhorns in a 32-24 win to move to 6-0 and into pole position for a spot in the Big 12 championship game.
Oklahoma State never led until Tanner Brown kicked a 29-yard field goal with 4:37 to go. Brown’s kick came a drive after Oklahoma State went 80 yards in 10 plays to cut Texas’ lead to 24-22 with 10:16 to go.
Texas (4-3) had plenty of time to get a go-ahead score after Brown’s field goal but the Oklahoma State defense came up big like it has for much of the season. The Cowboys stopped Texas on a third and short and a fourth and short in Longhorn territory.
After Jaylen Warren broke a 29-yard run to the Texas 10, the Longhorns decided the best way to win would be to let OSU score. Spencer Sanders did just that and Texas got the ball back down eight with 2:18 to go.
UT’s final drive lasted one play. Casey Thompson threw an interception to give the ball back to OSU and the Cowboys ran out the clock.
Texas took the lead less than five minutes into the game thanks to a Bijan Robinson touchdown run. The Longhorns weren’t in real danger of losing that in the second and third quarters and a 38-yard run by Robinson extended Texas’ lead to 24-13 early in the third quarter.
That was Texas’ last points of the game. OSU got a field goal in the third quarter and then scored three times in the fourth quarter as Texas’ defense started to leak oil and the offense stagnated. After Robinson ran for nine yards on the first play of Texas’ penultimate drive, the drive ended after a short pass and two runs by Thompson.
Robinson finished with 21 carries for 135 yards and just three of those carries came in the fourth quarter as Texas' final six drives ended in four plays or less.
Texas needs some help to make the Big 12 title game
Texas’ inability to close out games could very well cost it a shot at the Big 12 title. The Longhorns now have two losses in the conference and those two losses come to teams who are also competing for the title game and haven’t lost yet.
Texas now needs a win against Iowa State on Nov. 6 and a lot of help from both the Cyclones, Cowboys and Sooners in the coming weeks if it wants to have any chance of winning a tiebreaker for one of the two spots in the title game.
OSU, meanwhile, can make another huge step toward a Big 12 title berth with a win over Iowa State next week. If the Cowboys win in Ames then they’ll have a manageable schedule until a final week game against Oklahoma on Nov. 27 — a game that could very well serve as a preview of the championship game the following week.
