Texas Holds Off Ole Miss After a 21-point Lead Evaporates
Texas led 24-3 at the half, then spent the second half watching that lead disappear. Ole Miss scored 21 straight, tied it at 24-24 with 13:57 left in the fourth, and had the Longhorns sweating. Texas still won 34-27, and Texas outscored Ole Miss 10-3 over the final 8:04.
The turnaround started with a fumble. Texas lost one, and Kam Franklin picked it up and took it in for a score in the third quarter (the fumble recovery was worth seven points to Ole Miss all by itself). Horatio Fields then caught a 6-yard touchdown from Trinidad Chambliss, and a 27-yarder in the fourth for the tie. Fields had three catches all day. Two of them went for scores.
Arch Manning answered with a 1-yard run at 8:04 to make it 31-24, and Gianni Spetic added a 33-yard field goal at 2:25. Lucas Carneiro's 39-yarder with 1:22 left made the final margin a touchdown. Spetic's two field goals (23 yards in the first quarter, 33 late) bookended the Texas scoring.
The stat story is the ground game against the air. Texas ran 40 times for 209 yards, and Raleek Brown alone had 23 carries for 157. Ole Miss threw 52 passes for 25 completions and three interceptions. Three picks on 52 throws is a lot of empty trips. Texas threw two of its own, so nobody was clean.
Both teams are 5-2 now. Fantasy-wise, Manning (26.7) and Ryan Wingo (25.0) paid off the Texas side, while Chambliss still put up 22.7 points while throwing it to the wrong team three times. Not the cleanest way to get there.