{"id":55039,"date":"2023-11-19T10:00:10","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T15:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=55039"},"modified":"2025-09-13T15:54:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:54:41","slug":"ugly-win-for-texas-26-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/11\/19\/ugly-win-for-texas-26-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Ugly Win For Texas, 26-16"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was another ugly win for Texas in a season full of them, bringing the Longhorns within a victory of returning to the Big 12 Championship Game.\u00a0 Texas did almost everything wrong in a 26-16 win over Iowa State. \u00a0The Longhorns have their sights set on returning to the title game for the first time since 2018.<\/p>\n

Texas (10-1, 7-1) looks like a completely different team than the squad that went 8-5 last year. \u00a0But it hasn\u2019t been easy, and it hasn\u2019t been pretty.\u00a0 The wins have been one clunker after another, and yet Texas finds itself on the verge of a dream season.\u00a0 It culminates next week with a home game against Texas Tech.<\/p>\n

Texas got its latest ugly win despite committing almost every conceivable mistake possible against Iowa State (6-5, 5-3).\u00a0 The Cyclones battled to the end despite having one of the weakest offensive units in the Big 12.\u00a0 They capitalized on numerous Texas errors to keep the game close until the bitter end.<\/p>\n

Keep On Kicking<\/h3>\n

The game MVP turned out to be Bert Auburn<\/a>.\u00a0 The junior kicker went three for three on field goals of 39, 50, and 42 yards.\u00a0 He has made 14 consecutive field goals after struggling earlier in the season.\u00a0 Auburn misfired against Rice, Alabama, Baylor, and Kansas.\u00a0 He got himself on track against Oklahoma and has been perfect ever since.<\/p>\n

Auburn has hit 23 of 28 attempts this season and is arguably the best kicker not nominated as a semifinalist for the 2023 Lou Groza Award<\/strong>.\u00a0 He set a career-high with his 50-yard field goal as time expired at the end of the first half.\u00a0 Having a dialed-in kicker might be the best news of all for a team with a penchant for close games.<\/p>\n

Penalties Aplenty<\/h3>\n

Texas had two touchdowns taken off the board because of penalties in the first half.\u00a0 What could have been a 20-6 halftime advantage was instead 6-3 thanks to the plethora of errors.\u00a0 The Longhorns\u2019 knack for self-inflicted setbacks buoyed the Cyclones’ hopes for an upset on Senior Night.<\/p>\n

A holding penalty on Kelvin Banks<\/a> nullified a touchdown pass from Quinn Ewers<\/a> to Adonai Mitchell<\/a> early in the second quarter.\u00a0 Texas was trailing 3-0 at the time and was struggling on offense.\u00a0 Auburn salvaged that possession with his first field goal of the night.\u00a0 Another illegal block wiped out Xavier Worthy\u2019s<\/a> punt return for a touchdown in the second quarter.\u00a0 The game was tied 3-3 at the time and the Longhorns\u2019 frustration was clearly mounting.\u00a0 Auburn again bailed them out with a clutch kick.<\/p>\n

Shaking Off the Rust<\/h3>\n

Ewers shook off the rust to deliver the ugly win for Texas.\u00a0 He cleaned up his game after throwing an interception last week against TCU. \u00a0Ewers hit 22 of 33 passes for 281 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers against Iowa State.\u00a0 He connected with seven different receivers while looking poised in the pocket.<\/p>\n

Ewers threw touchdown passes to Jordan Whittington<\/a> and Gunnar Helm<\/a>.\u00a0 The scoring pass to Whittington capped a nine-play, 91-yard drive in the third quarter.\u00a0 Ewers broke Texas out of its offensive slump and stretched the lead to 13-3 when the game appeared in doubt.<\/p>\n

Soldiering On<\/h3>\n

The Longhorns sacked Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht<\/strong> three times thanks to Byron Murphy II<\/a>, Alfred Collins<\/a>, and Ethan Burke<\/a>.\u00a0 Texas\u2019 defense shut down Iowa State\u2019s running game.\u00a0 The Cyclones rushed for nine yards on 21 attempts.<\/p>\n

Becht hit 24 of 32 passes for 323 yards and two touchdowns.\u00a0 Jerrin Thompson<\/a> intercepted a Becht pass and the turnover led to a Texas score and a 23-9 lead.\u00a0 Thompson\u2019s pickoff was one of the few mistakes Becht made all night.\u00a0 The freshman quarterback traded touchdown passes with Ewers in a wild fourth quarter.\u00a0 Burke sacked Becht late in the fourth quarter to effectively end the Cyclone\u2019s rally.<\/p>\n

Seeing Red<\/h3>\n

Texas returns home from its ugly win for the regular season finale against Texas Tech (6-5, 5-3).\u00a0 The Friday night game is a grudge match for Texas after last year\u2019s 37-34 overtime loss to the Red Raiders.\u00a0 Tech gets one final shot at knocking off Texas before the Longhorns leave the conference.<\/p>\n

The Red Raiders bring a three-game win streak to Austin.\u00a0 They beat TCU, Kansas, and UCF behind the performance of sophomore quarterback Behren Morton<\/strong>.\u00a0 Senior running back Tahj Brooks<\/strong> has run for at least 100 yards in the last four games.\u00a0 Unlike Iowa State, the Texas Tech offense has been doing damage this season.\u00a0 The Red Raiders are not as stout defensively but still rank in the top half of the conference statistically.\u00a0 It makes for a dramatic Black Friday clash as Texas vies for its first Big 12 title since 2009.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ugly<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy: Aaron E. Martinez\/American-Statesman \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was another ugly win for Texas in a season full of them, bringing the Longhorns within a victory of returning to the Big 12 Championship Game.\u00a0 Texas did almost everything wrong in a 26-16 win over Iowa State. \u00a0The Longhorns have their sights set on returning to the title game for the first time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4486,"featured_media":55045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,35576],"tags":[4780,332,5095,204,240],"class_list":["post-55039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-big12","category-texas-longhorns","tag-big-12-football","tag-lou-groza-award","tag-steve-sarkisian","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4486"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79462,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55039\/revisions\/79462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}