Texas entered Saturday’s matchup against Kansas looking to rebound from a forgettable performance against Oklahoma. Instead of a bounce back game, the Jayhawks ended up giving the Longhorns all they could handle, with Texas needing a Cameron Dicker field at the buzzer to squeak out a 50-48 win.
The Texas defense had a very rough night, giving up 259 yards rushing, including a 190 yard performance by Kansas RB Pooka Williams. The Longhorns defense ended the night allowing 569 yards.
On a night when the Texas offense carried the load, they started the scoring early. The Longhorns received the opening kickoff and marched right down the field with the drive ending with a 14 yard touchdown run by Roschon Johnson. The Jayhawks attempted to respond with a drive of their own, but were halted when Liam Jones missed a 46 yard kick.
Following a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jake Smith to put Texas up 14-0, the Jayhawks responded with 17 unanswered points to take a 17-14 lead late into the 2nd quarter. A 5-yard touchdown pass to Brennan Eagles allowed the Longhorns to take a 21-17 lead into the locker room.
The second half is when things began to get wild. The Jayhawks scored on their opening possession of the half to re-take the lead at 24-21. After a field goal and touchdown for Texas, the Jayhawks appeared to be on their way to tying the score following a 16-yard touchdown run by Pooka Williams to make the score 31-30, but the Longhorns blocked the extra point and returned it for the two point conversion to extend the lead to 33-30.
The Longhorns then looked to to be pulling away following a 3-yard TD run by Keaontay Ingram to give Texas a 47-40 lead, but the Jayhawks marched right down the field and Carter Stanley connected with Stephon Robinson Jr. for a 22-yard TD to pull Kansas within a point with 1:11 left in the 4th quarter. Les Miles opted to go for 2, and was rewarded when Stanley found Daylon Charlot wide open in the back of the endzone to give the Jayhawks a 1 point lead. Sam Ehlinger would not be fazed though. The junior finished the night with 399 passing yards and 4 TD’s, and when his team needed him to save the day and avoid a huge upset, he delivered. Ehlinger marched the Longhorns down the field, connecting with Collin Johnson on 3 different occasions to help put the Longhorns in field goal range. Dicker then sent the 33-yarder right down the middle of the uprights, possibly saving the Longhorns’ season.
The win moves Texas to 3-1 in conference play and 5-2 overall. They will return to action next week when they travel to Fort Worth to face TCU.
