Coming off a 25 point home loss to Oklahoma State, the Texas Longhorns had much to prove on Senior Night as Case McCoy would lead the Longhorns into battle against Texas Tech in his final home start. Today’s Thanksgiving menu included a side of beatdown as the Longhorns crushed the Red Raiders 41-16 tonight, its eighth straight home win over Texas Tech.
The game started off rough for the home team, as Texas Tech ran a fake punt from its own 49 which caught Texas completely off guard. Red Raiders punter Ryan Erxleben, son of former Longhorn Russell Erxleben, ran untouched 51 yards for a touchdown to put Texas Tech up 7-0. He would be Texas Tech’s leading rusher.
The Longhorns responded with a field goal to move within 7-3, but early on it was apparent Texas Tech would have trouble all night long, as the Longhorns defensive line was having its way with the guys up front. On the following drive Duke Thomas intercepted Baker Mayfield, and all but ended the Tech offense as a threat for most of the next two quarters.
After a Texas punt and a badly missed field goal by Tech, Case McCoy hit Mike Davis on a 47 yard strike where Davis embarrassed a Tech DB to put Texas ahead for good at 10-7 with 11 seconds left in the first quarter.
The second quarter was all Longhorns, as the defense held Tech to 42 yards in the quarter on 17 plays, while continuing to pile up sacks at fast pace. The offense remained busy, putting up a field goal followed by a punishing 80 yard drive capped off by a 12 yard Joe Bergeron touchdown run to go up 20-7. Tech would hit a late field goal after a Texas turnover and go into the locker room down 20-10 in a game that felt like it should have been much worse.
Texas took their first drive of the third quarter and used Malcolm Brown to punish the Red Raiders on a seven play 51 yard drive capped by a McCoy sneak to go up 27-10. The Red Raiders did almost nothing in the quarter outside of stopping one Texas drive. As the sacks and misses piled up, Tech Coach Kliff Kingsbury still did not try a quarterback change despite having other experience options.
Texas took the ball at the 3:51 mark of the quarter and began another long time killing drive, ending with a seven yard touchdown pass from McCoy to Davis at the start of the fourth quarter to put the Longhors up 34-10. Tech did finally make a quarterback change, turning to Michael Brewer, who led a scoring drive capped by an 11 yard touchdown pass to Jace Amaro. The missed two point conversion try ended the Techs scoring with just 16 points on the night, its lowest output of the year.
The Longhorns went on one final long drive, chewing up over seven minutes on an 81 yard drive ended with the first touchdown of Tyrone Swoopes career, a one yard plunge to put the Longhorns up 41-16. Tech’s last drive ended with nothing, and the Longhorns ran out the clock on a larger than expected win in Austin.
The Longhorns were officially credited with 9 sacks on the night, and other than the Erxleben run held Tech to 43 yards rushing on 27 carries. Texas ran for over 200 yards with Brown and Bergeron both going over the century mark.
From here, the Longhorns head to Baylor as the Bears look to finish the regular season 11-1 and close out Floyd Casey Stadium with a win. Both teams could be playing for the Big 12 Championship, depending on an Oklahoma upset of Oklahoma State earlier in the day in Bedlam.
