It was a 10-point lead for Mississippi State at the half. It was a 17-point Mississippi State lead with 12:29 to play.
But as Ryan Niblett broke a shoestring tackle and then made another Bulldogs defender miss, the sideline opened up, the Starkville crowd sank into their seats, and the Longhorns breathed a sigh of relief.
A 79-yard punt return from Niblett with 1:47 remaining in regulation tied the game at 38-38 and officially brought the Longhorns back. A 10-yard touchdown catch from Emmett Mosley V in the first overtime period gave No. 22 Texas a 45-38 win.
Texas scored 24 unanswered to win and move to 6-2 on the season. According to CBS Sports, FBS teams had lost 429 straight games when trailing by at least 17 points with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter until Saturday.
For Mississippi State (4-4, 0-4 SEC), the loss extended its losing streak in conference play to 16 games.
Texas lost quarterback Arch Manning early in overtime. Prior to his exit, Manning completed 29 of his 46 pass attempts for 346 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 interception, and 1 rushing score.
The Longhorns gained 428 yards as an offense. But the defense gave up 445.
Both sides combined for 12 sacks and 21 tackles for loss. Texas got to MSU quarterback Blake Shapen 7 times.
Shapen threw for 381 yards and 4 scores in the defeat. He fired incomplete over the middle to Brenen Thompson on the Bulldogs’ first play of overtime. Thompson had a step on his man; a better-placed ball might have led his receiver into the endzone.
MSU got nothing from its second- and third-down plays, then false-started twice before its fourth-down play. Eventually, the offense faced fourth-and-20 from the Texas 35. Shapen was sacked and the ball was knocked loose to end the game with a thud.
Texas kept its College Football Playoff hopes alive. Mississippi State will head to Arkansas (2-6, 0-4) next week, where one side will finally earn its first conference win of the year..
No. 22 Texas 45, Mississippi State 38
Here’s the Texas-MSU box score (use the dropdown menu to select team or player stats), followed by the complete play-by-play:
Arch Manning vs Blake Shapen
A statistical breakdown of how Texas QB Arch Manning performed against Miss State counterpart Blake Shapen:
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
