With many college football fans’ attention turned toward the terrorist attack in New Orleans, Texas defeated Arizona State 39-31 in two overtimes in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Wednesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The victory advanced the Longhorns to the semifinals of the College Football Playoff, where in the Cotton Bowl they will face the winner of the Rose Bowl game between Oregon and Ohio State. Should the Longhorns win that game, they would advance to the CFP Championship game at MBS for their third game in six weeks at the venue.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian acknowledged his team didn’t play its best, but he was proud that in the big moments it executed.
“Not every game is going to be pretty, and not every game is just going to go exactly how you want it to go,” he said. “And there’s going to be plenty of stuff that we’re going to look at this tape and say, ‘We got to do better and be better.’ But the one thing I won’t have to say is that our toughness and our fight doesn’t need to be better. And if there’s one thing that you want as a calling card for your team, it’s just that.”
Texas had two chances to defeat Arizona State during regulation. Kicker Bert Auburn’s field-goal attempt hit the left upright with two seconds remaining. A 48-yard attempt drifted right with 1:39 remaining.
Overtime was just as fun.
Cam Skattebo ran through Texas defenders, twisting until his back was parallel to the ground, for a 3-yard touchdown to give Arizona State a 31-24 lead on the first possession of overtime. The touchdown was made possible because of a 16-yard run to the 3-yard line by quarterback Sam Leavitt on third-and-15.
Texas answered with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Quinn Ewers to an open Matthew Golden down the middle on fourth-and-15 to send the game to a second overtime.
The play was one that Sarkisian said the team practiced against the specific blitz that Arizona State called. Sun Devils coach Kenny Dillingham said he should have done a better job getting his team out of its “zero coverage” when he saw that the Longhorns had switched to max protection.
“There’s a lot of things I’ve got to do better to help our guys win the football game,” he said.
Texas got the ball first in the second overtime and needed one play, a 25-yard pass from Ewers to tight end Gunnar Helm, to score. Ewers hit Golden in the right corner of the end zone for the two-point conversation and 39-31 lead.
Texas’ Andrew Mukuba intercepted Leavitt at the 3-yard line on third down to end the game.
Arizona State, which trailed 17-3 in the first half, totaled 510 yards against the third-best defense in FBS, but its wastefulness in the first half contributed to its defeat. Leavitt and Skattebo, who expressed confidence before the game that the Longhorns couldn’t stop them, were inches close to being correct. Leavitt completed 24 of 46 passes for 222 yards and rushed for 60 more. Skattebo, who was the offensive MVP for Wednesday’s game and who finished fifth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy, rushed for 143 yards and two touchdowns, passed for another touchdown, and led the team in receiving yards with 99. Those totals despite him being sick in the first half because he said he drank too much water too fast, leaving him feeling “sloshy.”
“I bet you nobody in this room thought we were going to even be close when we went down 17-3 in that first quarter,” Skattebo said. “So we believed in ourselves.”
Ewers did enough with by completing 20 of 30 passes for 322 yards and three touchdowns. Golden had 10 receptions for 149 yards and the key touchdown. Texas’ defense limited Arizona State to 3-of-6 scoring when they drove inside the 20-yard line.
“These guys do such a good job of just saying, ‘Hey, protect the end zone,’“ Sarkisian said. “And if it’s six inches, one yard, four yards, whatever that looks like, they’re going to stand in there.”
Texas took a 17-3 lead into halftime because of its superior special teams and defense.
Leading 7-3 after a two-play drive capped by a 23-yard touchdown pass from Ewers to DeAndrew Moore Jr., the Longhorns scored again on a 77-yard punt return by Silas Bolden with 7:08 remaining in the first quarter.
Arizona State was twice foiled when it went for it on fourth-down plays on consecutive drives inside Texas’ half of the field. Its last drive in the half ended with a 36-yard field-goal attempt blocked by Ethan Burke. The Sun Devils got three points out of four drives inside Texas’ territory.
“I had a bad plan going into the game,” Dillingham said. “I didn’t put them in the best positions to succeed on offense.”
Outside of its first drive, Texas’ offense totaled 133 yards, largely because it failed to convert four of its five third downs. Seventy-seven yards came from the first drive. Arizona State finished with 178 yards.
Arizona State was again stopped on fourth down, this time from Texas’ 2-yard line, on its first drive of the second half. Skattebo was hit in the backfield by Mukuba and Jelani McDonald before he could get turned toward the end zone on the decisive down. The Sun Devils drove from their 38 to set up first-and-goal from the 6. They gained just 2 yards on four rushing plays.
The drive wasn’t a total loss.
Shamari Simmons, who was suspended for the first half because of a targeting call in the second half of the Big 12 championship game, tackled Quintrevion Wisner in the end zone and forced a fumble. The lost ball was caught by Ewers as Simmons got up and tackled him, too. Arizona State’s deficit was cut to 17-5 and it got the ball.
The Sun Devils drove to the Texas 12, but lost 7 yards on their next three plays. They settled for a field goal to get within 17-8 with 41 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
The drive increased Arizona State’s lead in most categories except the scoreboard: yards (303-128), plays (68-25) and time of possession (32:49-11:30).
Texas answered with a 13-play, 76-yard touchdown drive capped by a 5-yard run by Ewers to increase its lead to 24-8 with 10:17 remaining. Also of importance for Texas, the drive bled 5 minutes, 23 seconds off the clock.
But Arizona State wasn’t rattled, showing the mettle that carried it to the Big 12 title. It again got within nine when do-everything Skattebo threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to Malik McClain with 6:31 remaining. That was followed by a successful two-point conversion to cut Texas’ lead to 24-16.
Corner Javan Robinson acrobatically intercepted Ewers to give Arizona State possession on its 21-yard line with 5:37 remaining.
The Skattebo show continued.
First, he caught a pass down the Texas sideline for 62 yards that included a face-mask penalty on Michael Taaffe to set up Arizona State on Texas’ 8-yard line. Second, Skattebo scored from 2 yards on third down, dragging tacklers with him. Third, he barreled in from 2 yards out on the 2-point conversion to tie the game at 24 with 5 minutes remaining. Arizona’s State’s first attempt at the 2-point conversion resulted in an interception. But a holding call negated the turnover and gave the Sun Devils another and closer opportunity.
Texas drove to Arizona State’s 30 where Auburn’s 48-yard field goal drifted wide right.
Arizona State took over with 1:39 remaining. Leavitt ran for 13 yards on first down. After two incompletions, Leavitt found Melquan Stovall for 10 yards on third down. A potential targeting call that would have moved the Sun Devils into field-goal range was waived off after a review by referee Larry Smith. Arizona State was forced to punt.
Texas drove and seemed to have the game won until Auburn’s second miss.
“I think just first off, that’s just a testament to how mature this team is, and just taking advantage of every single opportunity that we have, whether it be fourth-and-15 or, you know, first-and-10, whatever the situation is, just tweaking, taking full advantage of of the opportunity that’s thrown our way,” Ewers said. “And I’m just so proud of the way that the entire team stayed poised and composed through the entire game, especially through overtime.”
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