No. 7 Texas Survives Another Late Scare, Hooks No. 18 Mizzou 34-20

No. 7 Texas met up with an old Big 12 foe in No. 18 Missouri, as the Longhorns and Tigers gave each other all they handle before Texas emerged with a 34-20 victory inside Faurot Field.

The hometown Tigers drew first blood, as Austin Simmons found Brett Norfleet for a two-yard touchdown that capped off a seven-play, 68-yard opening drive for Mizzou.

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On the next possession, Texas found its way into the end zone off a 24-yard pass from Arch Manning to Derrek Cooper on a nearly identical seven-play, 65-yard response.

Both teams would tack on field goals before the end of the first half, as defense, turnovers and mistakes would start to emerge as the main storyline in a 10-10 tie at the break.

The third quarter saw the chess match between the Tigers and Longhorns, with any big momentum from Mizzou followed immediately by an equal move from Texas.

This included a pair of field goal to stretch the score to 13-13 and then another Simmons passing strike followed by a touchdown toss from Manning to Jermaine Bishop Jr. to knot thing at 20-20 heading to the final frame.

Texas was finally able to claim its first lead off a masterful six-play, 54-yard drive that saw Manning notch his third touchdown pass of the afternoon on a 23-yard hookup to Raleek Brown, which put the Longhorns in front 27-20.

Much like most of its other games on the road and against ranked opponents, the Longhorns could not avoid a chance at some late-game drama.

Mizzou lined up to punt and booted it away with Texas clinging to the same 27-20 lead with around two minutes to play.

But the Longhorns could not gather up the kick and gave the Tigers renewed life to potentially tie or even take the lead at home late.

Just as late theatrics have been a staple of Texas this season, so has clutch moments from the defense.

As fate would have it, the Longhorns got yet another huge play from , who intercepted the pass from Simmons to all but ensure Texas would escape Columbia victorious.

For good measure, Brown powered into the end zone from eight yards out to put the final stamp on the Longhorns' 34-20 win.

With back-to-back wins over top 25 teams and a top 10 ranking under its belt, Texas is firmly in the mix as a national title favorite once again.

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However, the Longhorns are not in the clear just yet, especially with a road trip to take on No. 14 LSU in Baton Rouge a week from now.

If Texas can rack up another ranked road win over the Tigers of LSU, the Longhorns can head down the final two-week stretch with arguably the best resume of any team, which was bolstered by the latest win over Mizzou.