Texas Longhorns Overcome Adversity As CFP 'Gauntlet' Awaits

Saturday afternoon in Columbia, the Texas Longhorns’ season seemingly slipped away. ...

Until the tumbling, bouncing ball from Arch Manning’s grasp became a fumble-became a first down-became a touchdown and, ultimately, became a stunning, fortunate victory over Missouri.

On a quirky, lucky day that featured five video replay reviews that all went their way and a short missed field goal that further helped their cause, Texas again saved its season and strengthened its resume to qualify for the College Football Playoff with a 34-20 victory.

Not only is the score misleading, but head coach Steve Sarkisian’s team trailed 20-13 late in the third quarter before rattling off an unfathomable 21 consecutive points to close the game.

“Anybody can play good football when it’s easy. How do you play it when it’s hard?” "Coach Sark'' said afterward. “We had some guys go through some hard moments today, and we didn’t give up on them, and they went out and competed some more.

"Adversity was going to strike and we needed to hang together. We needed to be mentally tough.”

After two ugly losses to unranked teams in October, Texas has won three straight to improve to 7-2 heading into next Saturday’s showdown at LSU. The Horns were ranked No. 7 in the first CFP rankings, and should only climb after winning on the road against No. 18 Missouri.

For most of the day, it looked as though next week’s trip to Baton Rouge would be meaningless and Texas - which was ranked No. 1 a month ago - would be headed for another Cheez-It Bowl or somesuch.

The Horns trailed 7-0, 10-7, 13-10 and 20-13 before things got crazy late in the third quarter.

Manning had his arm hit while trying to throw a pass on third-and-10 at Mizzou’s 39-yard line, and the wobbly, off-target pass fell incomplete to seemingly force a punt. Though two separate officials ruled the play a pass - one clearly signaling incomplete and the other stopping the clock - the head referee said the pass was instead a fumble, which was casually recovered by Texas for a 14-yard gain.

Replay agreed with the curious call, and three plays later Manning hit a wide-open Jermaine Bishop Jr. for the game-tying touchdown pass.

Texas’ defense, which limited SEC leading rusher Jamal Roberts to 66 yards, held the Tigers without any points on five fourth-quarter possessions. Manning gave the Horns their first lead at 27-20 with a perfect 23-yard wheel-route pass to Raleek Brown with 5:03 remaining. After a fumble recovery by Graceson Littleton, Brown sealed the ugly, unlikely win with a touchdown run with 1:25 remaining.

Continuing his enigmatic season, Manning threw for 297 yards and three touchdowns, but also took another three sacks and was embarrassingly off-target on a couple of short, simple passes.

When Texas is on its game, the Longhorns are good. Thanks to some good bounces and whistles Saturday in Missouri, their season still has a chance to be great.

Thought to be a gauntlet before the season, Texas’ final three games suddenly all look winnable as LSU (6-3), Arkansas (3-6) and Texas A&M (4-5) are all enduring disastrous seasons. ...

While the highly-touted Longhorns are laboring to avoid a disastrous season of its own.