No. 5 Texas avoided a second straight loss with a 27-24 victory at No. 25 Vanderbilt.
The Longhorns took a 10-point lead just after the 2-minute warning on a short field goal by Bert Auburn. Vanderbilt scored a touchdown with 46 seconds left to pull within three, but the onside kick didn’t bother the Longhorns and Texas ended the game with two kneeldowns.
Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers starred in the first half, going 19 of 21 and throwing three touchdowns. Two of them reached DeAndre Moore Jr. and both went over 20 yards.
Ewers finished the game 27-of-37 passing for 288 yards and three touchdowns, although he threw two interceptions on deflected passes.
“I thought he showed great composure and I really thought he played well,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian Sid said after the game on SEC Network. “Sometimes you can’t control being thrown into the air in the right place and at the right time for them. At the end of the day I thought he played very well. “He was efficient, he gave the ball to our playmakers when we needed it.”
Ewers’ performance came a week after Arch Manning benched him for two first-half possessions in the Longhorns’ 30-15 home loss to Georgia. Like Ewers, Manning struggled during his time on the field and Ewers played the entire second half.
There was no QB controversy during the week, as Sarkisian made it clear after the game that Ewers was still the team’s No. 1 QB.
Vanderbilt entered the game in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2013 and with a home win over Alabama already this season. The Commodores had a chance to tie the game in the fourth quarter, but Diego Pavia’s fourth-down pass with 5:13 left was intercepted by Liona Lefau. That pick set up Auburn’s field goal just over three minutes later, putting the game out of reach.
The Longhorns will be off in Week 10 before hosting Florida on November 9. Vanderbilt heads to Auburn next week as Pavia has a chance to make it back-to-back wins against the Tigers. A season ago, Pavia led New Mexico State to a 31-10 victory at Auburn.