Quinn Ewers passed for a record 452 yards and four touchdowns, and No. 7 Texas’ defense did the rest in a 49-21 shellacking of No. 18 Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon in the Big 12 championship game in Arlington, Texas.
The Longhorns (12-1) captured their first Big 12 title since 2009 and successfully bookended their 27 years in the league with championships before an event record 84,523 fans at AT&T Stadium.
Texas will now wait to see if winning its final seven games, beating Alabama on the road and blowing out Oklahoma State in the title contest is enough to earn it a spot in the College Football Playoff.
“I didn’t want this win and I didn’t want this championship to be about the College Football Playoff. This is an accomplishment in and of itself, us winning a championship. Regardless of what happens, they should feel very proud to get us to this point,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said after the game.
Having said that, Sarkisian made it clear he thinks his team is ready for whatever might come.
“But I think one thing that we’ve shown is that we’re a very complete football team. You know, we don’t rely on one phase or one aspect of this team to win. We are very, very versatile,” Sarkisian continued. “And so this may be a little bullish but we’ll play anybody in the country. I’m not shying away from that part. I feel very comfortable if we get into this tournament. … I feel like we have the team, the culture, the scheme and the versatility of this team to play against anybody.”
Ewers completed his first 12 passes of the game to eight different receivers and finished 35-for-46 while throwing for the most yards ever in a Big 12 championship game. It was just the third 450-yard passing game in school history and the first since Colt McCoy threw for 470 yards against UCF in 2009.
The Longhorns’ defense did not allow Oklahoma State (9-4) to broach the 200-yard barrier until the 10-minute mark of the fourth quarter. By that time, Texas was ahead by five touchdowns. The Longhorns outgained Oklahoma State 662-281 in the victory.
Oklahoma State quarterback Alan Bowman threw for 250 yards and three touchdowns, but star running back Ollie Gordon, the Big 12’s offensive player of the year, managed only 34 yards on 13 carries.
“We needed to get off to a really good start to kind of maintain the blows back and forth and we didn’t. We got into a multiple score game and it was difficult,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said after the game. “But gosh, Texas is really explosive and on a roll right now — it’s a good football team.
“Our team deserved to be in this game (Saturday). We came up short. Texas made some plays. We didn’t. They made some coaching calls. We didn’t. So I give them credit. When you get up multiple scores, you can call a game more freely and that’s what Texas was able to do.”
Ewers hit Adonai Mitchell for a 10-yard TD pass at the end of a four-play, 39-yard opening drive to put Texas ahead for good. Ewers then connected with Ja’Tavion Sanders on a flea-flicker play for a 24-yard TD and a 14-0 lead just under 6 1/2 minutes into the game.
Oklahoma State responded with a 5-yard Bowman-to-Brennan Presley touchdown pass that cut the Texas lead to 14-7 with 5:36 to play in the first quarter.
The Longhorns countered with a 2-yard TD pass from Ewers to 362-pound defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat, the Big 12’s defensive player of the year. After an interception by Texas’ Kitan Crawford at the UT 5, the Longhorns drove to CJ Baxter’s 10-yard scoring run and a 28-7 lead.
Midway through the second quarter, the Cowboys’ Nickolas Martin intercepted Ewers and returned the pick 27 yards to the UT 3. Bowman then passed to Rashod Owens for a 7-yard TD that culled the Texas lead to 28-14 with 5:50 remaining.
The Longhorns swung back, adding to the lead on an 8-yard pass from Ewers to Jaydon Blue with 2:11 to play before halftime.
Keilan Robinson ran 57 yards for a touchdown with 3:33 to play in the third quarter to build the Texas lead to 42-14. Robinson added an 11-yard TD with 10:38 to play in the fourth before Bowman and Owens hooked up again for a 3-yard scoring pass with 6:26 left.
–Field Level Media
