ATLANTA — No. 5 Texas held on for a 39-31 double overtime victory on Wednesday afternoon over No. 4 Arizona State in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals in the Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
With the win, the Longhorns will play the No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 10 at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium. The winner of that game will advance to the National Championship game on January 20.
Here are three key takeaways from Texas’ win over Arizona State:
Running game left in 2024?
Texas, which has been known for their defense, appears to have left their running game back in 2024. The Longhorns ran for 53 yards on 29 carries for an average of 1.8 yards per attempt on Wednesday — way below the season-high 292 rushing yards and four touchdowns in their quarterfinal win against Clemson.
Texas will likely need to do better if they have any chance of stopping the explosive Ohio State running game.
“I thought they did a good job with some of their movement,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said of Arizona State’s defense. “I thought they did a nice job kind of on the back side of things when we were ready to make some cuts. And then you feel like it’s maybe a gain of six, seven, eight yards. We were getting three. And it was kind of a little frustrating.”
A lack of focus
Arizona State rallied due to a lack of focus from Texas on both sides of the ball. The offensive line committed several false start penalties, which led to quarterback Quinn Ewers throwing an interception. That would set up a touchdown by the Sun Devils to make it 24-16 in favor of the Longhorns.
Texas struggled to contain Cam Skattebo, who ran for 132 yards, a touchdown and a 2-point conversion, and caught 6 passes — including the game-tying score from Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt.
However, Texas’ defense redeemed itself when Longhorns defensive back Andrew Mukuba picked off Leavitt on a third down attempt to seal the win.
“I was in a good position and looked back for the ball,” said Mukuba. “And I knew I wasn’t dropping it.”
It’s the little things
The special teams is something Sarkisian will likely focus on over the next week along with the Texas defense against the run against Ohio State. Kicker Bert Auburn’s two missed field goals were huge and the Longhorns could have avoided overtime if one of those had been good.
Meanwhile, the Sun Devils punted after a three-and-out on their opening drive, but Longhorns special teams Morice Blackwell Jr. ran into the kicker, giving Arizona State a new set of downs.
