Texas outlasts Arizona State 39-31 in 2OT thriller at Peach Bowl, advances to CFP semifinals

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Despite a Herculean second-half effort by Cam Skattebo and the Arizona State Sun Devils, the Texas Longhorns survived and advanced Wednesday.

Andrew Mukuba made a game-sealing interception in the second overtime for the Longhorns in a 39-31 win in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta. Texas advances to the CFP semifinals at the Cotton Bowl Classic on Jan. 10 in Arlington to face Ohio State. The Buckeyes pounded top-seeded Oregon 41-21 in the Rose Bowl.

Texas scored on the first play of the second overtime with a 25-yard pass from Quinn Ewers to Gunnar Helm, and then Ewers hit Matthew Golden in the back of the end zone to convert the required 2-point conversion try. On third-and-8, Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt threw it toward Melquan Stovall, but Mukuba clinched a spot in the semifinals for Texas with the big defensive play.

Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian said it wasn’t the Longhorns’ cleanest game, but they found a way to get the job done.

“The one thing that I know about our group is when our backs are against the wall and when our best is needed, our best shows up time and time again, and the resiliency that these guys showed today was something as a coach makes you really proud,” he said. “There’s going to be plenty of stuff that we’re going to look at this tape and say we gotta do better and be better, but the one thing I won’t have to say is our toughness and fight doesn’t need to be better.”

After Ewers scrambled for a 5-yard touchdown with 10:17 left in the fourth quarter to give Texas a 24-8 lead, Skattebo decided enough was enough. Skattebo, a running back who finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting this season, put the Sun Devils in the end zone for the first time with a 42-yard pass to Malik McClain with 6:31 left. He ran for his first touchdown of the game on the heels of an Ewers interception with 5:00 left and then tied the game at 24-24 with a 2-point conversion run.

Texas kicker Bert Auburn missed two go-ahead field goals in the fourth quarter when he pushed a 48-yard try to the right with 1:39 left, and then he hit the left upright with a kick from 38 yards as time expired, sending the game to overtime.

Skattebo scored from 3 yards out on the first overtime possession to give the Sun Devils a 31-24 lead, but Ewers made perhaps the biggest play of this Texas career the following drive. On fourth-and-13 following a Longhorns false start penalty, Ewers found Golden behind the defense for a 28-yard score with the game on the line. Auburn hit the PAT to force another overtime session, allowing Texas to survive another big punch from the Sun Devils.

Sarkisian said Ewers changed the protection at the line of scrimmage to handle an Arizona State blitz, allowing Ewers the time to deliver the pass on a long-developing route by Golden.

He said it also helped that Texas practiced the exact play against the same defense and coverage.

“I thought it was a great job of preparation by our coaches in relaying that to our players, he said. “There were some moving parts to that where Quinn had to change the protection on the play and he did, then Matt understood why that route was predicated on the coverage. There were layers to it.”

Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham blamed himself for not adjusting his defense when Ewers adjusted the Texas blocking assignment.

“I didn’t have the ability to get out of it, and that’s on me,” he said. “So we left our guys isolated and covered zero into a max pro there. I gotta go into that game with an ability to get out of that call.”

Texas led at halftime 17-3 behind an opening drive that took two plays to score and a 75-yard punt return touchdown by Silas Bolden. The Longhorns’ defense bent but didn’t break to keep the Sun Devils out of the end zone until Skattebo’s improbable scoring pass. Skattebo rushed for 143 yards on 30 carries with two touchdowns, caught eight passes for 99 yards and had the long scoring pass to rack up 284 all-purpose yards. Arizona State outscored Texas 21-7 in the third and fourth quarters combined to force overtime.

Texas made a goal-line stand in the middle of the third quarter, stopping Skattebo at the 2-yard line, but the Sun Devils made a big defensive play of their own to pick up two points on a safety. Shamari Simmons sliced through the Longhorns’ offensive line and jarred the ball loose from Quintrevion Wisner. The fumble squirted directly to Ewers who caught it and then fell to the turf in the end zone amid several defenders to make the score 17-5 in favor of Texas.

Arizona State ran 97 plays to Texas’ 60 and outgained the Longhorns 510-375. Texas gained 6.3 yards per play to Arizona State’s 5.3 but averaged just 1.8 yards per rush. Texas couldn’t get its ground game going, rushing for 53 yards on 30 attempts. Arizona State ran for 214 yards on 49 carries. Texas committed 10 penalties for 68 yards while the Sun Devils had six for 50 yards.

Ewers finished the game 20-of-30 passing for 322 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. Quintrevion Wisner rushed for 45 yards on 18 carries and Golden hauled in seven catches for 149 yards and a score.

Leavitt finished 24-of-46 passing for 222 yards with an interception. He also rushed for 60 yards on 13 carries, including several scrambles that kept drives alive and set up scoring opportunities.

“That was one of the best teams in the country, if not the best team in the country we faced today,” Dillingham said. “We started off not so great, and the way the guys battled back is remarkable. Like I told them, if they could rewind in the locker room, I hate to lose more than anybody, but now that it’s over, when you can reflect and where these guys have come is an incredible testament to the team. But, golly, that one sucks.”

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