No. 5 Texas avoided a second straight loss with a 27-24 win at No. 25 Vanderbilt.
The Longhorns took a 10-point lead right after the two-minute warning on a short field goal by Bert Auburn. Vanderbilt scored a TD with 46 seconds left to pull within three, but the onside kick didn’t trouble the Longhorns and Texas ended the game with two kneel-downs.
Texas QB Quinn Ewers starred in the first half as he was 19-of-21 passing and threw three TDs. Two of those came to DeAndre Moore Jr. and both were over 20 yards.
Ewers finished the game 27-of-37 passing for 288 yards and three scores, though he threw two interceptions on tipped passes.
“I thought he showed great composure and I really thought he played well,” said Texas coach Steve Sarkisian after the game on SEC Network. “Sometimes you can’t control getting tipped in the air in the right place at the right time for them. At the end of the day I thought he played really well. He was efficient, got the ball to our playmakers when we needed it.”
Ewers’ performance came a week after he was benched for Arch Manning over two first-half possessions in the Longhorns’ 30-15 home loss to Georgia. Like Ewers, Manning struggled in his time on the field and Ewers played the entire second half.
There was no QB controversy whatsoever 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 get the game tied in the fourth quarter, but Diego Pavia’s fourth-down pass with 5:13 to go was intercepted by Liona Lefau. That pick set up Texas’ field goal just over three minutes later that pushed the game out of reach.
The Longhorns are off in Week 10 before hosting Florida on Nov. 9. Vanderbilt heads to Auburn next week as Pavia gets the chance for back-to-back wins at the Tigers. A season ago, Pavia led New Mexico State to a 31-10 win in Auburn.
