No. 7 Texas overcomes mistakes, rides Quinn Ewers, CJ Baxter and defense to win on road over Iowa State

There’s nothing easy about a trip to play Iowa State in November. It’s just a scenario where opponents don’t perform at their best – and such was the case when No. 7 Texas came calling on Saturday with a four-game winning streak and a spot atop the Big 12 Conference on the line.

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The Longhorns made plenty of mistakes, but also made their share of crucial plays with the latter carrying the day as the Horns beat Iowa State 26-16 on Saturday in a crucial Big 12 dustup before a capacity crowd of 61,500 fans at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames, Iowa.

Quinn Ewers passed for 281 yards and two touchdowns and CJ Baxter ran for 117 yards in the win. The Longhorns (10-1, 7-1 in Big 12 play) remain alone atop the league standings and all but clinched a spot in the Big 12 championship game on Dec. 2 in Arlington. It’s the best record after 11 games for Texas since 2009, when it played, and lost to, Alabama in the BCS National Championship game.

Ewers hit on 23-of-33 passes and Xavier Worthy caught four of his throws for 77 yards. Baxter, in relief of the injured Jonathon Brooks, had his first collegiate 100-yard rushing game.

Iowa State (6-5, 5-3 Big 12) got 323 yards passing and two TDs from Rocco Becht in the loss, with Jayden Higgins hauling in seven throws for 104 yards.

The Cyclones got on the board first via a 45-yard field goal by Chase Contreraz at the end of a 11-play, 53-yard march with 3:27 to play in the first quarter. Texas answered with a 39-yard field goal by Bert Auburn with 11:37 to play in the second quarter that tied the game at 3-3. The kick came three plays after a TD pass to Adonai Mitchel was nullified by a holding penalty on the Longhorns’ Kelvin Banks.

Texas shot itself in the foot twice more late in the second quarter. Worthy was stripped of the ball as he rolled around the corner on a 16-yard run, with the fumble recovered by Iowa State’s Will McLaughlin at the ISU 9 yard line. Then Worthy’s 86-yard punt return for a touchdown was called back because of a block-in-the-back penalty by Kitan Crawford.

After Contreraz missed wide left from 51 yards out midway through the second quarter, Auburn booted a 50-yarder on the final play of the quarter to give the Longhorns a 6-3 lead at halftime.

Texas outgained the Cyclones 205-115 in the first half, building a 163-110 edge in passing and a 42-5 advantage on the ground. But the Longhorns also had six penalties for 49 yards in the half and had the first 30 minutes’ only turnover.

The Longhorns reached paydirt on their first possession of the third quarter, moving 91 yards in nine plays to a 23-yard Ewers to Jordan Whittington touchdown pass with 5:53 to play in the quarter that put Texas up 13-3.

Iowa State responded, with Becht hitting Eli Sanders on a 14-yard scoring pass to cut the Longhorns’ lead to 13-9. But Texas’ T’Vondre Sweat poured through a hole in the middle of the line and blocked Contreraz’s PAT kick, with Austin Jordan scooping it up and returning it 82 yards for two points for the Longhorns.

Texas expanded its advantage on the first play of the fourth quarter on a 31-yard TD pass from Ewers to Gunnar Helm. The Longhorns then added a two-point pass to Whittington to push their advantage to 23-9.

The Cyclones swung back, cutting their deficit to seven points on a 66-yard TD pass from Becht to Easton Dean on fourth down and 1 with 12:44 to play. Texas sold out to try to stop the short yardage run, and Becht fooled he defense by running toward the line before lobbing a pass to his tight end, who was so open it looked like he was the first player out to practice.

Auburn’s third field goal of the game, this one from 42 yards away, put Texas up 26-16 with 6:14 remaining. It was his 14^th straight made three-pointer.

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Texas looks to clinch a spot in the Big 12 championship game when it hosts Texas Tech in the teams’ regular-season finale on Friday night at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.