After holding off the comeback a week ago, the No. 11 Texas Longhorns capitalized on a depleted Mississippi State Bulldogs squad and rolled to a lopsided 31-3 win on Saturday at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. It’s hard to pick apart one of the few comfortable wins this season, but Texas still needs to improve with two tough road games ahead.
Texas still hasn’t solved the ground game
Just a week after its most explosive ground game this season, Texas put up a dud against one of the weaker run defenses in the country. When the Longhorns pulled the offensive starters, they had just 55 yards on the ground and only three rushes longer than five yards — one of which was a run by Arch Manning. Hollywood Smothers, coming back from injury before leaving with injury, finished with -6 yards, Raleek Brown averaged just 3.8 yards per carry, and Michael Terry rushed four times for 16 yards when the outcome was already determined. Thankfully for Texas fans, they didn’t need to run the ball in this one to salt the game away, but road tilts against Missouri and LSU will require Texas to move the ball on the ground.
Mississippi State was disruptive in the backfield, with eight tackles for loss totaling 39 yards, keeping the Texas offense from gaining any momentum. Holding Texas to 60 yards on the ground is the second-best performance by their defense in 2026, ahead of the 16 yards given up to Minnesota in Week 2.
Arch Manning is who he is
We once again saw the good and the bad from Arch Manning against the Bulldogs, operating the offense at a great clip early, but struggling to get through his reads and holding onto the ball too long. Another strip sack deep in Texas territory echoed the play against Ole Miss last week that allowed the Rebels back into the game. Mississippi State was not so capable.
However, the Texas signal caller also turned in his fourth multi-touchdown game through the air after throwing just one each of the previous two games. Playing in rhythm early and then delivering the dagger to Emmett Mosley V late showed the highs of what Manning can be and why people expected so much from him coming into the year.
Texas can generate pressure without Colin Simmons
It came without dynamic playmaker, but Texas spent so much of the game in the Mississippi State backfield — nine tackles for loss and seven sacks, led by linebacker Rasheem Biles, who turned in one of his best games of the year. He was a demon all over the field, with three sacks and four tackles for loss, including the forced fumble that led to Maraad Watson’s scoop-and-score touchdown in the second quarter.
The upshot is that if they can generate that level of pressure and chaos in the backfield without their best player, having him back for the tough games left on the schedule is a big win as they try to close out the season.