(WSYX) — Ohio State built a 23-3 lead at Texas on Saturday night, but let it slip away in the fourth quarter, allowing three touchdowns and losing a heartbreaker to the Longhorns, 24-23.<\/p>\n
No. 4 Texas drove down the field in the final minutes and got a 1-yard touchdown run from Hollywood Smothers with 25 seconds left. The point after by Gianni Spetic provided the winning margin for the Longhorns, who were favored by 1.5 points.<\/p>\n
Texas turned the ball over on the game’s very first play from scrimmage, and the top-ranked Buckeyes capitalized with a 26-yard field goal from Connor Hawkins for the early advantage.<\/p>\n
Four plays into Texas’ next possession, quarterback Arch Manning found a wide-open Cam Coleman deep down the field. Coleman couldn’t control the ball, which bounced off his body — not the ground — as he tumbled near the 8-yard line, where OSU defensive back Jaylen McClain caught the ball in midair for the interception.<\/p>\n
OSU quarterback Julian Sayin then led the visitors down the field on a 10-play drive that included passing gains of 23, 19 and 13 — those last two to wide receiver Jeremiah Smith — and ended with an 8-yard touchdown run by Ja’Kobi Jackson.<\/p>\n
Texas got a 37-yard field goal from Gianni Spetic midway through the second quarter, but OSU’s Hawkins would knock in his second field goal with 1:41 left in the half to give the Buckeyes a 13-3 lead.<\/p>\n
The Longhorns got into their two-minute offense to try to score before halftime, but Ohio State veteran defensive back Jermaine Mathews Jr. would stop Texas’ Ryan Wingo for a 10-yard loss on fourth down, setting up the Buckeyes late in the half.<\/p>\n
Four plays later, Sayin found Smith on a 19-yard scoring strike with just 10 seconds left before the break. OSU took a 20-3 lead into the locker room, and it looked like the Buckeyes were prepared to punctuate an otherwise dismal day for the Big Ten with an impressive road win.<\/p>\n
OSU coach Ryan Day told ESPN’s Holly Rowe at halftime that it would be a four-quarter game — not an unusual statement by a coach but little did he know how prophetic it would be.<\/p>\n
The only scoring in the third quarter was a Hawkins field goal from 48 yards out, pushing OSU’s lead to 23-3. Then things got interesting.<\/p>\n
Early in the fourth quarter, Manning threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Wingo, capping a 15-play drive that covered 91 yards and more than six minutes. Seven minutes later, Smothers scored the first of his two 1-yard touchdown runs, bringing Texas to within 23-17.<\/p>\n
The Buckeyes responded with a seven-play drive that took nearly three minutes, and ended when Hawkins hooked a 46-yard, field-goal attempt with 4:16 left. <\/p>\n
Enter Manning, who finally had his moment –a late drive that ended in a dramatic score to beat a high-profile opponent. Texas could move up to No. 1 in Sunday’s AP rankings release, and Ohio State probably will fall to No. 5.<\/p>\n
The Buckeyes are two weeks into their hardest schedule in recent memory, and have trips to Iowa, Indiana and USC in October and home dates with Oregon and Michigan in November.<\/p>\n
“I love this loss this early in the season,” The Football Fever analyst Jay Richardson said after the game. “It forces some come-to-Jesus moments.”<\/p>\n
Smith, who was largely shut down in each of the previous two meetings with Texas, caught six passes in the first half for 110 yards and a touchdown. He finished with eight catches and 164 yards and and the score.<\/p>\n
The Buckeyes return home Saturday to play Kent State at Ohio Stadium at noon. The game will be shown on FOX 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WSYX) — Ohio State built a 23-3 lead at Texas on Saturday night, but let it slip away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-434587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}