Texas Holds off Iowa State in Thursday Night Thriller

It wasn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination whatsoever–and also a tad bit questionable–but Mack Brown and the Texas Longhorns did hold off a superior effort from Iowa State on Thursday night 31-30 to move to 3-2 on the season.

Although not his best effort, QB Case McCoy did lead the game-winning drive, which he capped with his own one-yard touchdown run with 51 seconds left, that would ultimately seal the deal for the ‘Horns shortly after Iowa State put a FG through to take a 30-24 lead.

But that drive was not without controversy.

As Texas was trying to plunge the ball in from shortly out, RB Johnathan Gary was near the goal line attempting to push one through for a score when the ball seemed to be stripped by an Iowa State defender, which would have given the ball to the Cyclones and more than likely ended the game. After review, though, Gray was ruled down by contact and McCoy would later take it in himself for the aforementioned score.

Aside from the controversial call, the big story coming out of this game is that the Texas defense is still just abysmal. Iowa State was able to rack up 463 yards of total offense against defensive coordinator Greg Robinson’s group. But, this effort was also nullified by the fact that the Cyclones also tallied 10 penalties for 118 yards.

Nonetheless, Mack Brown and crew do move to 3-2 on the year with next week being the showdown against Oklahoma in this year’s edition of the Red River Rivalry.

The Longhorns may have escaped tonight but, if this defensive effort tonight was any indication, they’re in for a very long afternoon next Saturday in Dallas.