College football has been yearning for a competitive playoff game. More specifically, it needed the underdog to give the big dogs a real run for their money. The Peach Bowl kicked off 2025 in a way that was trending like many other playoff games. Then, the unexpected and unexplainable happened in the fourth quarter, resulting in two overtimes. It was an interception by Andrew Mukuba in double overtime that finally ended the game for Arizona State. Despite their best efforts to give it away, Texas wins the Peach Bowl by a score of 39-31.
Texas Wins An Instant Classic
Opening Half Looked Predictable
Kenny Dillingham’s team’s opening drive was aided by two big Texas penalties that set it up for the first points of the game. The modest 3-0 lead would be evaporated quickly as the Longhorns responded in just two plays to take a 7-3 lead with 8:19 remaining in the first quarter. The suffocating Texas defense forced a three-and-out and then promptly returned the punt for a touchdown. At 14-3, this Peach Bowl was a runaway. Arch Manning was all but going to play the entire second half. Arizona State appeared to be rusty and not up to the task of keeping up with Texas’ team speed. Texas was positioned in a way that the offense could just take the rest of the Peach Bowl off and the game was never in doubt. It also looked like the Longhorn offense was doing just that. After jumping out to that lead, they only cobbled together three more points before halftime. But the 17-3 halftime lead felt much larger than that.
Troubling Third Quarter
For all the on-paper advantages Texas had coming into this game, Last Word expressed the following concern:
The concern for Texas fans should be Ewers protecting the football. Ewers, and the Texas offense as a whole, have had stretches of games where they play with their food.
Arizona State outgained Texas 178-133 in the first half. The adjustment coming had to be for Texas to lean on its talented and massive offensive line and run the football. It’s what they did against Clemson in the opening round, it was time for this advantage to show up. Except it never did. The Longhorns went three-and-out to open the second half. They also only had eight yards of offense in the third quarter. The other issue that was developing was the one-sided time of possession. Just as the fourth quarter was starting, Arizona State was winning the time of possession 32:49-11:30. At that point, to see a world in which Texas wins the Peach Bowl was to hope Arizona State committed that one turnover to make the mountain too tall to climb.
Was Arizona State Ever Going to Break Through?
Once everyone took off their first-half lenses of this game, it was clear Arizona State was the better team in every phase except the scoreboard. Credit to the Texas defense, especially for the amount of football they had to play, for keeping Arizona State out of the endzone. One of those stops came on 4th down from the Texas two-yard line. But the Sun Devil’s defense rose up and forced a safety, giving them renewed life. However, they could only put together another field goal as the game was 17-8 as the game entered the final quarter. The Texas offense finally woke up on the next drive and Quinn Ewers scampered into the endzone to push the lead to 24-8 with 10:25 remaining. It felt like a collective “Texas wins!” was uttered by everyone with that score.
Skattebo Sizzled
Until the next drive, Arizona State’s do-everything running back Cam Skattebo had been held relatively in check. His performance had helped keep the Sun Devils in the game but had not had any game-changing plays to that point. All of that changed with 6:40 remaining in the game. On a fourth-and-two from Texas’ 42-yard line, Arizona State called a toss sweep pass and Skattebo connected with Malik McClain for a touchdown. After converting the two-point conversion it was just a one-score game.
Remember the warning about Ewers protecting the football? Well, it showed up as Arizona State picked him off and took over on their 21-yard line. Quarterback Sam Leavitt hooked up with Skattebo on a wheel route for 62 yards. Three plays later, Skattebo run the game-tying score. With five minutes left to go in the game, Skattebo had more total yards of offense (213) than the entire Texas offense (210). He would finish the game with 242 total yards of offense and three touchdowns.
Texas Wins One For The History Books
Despite Skattebo’s herculean effort and a defense that had a total of eight tackles for loss, Texas had a chance to win the game twice in overtime. Normally reliable Bert Auburn missed a 48-yard field goal wide right with 1:44 left in regulation. After the Longhorn defense got another timely stop, Auburn had a chance of redemption from 38 yards out and only two seconds remaining. Instead, he over-corrected and doinked it off the left upright. Arizona State had destiny clearly on its side. They even scored a touchdown on their opening overtime possession, which included converting a third-and-14. But credit to the Longhorns for never flinching and finding a way to close out a thrilling Peach Bowl win in the second overtime.
When Steve Sarkisian and his team finally secured the 39-31 victory, it also came with some history. Texas wins every single one of the NY6 bowl games with this win in 2025, making it the first program to do so in college football history. The Longhorns await the winner of the Rose Bowl for their semi-final matchup at the Cotton Bowl in nine days.
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