Texas' Bounce Back Win Cannot Hide a Troubling Reality

While the Texas Longhorns got back to the win column, they still showed a troubling reality versus Ole Miss.

Oct 24, 2026; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian reacts during the first half against the Mississippi Rebels at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Texas got back on track Saturday with its 34-27 win over a then-top-10-ranked Ole Miss. Yet while the Longhorns snapped a two-game losing streak, the first time Texas had lost two consecutive games in a season since Steve Sarkisian’s first, their biggest issue remains. 

For the third consecutive game, the Longhorns have failed to sustain multi-score leads built in the first half. In each of the last three games, Texas has entered halftime with an average 12.6-point lead. Yet in each of the last three, they’ve seen those halftime leads slip away, and only against Ole Miss did the Longhorns hold on for a win. 

A Major Concern

Despite all the talk about quarterback Arch Manning's struggles leading up to Saturday’s win, he proved he isn’t the biggest concern. Sure, Manning still had an untimely fourth-quarter turnover that could have cost Texas, but the same goes for the third-quarter offensive lull. 

After building a 24-3 lead in the first 30 minutes, the Longhorns saw the 21-point lead erased as Ole Miss went on a 17-0 run starting in the third quarter. The Rebels came out of the locker room and recovered a strip-sack fumble for a touchdown, then Trinidad Chambliss drove the Rebels offense 80 yards in 10 plays for another score, cutting the lead to a touchdown.

Texas scored on all but four of its first-half drives. They had the momentum and played complementary football, leaving Chambliss and the Ole Miss offense out of sorts. Then things fell apart after halftime, as Texas went scoreless on its four third-quarter drives.

Manning’s strip-sack fumble was the only Texas third-quarter drive that didn’t end in a punt.

These third-quarter lulls are nothing new for the Longhorns, though. In Dallas, the Sooners forced Texas to punt on all three third-quarter drives. Meanwhile, a week later, Florida forced three-and-outs on Texas’s only two possessions in the quarter.

Per TeamRankings, the Longhorns average just 3.9 points per game in the third quarter, ranking 110th nationally. By comparison, the Longhorns average 8.3 points in the first quarter, 8.7 points in the second, and 9.9 points in the fourth.

They are letting teams back into games after building early leads, and as the Longhorns have seen in just the past three games, if you keep playing with fire, you’ll eventually get burned. Texas played well enough on Saturday to avoid getting burned, but they don’t want to keep gambling.

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