The Texas Longhorns survived a shootout against the Baylor Bears on Saturday, coming away with a 56-50 win. The Longhorns ended a two-game skid that included embarrassing losses to West Virginia and Oklahoma, but the defense was still extremely porous. SB Nation's Texas blog, Burnt Orange Nation, went through their emotions following the win:
It was a somewhat anticlimactic end to a shootout to have the Longhorns line up in the victory formation for the game's final plays, and the odd timeout call by Mack Brown extended things a little bit longer in a game that went nearly four hours, but the predominant feeling in the stadium when the final horn sounded seemed to be relief.
The Longhorn defense had another rough day, giving up 50 points and 607 total yards, but they were able to hold the powerful Baylor offense to field goals at important moments:
Holding the Bears to field goals before the half in a classic bend-but-don't-totally-break situation when Baylor moved the ball down the field about 70 yards with ease without even having to use their final timeout was a huge, but the two stops in the second half were even bigger and Art Briles did Texas a favor settling for a field goal on a 4th and 4 from the Texas 27 in a game that was always going to be decided by touchdowns.
They were also relieved to see a nice performance from running back Joe Bergeron, who had struggled for the past couple of weeks:
Maybe it was just Baylor, but Bergeron looked healthy, sharking five touchdowns overall and taking 19 carries for 117 yards in what was his best performance of the season.
Finally, they pointed out that quarterback David Ash looks like he's healthy, and his wrist doesn't seem to be an issue at this point:
With what appeared to only be a wrap on it underneath his play wristband, Ash didn't suffer any noticeable ill effects, scrambling on one play late and taking a hit on that side of his body after it appeared that he passed up an opportunity earlier in the game.