Jeremiah Smith did plenty of damage in the first half Saturday, but Texas cornerback Bo Mascoe flipped the script when the game tightened and helped the Longhorns finish off a 24-23 comeback win over then-No. 1 Ohio State.
Smith’s final line still jumped off the page - eight catches, 164 yards and a touchdown - yet most of that production came before halftime. Once Texas needed stops, Mascoe answered. PFF credited him with allowing zero catches on four targets while matched up with Smith.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said the second half looked more like the player the Longhorns were expecting to see.
"I thought in the second half, Bo Mascoe, we got was the guy that we were expecting to get," Sarkisian said. "I don't think he had a great first half. Thought he had a much better second half."
Mascoe’s biggest moments came late. He forced incompletions against Smith on two separate third downs in the fourth quarter, including one play that erased a touchdown chance at the goal line. That sequence ended with Ohio State settling for a missed field goal, and Texas suddenly had life with a few minutes left.
"We didn't panic, and the next two third downs, Mascoe's in man coverage against him, and he knocks a slant route down, and then plays him extremely well, squeezes him to sideline on the fade," Sarkisian said. "And so we just we challenged him to go play, and that allowed us, I think, to be a little better against the run, and that allowed us to be put a little more pressure on the quarterback."
Smith did hit on a 43-yard catch in the third quarter after beating Texas cornerback Warren Roberson, a play that looked like it might slam the door on the Longhorns. Instead, Texas held Ohio State to a field goal on the next few snaps, and that turned out to be the Buckeyes’ final points of the night.
Smith had shown enough early to flash the "Horns Down" at the end of the first half, but Mascoe and Texas got the last word.
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