4 takeaways from Texas football’s controversial win over Iowa State

A very close game between No. 22 ranked Texas football and the Iowa State Cyclones ended in favor of head coach Steve Sarkisian’s squad by the final score of 24-21. This was the closest win of the season so far for Texas. And this team definitely had its fair share of struggles on both sides of the ball.

Head coach Matt Campbell and the Cyclones played their game against Sark and the Longhorns, and it came extremely close to handing Texas its third loss of the season. Yet, Texas was able to hold on in the end to get its third straight win.

This looked like another situation where Texas would suffer a second-half collapse after holding a double-digit lead under Sark. In the fourth quarter, Texas coughed up a lead that was once 17-7 when Iowa State quarterback Hunter Dekkers took the ball into the end zone himself for his sole rushing touchdown of the game.

But Texas was able to come back on a nice route from star sophomore wide receiver Xavier Worthy that resulted in the third touchdown pass of the game for redshirt freshman quarterback Quinn Ewers.

Bijan Robinson and Texas football top Iowa State in a narrow three-point win

Texas would hang on after that for a three-point win. Here’s a look at four takeaways from Texas’ close three-point win over Iowa State.

Ryan Watts’ value comes to the forefront

One of the most underrated defensive backs in the Big 12 through the first half of the regular season is redshirt sophomore cornerback Ryan Watts. The former Ohio State Buckeyes transfer is exactly what Texas was looking for in the NCAA Transfer Portal last offseason in a starting boundary corner opposite of senior D’Shawn Jamison.

Unfortunately, Watts exited this game in the first half after suffering an apparent shoulder injury.

Upon Watts’ exit, it looked like the Iowa State passing game had a lot more room to work on short and intermediate routes. True freshman cornerback Austin Jordan took Watts’ spot in the secondary as the boundary corner.

And star senior wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson and sophomore Jaylin Noel picked apart this Texas secondary once Watts exited the game. Hutchinson and Noel combined for nearly 250 receiving yards and two touchdown catches.

Iowa State was able to get more favorable one-on-one matchups on the outside, especially on some intermediate routes on third down, to make this Texas defense pay. Hutchinson and Noel were able to get more space and play more physical football with Watts out of the game.

Sark announced after the game that Watts will be “day-to-day” with a “stinger”. Hopefully, he will be back next weekend against the Oklahoma State Cowboys as he is much-needed in this secondary.