3 big overreactions after Texas's OT thriller vs. Arizona St

Texas showed guts and grit to overcome a charging second-half and overtime comeback from Arizona State in the Peach Bowl for the College Football Playoff quarterfinal on Jan. 1.

Andrew Mukuba, Texas football
Andrew Mukuba, Texas football | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images
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It was a lot closer than expected, but No. 3 Texas football (13-2, 7-1 SEC) pulled out the thrilling double-overtime victory over the No. 12 Arizona State Sun Devils (11-3, 7-2 Big 12) on New Year's Day in the Peach Bowl.

Five-seed Texas football advances to face Ohio State in the semis back in Texas at the Cotton Bowl

Texas defeated Arizona State by a score of 39-31 after back-to-back scores from the Longhorns' passing game on offense and a game-sealing interception by senior safety Andrew Mukuba to end things. Arizona State had a big second-half comeback, rallying back from down two scores to tie the game up and send it to overtime in the fourth quarter.

Kicker Bert Auburn had a chance to give the Longhorns the lead on a field goal attempt inside of two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. But Auburn missed both potential game-winning field goals in this game in hindsight against Arizona State for Texas's special teams.

Texas barely survived this huge upset bid in the Peach Bowl quarterfinal in the College Football Playoff by the Sun Devils. Head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns are set to face the eight-seed Ohio State Buckeyes at the Cotton Bowl in the Playoff semis on Jan. 10.

Here are three big overreactions after Texas's double-overtime win in the CFP quarterfinals at the Peach Bowl over Arizona State on Jan. 1.

Steve Sarkisian stood in his own way vs. Arizona State

The opening script worked about as well as possible for Sarkisian and the Longhorns' offense on their first drive of the first quarter. It only took the Longhorns two plays to score a touchdown on their opening drive on an explosive touchdown pass and catch from Quinn Ewers to wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr.

But Texas didn't score a single offensive touchdown in the middle quarters, until Ewers scored on a short rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter to give the Longhorns a two-score lead at the time.

Sarkisian's squad wasn't executing and struggled to find consistency on the offensive side of the ball for most of this game. Late in the fourth quarter, it felt like everything that the Longhorns could give way to Arizona State unfortunately happened for the Sun Devils to get overtime.

The good news for Sarkisian was that he dialed up a beautiful play call to get the tight end intermediate route for Gunnar Helm to get open and score the game-winning touchdown.

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