Once more, with feeling: Our takeaways from Texas football's win over Baylor

What a way to say goodbye. Texas sent its departing seniors off in style in their final games at Royal-Memorial Stadium, a critical 38-27 win over Baylor in the regular-season finale that keeps the Longhorns' Big 12 championship game hopes alive at least for one more day.

The offense started slow, heated up, went cold, heated up again and then overcame a potentially game-turning mistake by taking the offense out of Quinn Ewers' hands and into the hands of, who else, Bijan Robinson, who delivered. The defense was solid throughout, giving up the yards but not so much the points. And all in all, this was a hard-fought, tough win over the defending Big 12 champions.

Our takeaways from Texas' 38-27 win:

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Come oooonnnn, Kansas

Texas, now at 8-4 overall and 6-3 in the Big 12, is right where it hoped to be: in line to earn a spot in the conference championship game next week if — and that's a pretty big if, probably — the Kansas Jayhawks can upset Kansas State in Manhattan on Saturday night (7 p.m., Fox).

Kansas State is favored by 11 points. The Jayhawks are coming off last week's 55-14 loss to Texas, but that also was quarterback Jalon Daniels' first game back after missing several games with a shoulder injury. Was last week simply a case of rust? Or might he return to being the dynamic playmaker he was in leading Kansas to that 5-0 start?

TCU, at 8-0, is already in the title game. Kansas State is 6-2 and all alone in second place, just ahead of third-place Texas at 6-3. The Longhorns, however, hold the tiebreaker over the Wildcats because of their win in Manhattan. Over the last five years, Texas has finished tied for fourth in the Big 12 in 2017, second in 2018, tied for third in 2019, fourth in 2020 and tied for seventh in 2021.

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Senior moments

Several outgoing seniors made the most of their final home games by making big plays.

DeMarvion Overshown tipped a pass on the first play of the fourth quarter, forcing a third-and-9 that the Bears, trailing 24-19, couldn't convert. And his delayed blitz crunched Baylor quarterback Blake Shapen and forced him into a win-sealing incompletion on fourth down on the Bears' final drive.

Roschon Johnson finished with 77 yards and one of his prettiest touchdowns we've seen him score, a beautiful 11-yard run in the fourth quarter where he hurdled a Bears defender at the 5. And his first carry of the day was, appropriately, a 21-yard run that saw him bull by a couple of tacklers.

Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey had high energy all day, breaking up Shapen's deep shot downfield in the first half, laying down one of the hardest tackles of the day in the third quarter and teaming up with Overshown for a sack in the fourth .

Ovie Oghoufo had a pair of quarterback pressures, including one that forced the bad pass that Jaylan Ford picked off; Moro Ojomo was the team's fourth-leading tackler; and T'Vondre Sweat had a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry. Keondre Coburn's last home game was his 50th career game, too.

And if this truly was Bijan Robinson's final home game, the junior had 29 carries for 179 yards and a pair of touchdowns as he took the game over in the second half.

Texas overcame its offensive line issues

Texas overcame two big obstacles: the 16-yard fumble return for a touchdown and 2-point conversion that put Baylor up 27-24 in the third quarter, and the injury to freshman right guard Cole Hutson at the end of the first half. That injury sparked a run of one bad play after another.

Texas' next 10 plays after Hutson was injured: a sack, a sack, a 4-yard run from Robinson, a 14-yard pass to Worthy, a Robinson run for no gain, an incompletion, a 9-yard pass to Worthy, a Ja'Tavion Sanders false start, a Hayden Conner false start and another Hayden Conner false start.

Three really big plays from today's win

Another Jaylan Ford pick: Ford's fourth pick of the season was another game-turner, with Texas clinging to a 31-27 lead with 6:28 left in the game. It completed the team's comeback from Quinn Ewers' costly fumble that Baylor returned for a touchdown to take the 27-24 lead. Ford's pick came after Bijan Robinson's second score had put Texas back on top.

Roschon Johnson's final touchdown: Johnson's final touchdown at DKR effectively sealed the win, an 11-yard run that saw him hurdle a would-be tackler at the 5-yard line on his way into the end zone. It put Texas up 38-27 with 3:48 left.

A costly wide left: Baylor, leading 19-17 with 5:40 left in the third quarter, could have gone up 22-17 on John Mayer's 40-yard field goal attempt. But his kick ducked just to the left as it approached the upright, and the miss allowed Texas to wake up from its offensive slumber, going up-tempo and retaking the lead on Johnson's 2-yard run.

Texcetera

Final regular-season stats leaders: Quinn Ewers, in nine games, is 141-of-249 for 1,808 yards, 14 TDs and 6 INTs; Bijan Robinson had 258 carries for 1,580 yards and 18 touchdowns; Xavier Worthy had 53 catches for 676 yards and 9 TDs; and Jaylan Ford had 109 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and four interceptions. ... Texas leads the overall series with Baylor 80-28-4, including a 49-10-2 mark when they've played in Austin. ... Texas has played Baylor 112 times. That's the third-most games played against a school only after Oklahoma and Texas A&M, at 118 times each. ... The season finale also was the least-attended game: 1. Alabama (105,213, Texas' largest crowd ever); 2. USA (102,520 — the third-largest crowd, which came one week after the Alabama game); 3. West Virginia (100,740); 4. Iowa State (100,072); 5. Louisiana-Monroe (94,873 — the season opener), and today's crowd of 94,076, the morning after Thanksgiving.

Up next for Texas: It all depends. Could be the Big 12 championship game next week against TCU in Arlington. Could be a wait until next Sunday's bowl announcements. Stay tuned.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Bijan Robinson wakes up the offense and Texas beats Baylor in finale