For the second straight week, Texas’ special teams let it down.
And it resulted in a 30-27 loss to Oklahoma State.
Punter Michael Dickson took his eyes off the snap with Texas at the 24-yard line with 42 seconds remaining. The ball went through Dickson's hands and by the time he corralled it, Oklahoma State's defense was bearing down on him. So he shanked the ball out of bounds for a negative six-yard punt.
It was devastating.
After falling down early, Texas led the bulk of the game and kept an otherwise potent Oklahoma State offense fairly quiet. The Longhorns defense put together one of its best efforts of the season. It forced Oklahoma State into three turnovers and held the Cowboys running game to just 103 yards.
Late in the game, however, Texas was the victim of a couple of bad calls, which led to a game-tying field goal with 1:33 remaining.
Texas got the ball back at its 18-yard line and decided to play it conservative with called runs, two of which resulted in Oklahoma State sacks of quarterback Jerrod Heard.
The Longhorns appeared content to go into overtime.
But similar to what happened a week ago against Cal, the chance to play — and perhaps win — in overtime was thwarted by poor special teams play.
Last week, Heard drove the Longhorns the length of the field and scored in the final seconds only to have kicker Nick Rose miss the extra point.
Saturday’s shanked punt appeared equally as gutting.
Texas now falls to 1-3 on the season, its worse start since 1993 when it finished the year 5-5-1. Oklahoma State moves to 4-0 for the first time since 2011 when the team went 12-1.
For more Texas news, visit Orangebloods.com.
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday
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