No. 7 Texas was 20 minutes from its third loss — a blemish no College Football Playoff team has ever had. The Longhorns responded with a rally that kept Arch Manning and Co. safely in the field for at least one more week.

Manning’s best road game of his career came at the right time, and helped lead Texas to a 34-20 victory over No. 18 Missouri in a matchup of two-loss teams hoping to keep their place in the CFP conversation.

The Longhorns (7-2) made all the big plays down the stretch — none bigger than Graecson Littleton’s late 44-yard fumble return inside the Missouri 6 — to keep a firm grasp of their place among the 12 teams in the committee’s first projected bracket of 2026. 

Here’s a breakdown of how they did it — and what it means going forward.

Manning’s big day

Put simply, this was Manning’s best road performance of his career. His splits are telling: He entered completing 64 percent of his passes at home, compared with 59 percent in true road games. But in improving to 4-3 as a starter in true road games (2-0 this season) Manning finished 28 of 38 for 297 yards, a 74 percent completion rate with three touchdowns and no interceptions.

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The three TDs matched his career high on the road. His completion percentage was his best in a road game. The yardage total was second only to his 346 yards in an overtime win last year at Mississippi State. And this was the first INT-free road game of his college career. He was sacked three times, but the offensive line bears more blame for that than Manning does.

He hit eight of his first nine passes, Each of his touchdown passes was from at least 20 yards out, and his last throw of the day was a beauty: A 23-yard gem down the right sideline that Raleek Brown caught in stride, giving Texas its first lead, 27-20, with 5:03 remaining.

Texas’ playoff path

This win keeps the Longhorns very much on track for a playoff berth. Earning a top-four seed seems out of reach, but depending on how the rest of the weekend shakes out, jumping up a spot or two would not seem unreasonable.

But they've still got some work to do. They have beaten four teams currently ranked by the CFP committee: No. 10 Mississippi, No. 12 Ohio State and No. 13 Tennessee. They’ll try to win another one next week when they visit No. 14 LSU. On paper, that’s their toughest remaining game — though anything goes in their end-of-the-year rivalry with Texas A&M. 

No team has ever made the CFP with three losses. The SEC’s depth could mean this is the year that changes. But that's not a guarantee, so the various two-loss hopefuls would be better served by not putting that decision in the committee’s hands. That’s why, for now, the most important thing the Longhorns accomplished was this: Finding a way to dodge that third loss.