Austin - Against Nebraska and Oklahoma State, Texas needed big second halves from running back Jamaal Charles.
He ran for 216 yards and three touchdowns in the fourth quarter against Nebraska and 128 yards and two touchdowns in the second half against OSU. Saturday he did not wait for last-minute heroics, as he ran 165 of his 174 rushing yards in the first half. Charles now has the sixth-most yards rushing in a single season at Texas with 1,366 yards in 2007.
In the second half, when he left the game with a heel injury, Texas did not miss a beat. Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy chipped in 49 of his 51 yards on the ground, including his second rushing touchdown of the game - a 22-yard scramble where McCoy spun out of two tackles and was spun into the end zone by Texas running back Vondrell McGee.
"Anytime you have a quarterback that can make plays off schedule, which Colt has done a great job of, (he) can extend plays and do things positively," Texas offensive coordinator Greg Davis said. "It's a big bonus because in many cases, that guy is not accounted for in the pass scheme."
Tech linebacker Brian Duncan said the team knew what to expect, but just did not perform.
"We came in the game knowing that they're running game was pretty tough," Tech linebacker Brian Duncan said. "It was something that we knew we had to stop. We just got out of place. Some of the guys didn't do their jobs."
Charles said he came back in the game temporarily in the fourth quarter because he wanted to contribute to the team.
"I didn't think I was going to get stopped," he said. "I was running good. The line was blocking well. The offense was doing good and moving the ball up the field, and I got hurt but I never wanted to give up."
Texas scored on a 16-play and a 17-play drive in the second half, effectively wearing down Tech's defense. These two drives also helped Texas to run more than 90 plays in the game, compared to 55 by the Red Raiders.
"For me, and Jamaal and those guys, it's really not that bad, but up front on the offensive line, we were able to switch them out get some guys in there," McCoy said. "Some young guys really stepped up, especially when Tony (Hill) went down, guys stepped in there, played hard."
Though Davis said this is his first game at Texas in which the team used the run to set up the pass, Texas coach Mack Brown said he sees a correlation between the running game and winning.
"You win more football games when you run, and I think we're still in that position," Brown said. "I think maybe we've lost one or two games when we have out rushed the other team, the rest of them we've won."
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