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Top 20 Roundup: Texas Romps Past Missouri

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The Associated Press

Published: October 19, 2008

AUSTIN, Texas - Now that's a Texas two-step. A flawlessly executed one at that.

A week after earning Texas' first regular-season No. 1 ranking since 1984 by knocking off Oklahoma, Colt McCoy and the Longhorns used a stunning blend of dominating offense and defense in the first half to crush No. 11 Missouri 56-31 Saturday night.

The game was supposed to be a battle between two national title contenders and Heisman Trophy-caliber quarterbacks in McCoy and Missouri's Chase Daniel. The Tigers had been within one victory of playing for the national title last season and were ranked as high as No. 3 just a week ago.

It wasn't close. Not even for a little while.

The Longhorns (7-0, 3-0 Big 12) played as close to a perfect half of football as you could get, bolting to a 35-0 lead in front of a feverish record crowd of 98,383.

Texas scored on each of its first five possessions as McCoy picked apart the Tigers defense at will. He stiff-armed defenders when he ran, and one time when he was nearly sacked and fumbled, he picked up the ball and fired a 23-yard completion.

McCoy finished with 337 yards on 29 of 32 passing with two touchdowns, ran for two more and at one point completed a school-record 17 passes in a row.

Missouri (5-2, 1-2) didn't score until Jeff Wolfert kicked a 33-yard field goal on the last play of the half. By that time, the crowd had been taunting the Tigers with chants of "Over-rated!" for nearly 20 minutes.

NO. 4 OKLAHOMA 45,

NO. 16 KANSAS 31

NORMAN, Okla. - Sam Bradford passed for an Oklahoma record 468 yards and had three touchdowns passes to help the No. 4 Sooners (6-1, 2-1 Big 12) bounce back from their first loss by beating No. 16 Kansas (5-2, 2-1).

The Sooners started pulling away in the third quarter to keep themselves right in the thick of the national championship chase after losing their No. 1 ranking to Texas in last week's Red River Rivalry loss.

DeMarco Murray scored his second touchdown of the game on an 8-yard run in the third quarter, and Bradford found third-string tight end Kolby Smith for a 2-yard touchdown pass as Oklahoma stretched its lead to 45-24 with 12:02 to play.

Despite losing top receiver Manuel Johnson to a first-quarter arm injury, Bradford cleared the Oklahoma record of 429 yards set by Josh Heupel in 1999 against Louisville.

NO. 6 USC 69,

WASHINGTON STATE 0

PULLMAN, Wash. - Mark Sanchez became the first USC quarterback to throw five touchdown passes in a half and the No. 6 Trojans breezed this time as a huge favorite, beating Washington State.

It was the largest shutout victory for USC (5-1, 3-1 Pac-10) since a 69-0 win vs. Montana in 1931, and the Trojans were showing signs of mercy late in the first half.

USC's defense, ranked first in the nation coming in by allowing just 9.4 points per game, ended the Cougars' streak of scoring at 280 games dating to Sept. 15, 1984, when Ohio State beat Washington State 44-0. That scoring streak was second-longest in the nation to Michigan's 295 games.

The Cougars (1-7, 0-5) absorbed their largest margin of defeat since they began playing in 1894.

NO. 7 TEXAS TECH 43,

TEXAS A&M 25

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Graham Harrell threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more and No. 7 Texas Tech beat Texas A&M, giving the Red Raiders their best start in 32 years.

Harrell completed 44 of 56 passes for 450 yards as the Red Raiders moved to 7-0 - 3-0 in the Big 12 - after beating A&M for the seventh time in eight meetings.

Jerrod Johnson completed 26 of 39 passes for 283 yards for the Aggies (2-5, 0-3 Big 12), who led 23-20 at halftime. A&M gained outgained Texas Tech 274-254 in the first half, but mustered only 32 yards and five first downs in the second.

NO. 8 OKLAHOMA STATE 34,

BAYLOR 6

STILLWATER, Okla. - Dez Bryant made sure there would be no letdown for Oklahoma State.

Playing its first game as a top-10 team since 1985, No. 8 Oklahoma State (7-0, 3-0 Big 12) made quick work of Baylor (3-4, 1-2), scoring on four straight first-half possessions en route to an easy win.

Bryant had a career-high 11 catches for 212 yards and two touchdowns and Keith Toston added two scoring runs as Oklahoma State set up a showdown Saturday at No. 1 Texas.

NO. 14 UTAH 49,

COLORADO ST. 16

SALT LAKE CITY - Utah remained in contention to be a two-time BCS buster by looking a little like the Utes team that did it first.

Five players scored touchdowns and the No. 14 Utes had their best offensive performance of the season in a win vs. Colorado State, improving to 8-0 for the fourth time in school history.

Corbin Louks, Johnson's backup, ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns, Matt Asiata scored twice and Jereme Brooks took a reverse for a touchdown as the Utes (8-0, 4-0) gained 549 yards of offense - 162 more than they averaged through the first seven games.

The Utes subbed the speedy Louks for Johnson a few times to keep the Rams (3-4, 1-2) off guard and Louks capitalized by taking two option keepers for touchdowns.

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