Replay: It was tight for three quarters, but No. 3 Texas breezes by Kansas 40-14

We had a top-25 matchup at Royal-Memorial Stadium for the first time since last November's TCU game, and both No. 3 Texas and No. 24 Kansas were hoping to jump out to 5-0 records and 2-0 starts in Big 12 play. This was the first of two big matchups for the Longhorns in consecutive weeks with next Saturday's showdown with Oklahoma looming.

It was a beautiful day for football. Texas was coming off a 38-6 win at Baylor and Kansas took down BYU at home 38-27.

This was our thread during today's game of our live updates, scores and analysis:

Texas breezes by Kansas, now awaits Oklahoma

It's all over at Royal-Memorial Stadium. No. 3 Texas has beaten No. 24 Kansas 40-14 thanks to another dominant performance in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Quinn Ewers threw for 325 yards and a touchdown, added a pair of rushing scores and threw his first interception of the season. Jonathon Brooks rushed for 217 yards and a pair of touchdowns, Adonai Mitchell had 10 catches for 141 yards and a touchdown, and the Longhorns produced 661 yards of total offense.

Next up for the Horns (5-0, 2-0): Oklahoma, next Saturday at the Cotton Bowl. The 14th-ranked Sooners are playing Iowa State tonight.

Quinn Ewers touchdown run has Texas win in sight

Texas is wrapping this game up. The Longhorns now lead No. 24 Kansas 40-14 on Quinn Ewers' 1-yard bootleg run, his second touchdown run today. It culminated an important drive: Texas essentially has put this game away much the way it closed out the Alabama win, with a steady, balanced drive mixed with nice runs and pick-your-spot gains in the passing game. In all, it was 12 plays that went 75 yards and took off 5:51 from the clock.

There's 5:34 left to play.

Adonai Mitchell catch puts Texas up 33-14

Texas has padded its lead to 33-14 on a 9-yard touchdown pass from Quinn Ewers to Adonai Mitchell in the back of the end zone. It's been a big day for Mitchell, who's been targeted 11 times and has eight catches for 113 yards and that touchdown.

There's 13:06 left in the fourth quarter.

Jonathon Brooks goes over the 200-yard mark

Texas has regained control of this game. The Longhorns now lead 26-14 behind Jonathon Brooks' second touchdown run of this game, this one from 1 yard out. The five-play, 52-yard drive was set up by a tough defensive stand that saw Jahdae Barron recover a fourth-and-1 fumble from Kansas on the Jayhawks' previous drive.

Texas went for the 2-point conversion, but Quinn Ewers couldn't find Adonai Mitchell. Brooks has gone over the 200-yard mark for this game on 18 carries.

Things are tightening up

There's 6:31 left in the third quarter at DKR, and Texas still leads Kansas 20-14. Still.

That's because the Horns are coming off having squandered another promising drive. This one went south when a bad shotgun snap (Whose fault? We'll find out later, probably.) Jonathon Brooks pounced on the fumble, but it put Texas into a second-and-25 hole. A 13-yard pass to Adonai Mitchell set up a 47-yard field goal try from Bert Auburn, but he pushed the kick right.

Texas has 454 yards of total offense and only 20 points to show for it.

And we pretty much already knew this, but Ja'Tavion Sanders is out for the rest of the game. He's in regular clothes on the UT sideline. And Ryan Watts is out for the rest of the game as well.

Well, so much for that 20-7 lead ...

Kansas is back in this game. Jason Bean just shocked the Longhorns with a 58-yard touchdown strike downfield to Trevor Wilson, who got behind Kitan Crawford for the big play. There's 11:36 and Texas leads 20-14.

A 200-yard day coming for Jonathon Brooks?

Jonathon Brooks just turned this game toward the Longhorns' favor and wowed everybody — the crowd, the Longhorns and certainly the Kansas Jayhawks — with a 54-yard touchdown run right up the middle of the Kansas defense.

There's 13:28 left in the third quarter and the Longhorns are now up 20-7. Brooks has his third straight 100-yard game; he's got 180 yards on 13 carries with one touchdown.

Halftime: Texas' last drive sputters

It's halftime at DKR, and No. 3 Texas leads No. 24 Kansas 13-7. It's been a series of Texas and KU drives that move along

This last Texas drive was a curiosity. It started under a cloud when Xavier Worthy let Kansas' punt bounce in front of him near the 30 instead of taking a stab at a return. The Jayhawks downed it at Texas' 19. And then the Longhorns, armed with three timeouts, didn't seem too interested in upping the tempo. A 12-yard run from CJ Baxter and a 22-yard pass to Adonai Mitchell and an 11-yarder to Jordan Whittington still moved the Horns into scoring range, but on first-and-10 from Kansas' 29, Quinn Ewers' pass over the middle to Gunhar Helm was intercepted. It was Ewers' first pick of the season.

Texas cornerback Ryan Watts hobbled off after the first play of Kansas' previous drive, which was a shot downfield on which he was defending. And just at about the same time, Ja'Tavion Sanders was seen limping into the locker room early, with about 4 minutes left. He's got an ankle issue.

A long-range miss

The bad news is that Texas' drive, which included a 12-yard run from Jonathon Brooks and a 14-yard completion to Adonai Mitchell, fizzled at Kansas' 32. The worse news is that Bert Auburn missed a 50-yard field goal try wide left.

There's 4:45 left in the first half. Texas still leads 13-7.

Jonathon Brooks breaks a long run, but Horns settle for three

Texas answered Kansas' touchdown with a 30-yard field goal. But it was Jonathon Brooks' 67-yard run down to Kansas' 8 that was the big play of the drive, though. It came on first down, a perfect answer to that Kansas touchdown play. Quinn Ewers was sacked for a 3-yard loss on second-and-goal, which set up a third-and-goal from the 13. A short pass to CJ Baxter went nowhere, setting up the kick.

There's 11:15 left in the first half. Texas leads 13-7.

So far, Quinn Ewers is 9-of-12 for 109 yards, Brooks has 91 yards on six carries and Adonai Mitchell has three catches for 49 yards. He's been targeted four times.

Kansas scores on a wild fumble/fumble return

Kansas just got on the board with a 27-yard touchdown play which was a wild combo-effort that included a quarterback keeper, a fake option pitch, a big-time hit that caused a fumble, a lucky bounce and an 18-yard pickup-and-return touchdown by Kan Hishaw.

The play was reviewed. It was Jalon Catalon who separated the ball from Jason Bean, who lost it after a 27-yard keeper.

Whew. There's 14:05 left in the 2nd quarter and Texas leads 10-7.

Texas settles for a field goal, but is moving the ball

Quinn Ewers is off to a good start today. That's good news for Texas, which has gone up 10-0 on a field goal. There's about 2 minutes left in the opening quarter and both Texas drives have resulted in scores. The key play on this one was a third-and-5 pass to Jordan Whittington for 7 yards that moved the Horns to KU's 19-yard line. (Before that, Ewers had back-to-back 23-yard gains on a backside screen toss to Jonathon Brooks and a throw to the left to Xavier Worthy.) ... A third-and-13 pass to Ja'Tavion Sanders moved it down to Kansas' 9, setting up a fourth-and-3. Steve Sarkisian rolled the dice, and Brooks moved the chains with a push up the middle for 4 yards. Ewers' first-and-goal shot to Whittington was nearly picked off, Brooks got nothing on a second-down carry, and Ewers and Whittington couldn't connect on a fade route in the back corner of the end zone.

Texas settled for a 26-yard field goal from Bert Auburn. The Horns lead 10-0 with 1:52 left in the 1st quarter.

For what it's worth, Sanders limped off right before that third-and-goal play.

Texas scores: another Quinn Ewers touchdown run

Quinn Ewers, whose 29-yard touchdown run last week at Baylor was the longest carry of his career, just rattled off a 30-yard touchdown run on a quarterback keeper. He ran in untouched as he weaved his way in for the score; the Jayhawks' middle of the defense looked empty because they were blitzing on the play.

And Adonai Mitchell has been super active early, with three catches on consecutive plays in this first drive — gains of 12, 17 and 20 yards.

There's 10:06 left in the 1st quarter, and Texas leads 7-0.

First shocker: No Jalon Daniels today

Jalon Daniels, whose been the week-long focus ahead of this matchup, isn't playing. Jason Bean got the start today for the No. 24 Jayhawks; there are reports that Daniels isn't playing because of a sore back.

Kansas made it to close to midfield when its drive sputtered. Texas will get its first shot starting at the Horns' 12.

Kickoff is here.

Kansas will get the ball first. The Longhorns deferred to the second half, so they'll get the ball to start the third quarter.

The keys to this game: Thomas Jones

We're about 5 minutes from kickoff.

And here's Thomas Jones' thoughts from earlier this week:

It’s strength against strength when Kansas runs the ball. Led by Devin Neal, the Jayhawks average 218 yards rushing a game and 5.5 yards a carry, which both rank second behind UCF in the Big 12. Texas counters with a defensive front anchored by tackles T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy II that gives up 87.3 yards a game rushing and 2.7 yards a carry. ... The key matchup? Texas defensive tackles vs. Kansas center Mike Novitsky: In a conference with several elite centers, Kansas may have the best. The 6-5, 305-pound senior has started 48 games in a four-year career at Kansas and Buffalo and has landed on virtually every preseason watch list for offensive linemen. But he’ll have to contend with more than Sweat and Murphy, since the Longhorns boast arguably the deepest set of interior linemen in the conference with Alfred Collins, Vernon Broughton and Trill Carter part of the rotation.

The keys to this game: Danny Davis

Hello, flyover.

Getting close at DKR.

We have UT beat writers Danny Davis and Thomas Jones along with columnist Kirk Bohls and trending reporter Caleb Yum situated at DKR. Cedric Golden is at AT&T Stadium, working the Texas A&M-Arkansas game. Here's an assessment from Danny this week on today's game:

Danny's assessment of the matchup:

On Saturday, No. 3 Texas (4-0, 1-0) will meet No. 24 Kansas (4-0, 1-0) in a showdown of significance at Royal-Memorial Stadium. Sarkisian described the Jayhawks as a team with a defense that "plays a physical brand of football." Defensively, the Jayhawks are allowing 22.8 points and 296.8 yards per game. Kansas defensive back Cobee Bryant was an all-conference pick last year, and safety Kenny Logan leads the Jayhawks in tackles. ... In order to beat the Jayhawks, Texas will need its receivers to make plays in the pass game. Almost 64% of the team's offensive yardage and 52.9% of its total touchdowns have been earned through the air. But it is likely that Texas will need those receivers to throw some blocks in the run game as well. During last year's 55-14 win in Lawrence, Texas ran for 427 yards and scored six of its seven touchdowns on the ground.

Goal to go: Xavier Worthy

We're about 10 minutes away from kickoff.

Texas receiver Xavier Worthy is only 7 yards away from reaching the 2,000-yard mark for his career, which also would put him into the 10-spot on UT's career receiving yards list. He'd bump 1999 star Kwame Cavil to get in there. "It's huge," Worthy said on Monday. "It'd be a big accomplishment to think of all the greats who have come to this school."

All eyes on Jalon Daniels

Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels is, of course, Priority 1 for Texas tonight. The Big 12 preseason offensive player of the year is the Jayhawks' key. For the most part, Texas has done a good job of defending dual-threat quarterbacks under defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski. In the 29 games since he took over the defense in 2021, Texas has let four quarterbacks — Arkansas' K.J. Jefferson (10 rushes for 73 yards in 2021), Oklahoma's Caleb Williams (4-88 in 2021), Kansas State's Will Howard (8-82 in 2021) and Kansas State's Adrian Martinez (14-52 in 2022) — rush for 50 yards. Of those, only Williams and Martinez also threw for 200 yards.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Longhorns football vs. Kansas: Updates, scores, game analysis