How the Texas Longhorns graded out in their 33-30 overtime win over Kansas State

You can't get much closer to season destruction than that: Kansas State going for the win, not the tie, on fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard line in overtime and trailing 33-30. But if Texas really does take down TCU, Iowa State and Texas Tech in these final three games and finds itself playing for a Big 12 championship in December, with a possible College Football Playoff berth also on the line, it can point back to Saturday's final play as the one that got them there.

This was a tough top-25 matchup — the second top-25 game this season at Royal-Memorial Stadium — and Texas looked good enough on offense, awfully good on defense and finally a playmaking group on special teams. How the Longhorns graded in the 33-30 win:

Quarterbacks: C

The fact that he's a backup who was making only his second career start gives him some grading slack, and a win is a win and that factors in, too. The positives: Murphy's now 2-0 as the starter in place of Quinn Ewers, logged his first 200-yard game and threw a beautiful 37-yard touchdown pass. He started hot and made a couple of very pretty throws. The negatives: After that good start, in the span of two quarters, we saw him fade from crisp and confident to flawed and awkward. He easily could have had three, maybe four picks and got lost in a second- and third-quarter funk. Last week it was the high floaters. This week his form and/or footwork looked off. These kind of performances can get Texas past any of those remaining teams teams assuming that the defense shows up, too, but the Longhorns surely are hoping to get Ewers back there. Both can make plays; Ewers makes fewer big and small mistakes.

Go figure: Murphy led Texas to scoring drives on three of its first four possessions.

Season average: B (Rice B, Alabama A+, Wyoming C, Baylor A-, Kansas A, Oklahoma B, Houston B, BYU B, Kansas State C)

Running backs: A-

The final numbers were solid. Jonathon Brooks (22-112-1) and CJ Baxter (10-90-1) combined to have a big day running the ball. Those numbers included a 27-yard run from Brooks and Baxter's 54-yard touchdown. But on a day when Texas really needed some good things from them, they delivered. Brooks came up limping twice in the first half, but came back to finish strong. He broke the 1,000-yard mark for the season.

Go figure: Brooks is the 26th Longhorn to run for 1,000 yards in a season.

Season average: B (Rice C, Alabama C, Wyoming A-, Baylor A-, Kansas A, Oklahoma B, Houston B+, BYU B+, Kansas State A-)

Bohls: Texas wins, but also reveals some flaws as Longhorns escape in overtime

Wide receivers: B-

Adonai Mitchell shined for the second straight game — it was two touchdown catches last week, and a big eight catches for 149 yards and another score against Kansas State. But also, for the second straight game we saw Murphy and Xavier Worthy struggling to make a connection. In Murphy's two starts, he has targeted Worthy 24 times but has only nine completions to account for them, for 75 yards. And no touchdowns, unless you count his punt return against the Cougars. Nothing that a Quinn Ewers return probably shouldn't fix, but Worthy and Murphy don't look like they're on the same page. And Jordan Whittington has been statistically dormant for three straight games.

Go figure: Of Murphy's 16 passes on Saturday, only seven were thrown to wide receivers.

Season average: B (Rice B, Alabama A, Wyoming B, Baylor B, Kansas A-, Oklahoma B, Houston B, Houston B, BYU B-, Kansas State B-)

Tight ends: B

Ja'Tavion Sanders had four catches for 37 yards, a fairly perfunctory afternoon save for a 20-yard catch in the first quarter. What didn't make the final stats: he may have doomed what was a promising opening drive of the game for Texas; the Longhorns had reached a third-and-4 at Kansas State's 33-yard line, but Sanders' false start penalty turned that into a third-and-9 back at the 38 that the Longhorns didn't convert. Like Worthy, Sanders' numbers should improve when Ewers returns. Physically, he looks fine.

More: Our staff takeaways from Texas' 33-30 overtime win over Kansas State

Go figure: Sanders has faded to fourth on the team in catches, third in receiving yards and tied for third in receiving touchdowns.

Season average: B- (Rice A-, Alabama A, Wyoming D, Baylor A-, Kansas D, Oklahoma B, Houston C, BYU B-, Kansas State B)

The offensive line: A

All in all, it was a strong performance for the front line. Murphy wasn't sacked once, was hurried only once and two running backs were productive and scored touchdowns. Brooks seemed most comfortable running off the left side behind left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., which was a good decision. DJ Campbell continues to show some growing pains at right guard; he had a costly holding penalty with nine minutes left in the third quarter of a 27-27 game, putting Texas in a second-and-20 situation. But a solid day considering Kansas State's defensive front is a good one. Strong performance from the left side, some inside wins with Jake Majors, good protection from Christian Jones at right tackle, Murphy was safe throughout and the running game was making plays. Texas will take that every week.

Go figure: Texas produced seven plays that went 20 or more yards, including two touchdowns.

Season average: B (Rice C, Alabama A, Wyoming B-, Baylor B, Kansas A, Oklahoma C, Houston B, BYU B, Kansas State A)

The defensive line: A

The Longhorns won on both sides of the line. Ethan Burke flashed brightest with a pair of sacks, including a game-changing strip-sack of Will Howard deep in Wildcats territory that Jaylan Ford recovered at the 5-yard line. He and Barryn Sorrell combined for three sacks, five different lineman combined to produce five of Texas' eight tackles for loss and T'Vondre Sweat came up with a couple of pass knockdowns. But it was the front's performance against Kansas State's running game that proved most critical, though you can make the case for what the linemen's charge on that final fourth-down stop in overtime, too. But the Willdcats rushed for only 33 yards on the day and averaged just 1.1 yards per clip.

Go figure: Ethan Burke has five sacks this season.

Season average: B+ (Rice A, Alabama A, Wyoming B, Baylor A, Kansas B, Oklahoma C, Houston B, BYU A, Kansas State A)

Linebackers: B+

Jaylan Ford has made a career of being in the right place at the right time, and it happened again Saturday when he came in at the very end of Burke's strip-sack play; it appeared that Will Howard had recovered the ball — that was the call on the field, anyway — yet Ford recognized the quarterback didn't have control of it, and he ended up with it. Those are the kind of plays that have been so big over the last couple of years. Ford tied for the team lead with eight tackles and Jett Bush contributed a pair of nice plays, knocking down an early Wildcats pass and snuffing a third-and-short shovel pass in the third quarter.

Go figure: Think Kansas State will be happy to see Jaylan Ford head off to the SEC? In the last two matchups with the Wildcats, Ford has 18 tackles, two fumble recoveries, one forced fumble and one interception.

Season average: B (Rice B, Alabama A-, Wyoming C+, Baylor B+, Kansas B, Oklahoma C-, Houston B+, BYU B, Kansas State B+)

Defensive backs: C

It was good to see Ryan Watts back, making plays. He tied for the team lead with eight tackles and had a pass breakup. But it was hardly a clean game for the cornerback; that breakup easily should have been an interception and it possibly could have been a pick-six had caught it, he sniffed out a potentially hurtful screen pass late in the second quarter but then gave up a 28-yard catch immediately after, which set up Kansas State's first score, and he missed the initial tackle on Phillip Brooks' 26-yard touchdown scamper down the sideline. He also was flagged for a late hit on an out-of-bounds play with Texas holding onto a 30-27 lead with six minutes left. Michael Taaffe, meanwhile, keeps making plays. It was an end zone interception against Houston, a tip-drill pick against BYU and an even more impressive tip-drill pick against the Wildcats. ... Howard, not known as a passer, burned the Longhorns for 327 yards and four touchdown passes.

Go figure: Michael Taaffe is the first Longhorn with interceptions in three straight games since DeShon Elliott in 2017.

Season average: B (Rice A, Alabama A, Wyoming A-, Baylor B, Kansas B, Oklahoma C, Houston C, BYU A, Kansas State C)

Special teams: A

What's gotten into Texas' special teams? Worthy, who had his share of critics earlier this season for his punt return decisions, followed up his 74-yard return for a score last week with a pair of nice runbacks Saturday, including returns of 33 and 19 yards. Bert Auburn, 4-of-4 on field goals, was money. Ryan Sanborn nailed two punts inside the 10 and the Wildcats' shaky performance on kicks (a missed extra point and a missed chip-shot field goal) surely played into the final decision to go for the win instead of force another overtime. The lone nit was Kansas State's blocked punt that set up a touchdown; that was a blocking scheme problem, not a Sanborn issue.

Go figure: Bert Auburn has made his last eight field goal tries.

Season average: B- (Rice A, Alabama B, Wyoming B+, Baylor D, Kansas D, Oklahoma B, Houston B+, BYU A, Kansas State A)

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Longhorns football vs. K-State report card: How UT graded in win