By R.B. Fallstrom
The Associated Press
Columbia, Mo. – Texas tuned up for its Big 12 showdown with Oklahoma next weekend by making Missouri pay for its mistakes – repeatedly.
Vince Young ran for 108 yards and a touchdown and threw for two other scores, and the second-ranked Longhorns converted three first-half turnovers by quarterback Brad Smith into quick touchdowns in beating the Tigers 51-20 on Saturday.
“Our bunch can score fast,” coach Mack Brown said. “That’s what we’ve got to continue to do. We should have scored a lot more today.”
The Longhorns (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) have won 11 straight road games and 11 straight overall. They’d like to make it 12 wins in a row next weekend when they face the Sooners, who have beaten Texas five straight times.
Jamaal Charles had one rushing and one receiving touchdown for Texas, which is 4-0 for the fourth time in five seasons and beat Missouri (2-2, 0-1) for the 14th time in 15 games.
Last year’s game was much closer, with Texas winning 28-20 in Austin.
“They were talking about nothing but last year,” Young said. “But it’s a whole different team over here, and we wanted to show them we are a different team.”
Missouri, which entered the game fifth in the nation in total offense at 554 yards per game, had hoped to engage Texas in a shootout but was held to 330 yards and lost to a team ranked in the top five for the 28th straight time.
“They’re a good team, I ain’t going to lie,” Missouri safety David Overstreet said. “At first I had my doubts that they were a legit No. 2, but after today I know they really deserve to be the No. 2 team in the nation.”
The Longhorns had plenty of offense, totaling 585 yards, to offset 135 yards in penalties, a fumble out of the end zone by Charles in the third quarter and a second-quarter drive that stalled at the Missouri 5.
The turnovers helped. Texas has turned nine takeaways into 30 points this season.
“We’ve got a chance to be really good and we haven’t played near our best game yet,” Brown said. “We told our guys we can play much better than this and we’ll have to continue to grow as a team, but the fun thing is we’re 4-0 and we don’t think we’ve scratched the surface.”
Smith scored on two short runs for Missouri, which stayed with Texas for much of the first half but was shut out after the break.
The Longhorns led 14-13 after one quarter and then ran off 37 straight points.
“Clearly, we didn’t play well,” Smith said.
