Many expected this game to be closer, but the Longhorns easily handled the Cowboys.

Curtis Brown and Earl Thomas each returned interceptions for touchdowns, and Cody Johnson had two short TD runs as the No. 3 Longhorns routed No. 13 Oklahoma State 41-14 on Saturday night to establish themselves as the clear frontrunner in the Big 12 South.

McCoy had an efficient 171-yard performance and threw his 100th career touchdown pass, and the Longhorns avoided the kind of letdown on Halloween weekend that cost them a chance to play for the Big 12 and national championships a year ago.

Texas (8-0, 5-0) came in with the nation’s toughest defense against the run, then played havoc with Zac Robinson and the Oklahoma State (6-2, 3-1) passing attack. Robinson came in as the conference’s top-rated passer after breaking the Cowboys’ record for accuracy in a game last week, but threw a career-high four picks against the Longhorns.

Texas scored 28 points off of Oklahoma State’s five turnovers, with Brown and Thomas cashing in immediately and Johnson scoring on runs of 2 and 1 yards after two other takeaways.

Let’s see. Texas cruises by a talented opponent. In the meantime, USC is upset by Oregon, college football’s dark horse. The Longhorns are looking better by the game, while USC is at a standstill. The Longhorns are obviously one of the best teams in the nation, but do they deserve to make the National Championship Game?

Maybe. As for USC, this day couldn’t get any worse.

The NCAA record for competition percentage by a quarterback is 73.6% held by Daunte Culpepper of Central Florida in 1998.

Coming into Saturday’s action, Texas’ QB Colt McCoy had a completion percentage of 81.2%. He completed 38 of 45 passes (84%) for 391 yards in the Longhorns’ 28-24 win over Oklahoma State. Will he break Culpepper’s mark?

The knock on McCoy this year is that he completes most of his passes under 10 yards and allows his receivers to rack up yards after the catch. But if defenses game plan to take away the big play, why is McCoy criticized for taking what the defense gives him? Isn’t that what a good quarterback does? Granted he doesn’t play in a conference dominated by tough defenses, but again, that’s not his fault. Even though there’s a lot of talk about him being the frontrunner for the Heisman, you hear a lot of “fraud” talk as well, perhaps more so than any other Heisman candidate over the past couple of years.

Moving on, Oklahoma State deserves a ton of credit for hanging with the Longhorns on Saturday and shouldn’t drop too far in the rankings. UT jumped ahead 14-0 early, but the Cowboys answered the bell and had their chances to even win the game had the capitalized more on Texas mistakes. Some might discredit the Longhorns after this, but don’t forget that this was their third tough challenge in as many weeks. To suggest Texas played poorly would be a slap in the face to the Cowboys’ effort.