STILLWATER, Okla. -- Texas seems to wait for the second half to get rolling, in this game and in its season.
Cedric Benson ran for 180 yards and a touchdown and Roy Williams caught six passes for 162 yards and a score in No. 11 Texas' 55-16 victory over Oklahoma State (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 21 AP) on Saturday night.
OSU's Tatum Bell left with an injury in the first quarter as Texas massacred the Cowboys 55-16.
Texas (8-2, 5-1 Big 12) kept its Bowl Championship Series hopes alive with its sixth straight victory over the Cowboys (7-3, 3-3) and its fourth consecutive lopsided win since a 65-13 loss to No. 1 Oklahoma.
Vince Young scored from 23 yards and Benson from the 1 in the third quarter as the Longhorns took control with 27 straight points. Fullback Will Matthews scored the first three touchdowns of his career.
"The guys played as good a third quarter as I have ever seen," Texas coach MackBrown said. "I think the thing they understand is that this is a football team that can keep getting better."
Luke Phillips added field goals of 53, 52 and 32 yards for Oklahoma State, which lost Tatum Bell, the nation's second leading rusher, in the first quarter to an apparent ankle injury.
The Cowboys fell to fourth place in the Big 12 South and snapped a 10-game home winning streak as they failed to rebound from a 52-9 rout last weekend to the Sooners.
Bell's injury "stretched us personnel-wise," Oklahoma State coach Les Miles said. "We couldn't put the same kind of guys on the field the second half that we did in the first."
Oklahoma State led 16-14 at halftime, on Phillips' field goals and Josh Fields' 10-yard pass to Rashaun Woods.
But Fields' pass was intercepted by Nathan Vasher at the Cowboys 25, leading to Matthews' first score. Williams caught Young's pass along the sideline and ran past Darrent Williams for a 67-yard scoring play in the second quarter.
"That was probably the best pass I have ever thrown to him," Young said. "All I did was throw it in his direction and hit him in stride."
The Longhorns dominated the second half.
Michael Huff stepped in front of Gabe Lindsay to intercept Fields' pass and returned it 27 yards for a third-quarter score. In the fourth quarter, Matt Melton picked up Greg Gold's fumble and ran 48 yards for another touchdown.
"Their talent stretched us and we couldn't protect the passer and they're making plays and things got out of hand," Miles said.
Young finished 9-for-13 for 195 yards and ran for 92 yards on 13 carries. Benson followed his 174-yard performance in last weekend's 31-7 win over Nebraska by averaging 6.7 yards per carry on 27 rushes.
Fields was just 11-for-31 passing for 149 yards. Bell had run for 37 yards on nine carries before being injured while rushing for a 2-yard loss.
Seymore Shaw, in place of Bell, rushed for 63 yards on 14 carries as the Cowboys struggled on offense for the second straight week.
Texas amassed 502 total yards to Oklahoma State's 309.
Vasher got the best of Woods, the Big 12's leading receiver, picking off one pass intended for the Baletnikoff semifinalist and batting down another.
"He is an NFL-caliber receiver who can always put up big numbers," Vasher said. "I just tried to follow him around and limit what he could do."
Woods' four catches for 43 yards was enough to put him over 4,000 receiving yards for his career. He's just the eighth receiver to do that in NCAA history.
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