HOUSTON -- The Texas Longhorns' offense proved Saturday night that it is not anywhere close to a one-man show.
In the second half of Texas' 52-20 hammering of outmanned Houston, the offense hit on all cylinders and sixth-year wideout Justin McLemore turned in the game of his career and the seventh-best ever for a Longhorn receiver.
"I think with our offense we have so many weapons," McLemore said. "We have so many people to go to and I was just hoping that my day would come."
Saturday night turned out to be what he was waiting for. When the dust finally settled at the Astrodome, McLemore had accumulated 161 yards on six catches and two touchdowns and nearly doubled his 1995 season stats in one game. Before the Houston game he had only 14 receptions for 197 yards and two touchdowns in eight games this year.
The Longhorn offense finished with 614 total yards, the highest output under head coach John Mackovic. The all-time school record for total yards was 676 set against Southern Methodist in 1969.
"We feel good that if we don't make mistakes we can move the ball on the ground and in the air against any team," Mackovic said.
Texas used a balanced attack to finish with 268 yards on the ground and 346 yards passing. The Horns ran 44 times and passed 38 times while averaging a healthy 7.7 yards per play.
"Texas is a fine offensive team," Houston head coach Kim Helton said. "We were able to stop them with an eight-man front, but then we couldn't cover them that way."
Quarterback James Brown has accounted for nine touchdowns the last two years against the Cougars (eight passing, one rushing) and ended with a career-best 338 yards in the air and 4 TD passes.
"James Brown had a masterful game," Mackovic said. "He really knew what he was doing out there."
McLemore's second TD catch, a 66-yarder, essentially put the game away by giving the Horns a 38-20 lead with 2:03 remaining in the third quarter.
"We had two slant routes called for the outside receivers," McLemore said. "And James looked to the other side but I saw the safety wasn't looking at me so I just cut upfield and luckily James rolled to my side."
McLemore also caught a 50-yard pass from Brown on a third-and-eight play to set up Texas' go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter. McLemore also caught passes on four different touchdown drives for Texas, and his three biggest receptions all were on third-down plays.
For the game, the Horns converted seven of 15 third-down conversions and were a perfect three for three on fourth downs with two going for TDs.
Brown hit McLemore on third-and-goal from the Houston 2 for the Horns' first touchdown. His 66-yard TD catch was on third-and-seven.
"He had a big game and he made some plays when he had to," Brown said. "I scrambled a couple of times and found him. Justin's been around here for six years, so we expect him to make plays like that."
In the last two games the Horns have amassed 100 points and 1,093 total yards.
"You have Ricky [Williams], Shon [Mitchell] and Mike [Adams] you have to cover," McLemore said. "I don't know if this does anything for my confidence, but it maybe does something for the whole offense's confidence that they have someone else they can go to."
That is not good news for upcoming Texas foes Texas Christian, Baylor and Texas A&M.
* Including 22 high school games, Brown is 31-3-1 in his last 35 starts. He is 11-1-1 as Texas' starting quarterback.
* Brown broke the Longhorn single-season record for TD passes and has thrown a TD pass in 11 straight games and has 19 for the year and 31 in his career. He only needs six more to catch Texas' career leader Peter Gardere at 37. The old record for TD passes in a season was set by Gardere in 1992 when he had 16.
* Wideout Mike Adams' 63-yard punt return was a career best and the best for a Longhorn since Jitter Fields' 66-yard return against Auburn in 1983. It was also the longest in the Southwest Conference this season.
* Phil Dawson's 52-yard field goal in the first quarter marked the third straight game that he has made a kick of 50-plus yards. He also kicked a career-high seven extra points.
HOUSTON -- They talked about it, guarded against it -- and yet it still happened.
Coming off an emotional win against Texas Tech and with visions of upset losses to TCU and Rice the last few years, the 11th-ranked Longhorns had hoped to stroll into the Astrodome Saturday night and quietly dispose of the 1-7 Cougars and not have the dreaded "letdown."
But already trailing 20-10 late in the second quarter, that was exactly what was happening.
"We came out here to play big-time football," Texas receiver Justin McLemore said. "We just kind of kicked ourselves in the tail [in the second quarter] after letting a team like that get on us -- and they jumped on us. We just had to overcome it."
They did.
Texas' defense put the clamps on an effective Houston offense and gave quarterback James Brown and the Horns an opportunity to go to work. Forty-two points later, Texas had the rout they had hoped for, 52-20, in front of a cozy crowd of 32,520.
The Horns improved to 7-1-1 and 4-0 in the Southwest Conference, a half-game ahead of Texas A&M (6-2, 4-1) and Baylor (6-3, 4-1) for the conference lead. They also cracked the Associated Press top 10 for the first time this season at No. 10 and stayed at No. 8 in the USA Today/CNN coaches' poll.
"We've been in situations where we've been down before this year and we have yet to panic," Texas offensive guard Dan Neil said. "We're more mature, more experienced."
Brown, who finished 21-of-35, accounted for five touchdowns (four passing, one rushing) and threw for a career-best 338 yards, including a career-long 66 yard TD pass to McLemore. McLemore, too, had a career night, collecting 161 yards on only six catches and two scores.
"[Houston] came out ready to play, really the entire game, exceptional in the first half," Neil said. "We just weren't playing as hard as we needed to. We finally started to get in our groove right at the end of the second quarter and we were able to carry through halftime on into the second half."
The Cougars, who kept Texas off-balance with run-and-shoot-like timing patterns and draw plays, racked up 235 first-half yards and held a slim 20-17 advantage at the half.
Texas helped the Cougar cause thanks partly to a Brown interception at the Houston 3 and a Mike Adams fumble on a kickoff return that set up a Cougar TD. But Houston could manage only 35 net yards in the third quarter and 60 in the fourth after Texas went strictly to zone coverage.
The Horns, on the other hand, exploded for 614 yards of offense on the night -- 346 passing, 268 rushing -- the most ever under head coach John Mackovic at Texas.
"The best thing for us is that we've been able to move [the ball] on the ground and in the air," said Mackovic, who notched his 100th career win as a head coach. "Tonight, we didn't run as well early in the game, but we were clicking with the passes and it really opened us up."
Texas receiver Matt Davis (three catches, 63 yards) and tight end Pat Fitzgerald (six for 66) also helped open up the offense and each hauled in a touchdown. Tailback Shon Mitchell led the Horns' ground attack with 106 yards on 14 carries.
"I told [my teammates], 'We have a great team. We can't let U of H come in and spoil it for us,'" Mitchell said. "They were fighting hard, but we weren't going to let them spoil our championship run."
Houston quarterback Chuck Clements (23-of-38, 271 yards, one INT) was headed for a career night after a first half that saw him complete 15-of-20 passes for 181 yards and two touchdown passes.
Clements sandwiched 33-yard and 16-yard TD strikes to freshman reserve receiver Robbie Wheeler around a Brown-to-McLemore touchdown from 2 yards out to give the Cougars a 14-10 lead with 5:45 left in the second quarter. Houston stretched the lead to 20-10 just over a minute later when tailback Antowain Smith dove in for a 3-yard TD.
But that was the last time the Cougars would visit the end zone.
Backup runner Wane McGarity closed the gap for Texas with a 1-yard plunge to make it 20-17 at the 2:42 mark of the second. And the Horns grabbed the lead for good when Brown kept the ball and ran around the right side of the end zone from 4 yards, courtesy of a crushing block from Neil to spring Brown free. The Horns then led 24-20 with 7:55 to play in the third and never looked back.
"I was really pleased with as hard as we played," Mackovic said. "I know we came out and had some mistakes early, but we finished the game strongly and the way we wanted to finish."
Wheeler, who set career highs in catches (seven) and yards (124), appeared to have his third touchdown when he fielded a kickoff in the third quarter and sprinted down the field for what should have been a 96-yard TD. Unfortunately for the Coogs, he tripped on the AstroTurf and fell for a gain of 47 yards, a play that seemed to sum up the way things went for Houston in the second half.
"Our kids played their guts out," said Cougar head coach Kim Helton, whose team dropped to 1-8 and 1-4 in the SWC. "I'm disappointed that we were unable to score in the second half. We dropped some balls that were key. The credit goes to Texas, they made some big plays."
Texas 3 14 21 14 -- 52
Houston 7 13 0 0 -- 20
Tex--FG Dawson 52
Hou--Wheeler 33 pass from Clements (Villarreal kick)
Tex--McLemore 2 pass from Brown (Dawson kick)
Hou--Wheeler 16 pass from Clements (Villarreal kick)
Hou--Smith 3 run (kick failed)
Tex--McGarity 1 run (Dawson kick)
Tex--Brown 4 run (Dawson kick)
Tex--Davis 14 pass from Brown (Dawson kick)
Tex--McLemore 66 pass from Brown (Dawson kick)
Tex--Fitzgerald 13 pass from Brown (Dawson kick)
Tex--Wilson 1 run (Dawson kick)
A--32,520.
Texas Houston
First downs 29 19
Rushes-yards 43-268 32-59
Passing 346 271
Return Yards 23 17
Comp-Att-Int 22-36-1 23-38-1
Punts 2-50 6-44
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 3-2
Penalties-Yards 13-82 6-35
Time of Possession 30:50 29:10
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
Texas - Mitchell 13-106, Williams 13-80, Clayton 5-28, Wilson 6-24,
Brown 2-17, McGarity 3-15, Walton 1-(minus 2).
Houston - Smith 20-52, J.Williams 3-26, Wheeler 1-7, James 1-3,
Henderson 2-2, Clements 5-(minus 31).
PASSING
Texas - Brown 21-35-1-338, Walton 1-1-0-8.
Houston - Clements 23-38-1-271.
RECEIVING
Texas - McLemore 6-161, Fitzgerald 6-66, Davis 3-63, Adams 3-40,
Scarborough 1-8, White 1-7, Williams 1-2, Clayton 1-(minus 1).
Houston - Wheeler 7-124, West 5-58, James 4-23, Mouton 3-18, Johnson 1-24,
Dennis 1-12, J.Williams 1-7, Griffin 1-5.