It’s hard to draw up a more dire situation than this: fourth-and-13, the season and your national championship hopes are riding on the line.

In that moment Wednesday, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers read the defense, made the right switch and delivered the most cool, calculated throw of his Longhorns’ career.

Ewers’ fourth-and-13 overtime touchdown throw in the Peach Bowl won’t overtake Vince Young’s fourth-and-5 scamper to win the 2006 Rose Bowl, but it’s up there among the top plays in UT history. Right alongside 53 Veer Pass and Roll Left.

Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said, “To be honest, it's all on me.” The Sun Devils switched into a max blitz, which left their corners in man-to-man coverage out wide.

“Quinn had to change the protection on the play, and he did,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “He got us to a max protection.”

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Once Ewers changed the protection at the line of scrimmage, the Sun Devils had no way of audibling out. “I didn't have the ability to get out of it, and that’s on me,” Dillingham said.

Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham shows true class with post-game gesture after Peach Bowl loss

Kenny Dillingham wasn’t about to let his players walk off the Peach Bowl field Wednesday and hang their heads after a heartbreaking double-overtime loss to Texas. Dillingham circled back to midfield and made sure to gather up as many Sun Devils he could and shake the Longhorns’ hands. “You lost the game. Doesn't mean you […]

Golden also saw how the defense was aligned and knew to alter his route. On the snap, Golden took off and beat the coverage, got behind the defense. From that point, it was throw and catch for a 28-yard score to keep the game going.

“I thought Quinn's ability to stand in the pocket and deliver the ball the way that he did was a real strike,” Sarkisian said. “So there was layers to the whole thing.”

Sarkisian added, “We guessed a little with the call thinking they might come after us, and we guessed right, and he did a great job of getting the protection right and making the play.”

Ewers’ throw to Golden seemed to turbocharge the Texas offense, which had been sluggish all game.

Ewers came out on the first play of the second overtime and hit Gunnar Helm for a 25-yard touchdown. Ewers followed that with a two-point conversion throw to Golden in the back corner of the end zone. Texas had a 39-31 lead, and the game was over when safety Andrew Mukuba intercepted Arizona State’s Sam Leavitt.

“Well, I think just first off, that’s just a testament to how mature this team is and just taking advantage of every single opportunity that we have, whether it be fourth-and-(13) or first-and-10, whatever the situation is, just taking full advantage of the opportunity that's thrown our way,” Ewers said.

“And just so proud of the way that the entire team stayed poised and composed through the entire game, especially through overtime. And it definitely feels a lot better to be on this end of the win in overtime at the same spot for sure.”

Ewers finished the day having completed 20 of 30 passes for 322 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, a deep ball attempt that floated too long for Isaiah Bond.

“Quinn’s a G, man. He is,” Sarkisian said. “I know he doesn't always exude that, like in his body language and his demeanor, because I say it about him about this all the time, he’s a steady C. He never gets really high. There's flashes of that emotion. He never gets too low.

“Sure, there's moments of frustration that we all have, but the guy recalibrates so quickly, and he's so calm that it allows me to lean on him, you know, in the most critical moments, especially tonight, man.”

The passing game came to life at just the right time. The entire offense needs some serious introspection in the coming days after rushing for 53 yards and going 5-for-13 on third down. That won’t cut it to advance beyond the Cotton Bowl in the College Football Playoffs.

“The run game was tough, and we didn’t want to get behind the sticks, and we went into overtime thinking we gotta throw it to win,” Sarkisian said. “And as much as I wanted to run to win, these guys will tell you, I was telling them last night I felt like in that moment, we had to throw it to win and we had to get the ball in the end zone. I just didn't want to settle for another field goal. We had to go score.”