The rodeo comes to town Saturday. Actually, it’s Texas football, but there’s not much of a difference. 

The Longhorns, seeded No. 7 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings, come to Faurot Field for an 11 a.m. kickoff against No. 18 Missouri on Saturday with bales of chaos under their belts. They’ve been on quite the wild bull ride. 

In Week 2, Texas trailed then-No. 1 Ohio State 23-3 after three quarters, having turned the ball over three times and punted three times up to that point. It, apparently, did not care and mounted a huge comeback to topple the Buckeyes 24-23 with a game-winning touchdown drive and game-clinching interception in the final seconds of the fourth quarter. 

Three games later, on Oct. 10, with the Longhorns sitting atop the AP Top 25 Poll and scheduled for a showdown with unranked Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, disaster struck. Texas led the Sooners 17-10 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but a 2-yard touchdown run from Lloyd Avant followed by a nightmarish pick-six thrown by quarterback Arch Manning flipped the score on its head and gave Oklahoma a 24-17 lead. 

Manning bounced back to captain a 75-yard game-tying touchdown drive immediately after, but the Sooners got the final word: a 47-yard field goal from Tate Sandall as time expired to pull off the upset of No. 1 Texas less than a month after the Longhorns knocked off No. 1 Ohio State. And to rub salt into the wound, Texas suffered an identical 27-24 loss to then-unranked Florida the very next week — this time blowing a 17-3 lead in Austin. 

Alas, it seems like Texas has found a way to stay on the bull in recent weeks. It took down Ole Miss, who now slots in at No. 10 in the CFP ranking, 34-27 at home. Then it beat up a Kamario Taylor-less Mississippi State 31-3.  

But finding its footing came at a cost: injuries. Five starters were listed as questionable on the Longhorns’ availability report Wednesday, but the Longhorns are hurting most in the trenches. That’s also where the root of chaos could stem from against the Tigers.

Missouri’s now-healthy edge room matches up against a shuffling Texas offensive line that’s working to replace midseason All-American left tackle Tevor Goosby, who’s now out for the season. Against Mississippi State, right tackle Melvin Siani flipped to left tackle, and Andre Cojoe stepped in at right tackle. The interior had to adjust to the changes, too. 

Manning was sacked three times, all on third down. 

"Clearly there were some issues in protection," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said after the game. "I felt like it was a little more internal than it was external."

Missouri’s edge room, led by seven-sack sophomore Daeden Hopkins and rounded out by now-healthy veterans Darris Smith, Langden Kitchen and Sterling Webb, have the significant matchup advantage against the battered Longhorn offensive line that’s allowed the third-most sacks in the SEC this season. 

And when Manning is pressured, not much good happens for the Longhorns. In his 90 dropbacks under pressure this season, the legacy quarterback has completed just 27 of his 55 passes for 488 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions while posting a 42.8 offense grade, per Pro Football Focus.

Manning has thrown seven interceptions this season and fumbled the ball four times in the last three games. His lone game without a turnover this season was against UTSA in Week 3. 

Missouri, on the other hand, has forced seven interceptions and forced seven fumbles. Forcing a couple turnovers out of the loose-cannon Longhorn offense is plausible but not guaranteed. 

"I think with every quarterback, it can't just be one size fits all. You can't just say we're going to pressure him all game,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said Tuesday. … “You can't go out there and say, 'Okay, well, Florida did this.' We don't really run a scheme similar to Florida. So I think the challenge is figure out what we do, get a plan, play with great fundamentals, play with great execution and effort, let the chips fall where they may."

The chips fall soon — kickoff is set for 11 a.m. Saturday at Faurot Field in Columbia.