NEW ORLEANS — For the second straight season, Texas ended its football season with a loss to Washington in a bowl game.

The stakes were much higher this time, though. Last year's 27-20 loss to the Huskies just cost the Longhorns an Alamo Bowl trophy. This year, a 37-31 loss to No. 2 Washington at the Superdome on Monday night kept No. 3 Texas out of the national championship game.

Texas ends its season with a 12-2 record. Washington (14-0) advances to play for an NCAA title against No. 1 Michigan (14-0) at Houston's NRG Stadium next week.

With the game tied at halftime, Washington took control of the game over the first 14 plays of the third quarter. The Huskies opened the second half with an eight-play scoring drive that Michael Penix Jr. capped with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Jalen McMillan. After UT running back CJ Baxter lost a fumble on the first play of the ensuing drive, Washington took five snaps to kick a 26-yard field goal and take an insurmountable 31-21 lead.

Over those two drives, Penix completed all seven of his pass attempts.

Texas eventually fell behind by 13 points in the second half, but a Quinn Ewers touchdown pass to Adonai Mitchell made it a six-point game with 7:23 left. Penix, however, was able to engineer a 10-play drive that ended with a field goal and killed nearly five minutes of clock.

Texas kicked a field goal with 69 seconds left, and a defensive stop gave the Longhorns had one last shot at a miracle. With the football at the Washington 13, Ewers threw three straight incomplete passes.

The runner-up for the 2023 Heisman Trophy, Penix ended up going 29-for-38 on his pass attempts on Monday night. He finished with 430 passing yards.

In total, Penix directed seven scoring drives on Monday. Three of those drives occurred in the first half as he dissected the UT defense.

Over the game's first 30 minutes, Penix was 11-for-14 for 255 yards and one touchdown. His touchdown pass was a 29-yard strike to Ja'Lynn Polk that the receiver caught off a deflection by Texas cornerback Malik Muhammad. Penix also completed a 77-yard pass to Polk that set up Washington's first score and had a 52-yard connection to Rome Odunze.

Texas entered this game having given up only four passes of more than 50 yards this season. It last allowed a 70-yard pass in 2019.

Texas kept in the game behind three rushing touchdowns in the first half. Baxter and fellow running back Jaydon Blue both rushed for a score. Byron Murphy II also masqueraded as a fullback on a goal line play and scored on a 1-yard run that was recorded during the same season that the 308-pound defensive tackle hauled in a 1-yard touchdown catch against Wyoming.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas football loses to Washington at Sugar Bowl in CFP semifinals