Austin, Texas ? Texas was cruising to another Big 12 Conference victory when the weather put everything on hold for more than an hour.

No matter. By the time the rain and lightning had cleared, Iowa State was in no position to mount much of a rally.

Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy engineered another efficient game with a pair of touchdown passes Saturday to lead No. 7 Texas to a 37-14 victory in the Big 12 opener for both teams.

The outcome was pretty much what was expected. It just took a long time to finish after waves of rain and lightning rolled through downtown Austin at the end of the third quarter, forcing game officials to suspend play for 70 minutes.

Texas led by 23 and had a long wait in the locker room figuring out how to avoid an Iowa State comeback.

“I didn’t know how to act. I didn’t know if we were supposed to chill or get fired up,” linebacker Robert Killebrew said.

“We figured they had 15 minutes to go out and score a lot of points to beat us,” defensive end Tim Crowder said. “We stayed focused and kept in it.”

It was the first time a game at Royal-Memorial Stadium had been suspended by weather since 1996. Game officials urged the crowd of 88,972 to seek shelter and only a few thousand returned to the stands when play resumed.

“You’re wondering what’s going to happen with momentum,” Texas coach Mack Brown said.

Not much at all, really.

Iowa State didn’t have enough punch to turn things around against a defense that sacked Cyclones quarterback Bret Meyer seven times and snagged two interceptions.

Iowa State’s career passing leader threw for 274 yards and two touchdowns but spent most of the game running from a fierce pass rush that seemed to come from all directions.