(AP Photo/Stephen Morton; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)

Texas Longhorns 13 Nebraska 12

Has any team ever gone through an undefeated season and been in position to win the national championship with a more unimpressive offensive line than 2nd-ranked Texas (13-0)?

If there has been one, I can’t remember it.

Nevertheless, the Horns overcame an inspired Nebraska (9-4) effort and a serious brain fart in the closing seconds to win the Big 12 Championship game and set up another Rose Bowl BCS Championship Game, this time with SEC champ, Alabama (13-0).

After their only truly bad game of the season last week against the Texas Aggies, the salty Texas defense reappeared just in time to bail out the Horns out. It didn’t hurt Bthat the Huskers’ offensive line is worse than the Longhorns’ line.

Bama opened as a four point favorite over the Horns in the national championship game, but Texas has a reasonable chance to pull off its second national championship in five years. The initial line is a bit skewed by the Tide’s impressive win over Florida (12-1) and the Horns’ difficulties against Nebraska, but Bama has had its own consistency problems this season. Plus, a dynamic of such big games is that there often is a psychological advantage to the team playing as an underdog.

I expect the game to be close with the Horns having a reasonable chance of pulling it out if they can control Bama’s punishing ground game and figure out some way of giving Horns’ QB Colt McCoy enough time to distribute the ball to Texas’ talented group of receivers.

But in the meantime, Bama’s defensive front will be licking their chops to get after Texas’ offensive line. Thank goodness for Texas that Bama doesn’t have Nebraska DT Ndamukong Suh.

East Carolina 38 Houston Cougars 32

In a game that was as entertaining as the Texas-Nebraska game was not, the Cougars (10-3) spirited comeback effort in the Conference USA Championship game was snuffed out in the final minute as QB Case Keenum’s pass bounced off his receiver’s shoulder in the end zone and into the hands of an East Carolina (9-4) safety.

The teams were evenly matched and neither team’s defense could consistently stop the other’s offense. So, the game came down to turnovers, and the Cougars had three more (4) than the Pirates (1). The most costly one was bad throw that Keenum made at the beginning of the 4th quarter that was intercepted to set up the Pirates’ TD that extended the lead to 11.

But not widely reported in the mainstream media is the fact that an outrageously horrendous call by the officiating crew led to one of the interceptions and may well have cost the Cougars the game.

While leading 13-7 and driving deep in East Carolina midway through the 2nd quarter, the Cougars quick-snapped while the Pirates’ defense had at least 13 players on the field. Thinking that he had a "free" play because of the obvious penalty, Keenum threw the ball into the end zone trying for a TD, but the ball was intercepted. No problem though because of the penalty, right?

Not so fast. Not only did the officiating crew not throw a flag on the play, they ignored the clear video evidence (it’s a reviewable call) of 13 Pirate defenders on the field when UH Coach Kevin Sumlin challenged the call on the field.

So, rather than Houston having the ball deep in Carolina territory ready to go up 20-7, the officials gave the Pirates the ball first and ten on their 20.

ESPN commentators Ron Franklin and Gary Cunningham were incredulous over the blown call. To make matters worse, the officiating crew proceeded to call at least two other "too many men on the field" penalties on the Pirates’ defense at much less important stages of the game. Go figure.

As usual, Keenum was again phenomenal (56/75 for 527 yds/5 TD’s/3 INT) and cemented his performance this season as one of the greatest of any QB in NCAA history.

Also, Houston WR James Cleveland came back from an injury that had sidelined him the past two games to catch an incredible 19 passes for 241 yds and 3 TD’s.

Due to Conference USA’s poor bowl tie-ins, the Cougars are again slated to play Air Force (7-5) this bowl season in the Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth on New Year’s Even afternoon. The game will be a replay of Houston’s win over Air Force in last season’s game.

There are a bunch of teams in bigger bowl games that are glad that they don’t have to play this Houston team.

Jaguars 23 Texans 18

Does this sound familiar?

The Texans (5-7) start lethargically, fall far behind, battle back gamely, but ultimately shoot themselves in the foot and lose.

Key note to Coach Kubiak — Chris Brown does not remind anyone of Paul Hornung on the halfback pass play.

The Texans begin playing out their eighth straight string next Sunday at Reliant Stadium against Seattle (4-7). My over/under for actual attendance — 40,000.

Finally, the Texas Aggies (6-6) will play Georgia (7-5) in Shreveport’s Independence Bowl on the evening of December 28th.

(AP Photo/Bob Levey; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)

Colts 35 Texans 27

As the Texans’ eighth season fades into the sunset of playoff also-rans once again, a legitimate question exists as to whether fourth-year Texans Coach Gary Kubiak is the right coach to transform the Texans into a legitimate NFL playoff contender.

Alan Burge examined that question earlier in the week and wondered whether Kubiak has the leadership qualities necessary to be a successful NFL head coach. I’ve been skeptical about Kubiak from the start, primarily because I believed that he was an odd fit for the "strong coach" model that Texans owner Bob McNair embraced when he fired the Texans’ initial GM and head coach after a disastrous fourth season.

Despite my reservations, each of Kubiak’s teams have improved during his tenure with the Texans, and his current team is the strongest team that the Texans have fielded in their eight seasons.

Thus, even though every other NFL team has either made the playoffs or fired its head coach during Kubiak’s tenure with the Texans, Kubiak supporters can make a decent case that McNair should stick with him despite this season’s disappointing performance.

But the Texans’ (5-6) loss to the Colts (11-0) yesterday — as well as last week’s Monday Night loss to the Titans (5-6) — are good examples of Kubiak’s main weaknesses as a coach — a failure to make adjustments on the fly during the game necessary to help the team win. This is one of the primary reasons Kubiak’s Texans teams have not been able to get over the hump of winning close games.

After building a 20-7 lead while largely dominating the first half, the well-seasoned Colts made multiple adjustments at halftime. From the looks of it, the Texans made none.

The result? The Colts bludgeoned the Texans 28-7 in the second half and won the game going away.

Similarly, during the Monday Night game, the Texans pass-rushers continually rushed up field past Titans QB Vince Young, which allowed Young to step up in the pocket and run for first downs on multiple occasions. The Texans never made the adjustments necessary to keep Young in the pocket where his passing statistics were quite pedestrian.

It’s almost as if Kubiak and his staff stubbornly say "Our game plan got us ahead and is good enough to win the game if executed correctly. We’re not changing it, no matter what happens." Along those lines, after the game, Kubiak stated that the Texans simply "did not play well in the second half." Maybe so, but Kubiak and his staff did not put the players into a position to play well in the second half.

Perhaps most frustrating for Texans fans is that Kubiak and his staff have shown that they are capable of making effective in-game adjustments. The first game against the Titans, as well as the first Colts game, are two examples this season of where Kubiak and his staff made adjustments on the fly that gave their team a chance to win.

But Kubiak and Co. have not shown that they can make such adjustments consistently. If Bob McNair decides to replace Kubiak after this season, then that failure will likely be at the top to the list of reasons why Kubiak is let go.

Texas Longhorns 49 Texas Aggies 39

What do you get when you mix 3rd-ranked Texas’ (12-0/8-0) worst defensive game of the season with Texas A&M’s (6-6/3-5) best offensive effort?

One heckuva entertaining Thanksgiving evening game.

Longhorn QB Colt McCoy continued his improved play of late by having his best game of the season (24/40 fpr 304 yds/4 TD’s/0 INT/18 carries for 175 yds/1 TD) and the Longhorns were lucky that he did. But even with McCoy’s Herculean effort, the Horns did not put this one away until WR Marquise Goodwin’s 95 yd kickoff return for a TD with just under 7 minutes to go in the game.

Although the Aggies’ well-balanced offense gave the Horns’ salty defensive unit fits all night, the game showed the big difference between the two programs. Outside of DE Von Miller, the Aggies lack of speed in their defensive front seven was palpable the entire game. Unless or until that deficiency is corrected, the Aggies will not contend for a Big 12 South title.

Meanwhile, despite the Horns’ poor defensive effort, I do not believe that it portends problems for Texas against Nebraska (9-3/6-2) next Saturday night in the Big 12 Championship game. Nebraska has about 1/2 the offense that A&M has and, although their defense is solid, the Horns will score at least 25 points against that unit unless the Horns suffer a turnover epidemic.

I look for a relatively easy Texas win and a berth in the BCS Championship Game against the winner of the Alabama-Florida SEC Championship Game.

Houston Cougars 73 Rice 14

You knew things were not going to end well for Rice (2-10/2-6) when Houston (10-2/6-2) led 31-0 less than one minute into the 2nd quarter and prolific Cougar QB Case Keenum had not even thrown a TD pass yet.

The 18th-ranked Coogs went on to lead 59-0 at halftime, at which time they had more TD’s (eight) than Rice had first downs (five). The game was not that close.

Keenum did not play in the 2nd half, but he generated his usual spectacular statistical line anyway (25/31 for 323 yds/2 TD’s/0 INT/2 carries for 8 yds/1 TD).

What makes Keenum one of the best QB’s in college football this season is his uncanny field presence — he is literally like having a coach on the field during the game.

Rice often dropped eight defenders into coverage in an attempt to slow down the Cougars passing attack, so Keenum checked-off at the line of scrimmage and unleashed Houston’s rushing attack, which rolled up 221 of Houston’s 683 yds of total offense. When Rice defenders crept closer to the line to stop the run, Keenum scorched them with quick-hitting passes to eight different receivers.

Chron beat writer Steve Campbell pointed out in his blog that, over the past two blow-out games, Keenum has played four quarters and four minutes. In so doing, Keenum completed 54 of 70 passes (77 percent) for 728 yards, seven TD’s and no interceptions. The Cougars scored 14 touchdowns and one field goal, while punting once, in the
16 possessions that Keenum has directed over the past two games.

I am convinced that this season’s game films of Keenum’s field presence and management of the Cougars’ passing game will be studied by coaches and aspiring QB’s for years. He has been that good.

The game was a disappointment for Rice, which had played well over the past month after a disastrous start to the season. The gulf in talent between the Owls and the Cougars is quite large at this point in time.

The Cougars travel to East Carolina (8-4/7-1) next Saturday afternoon for the C-USA Championship game. ECU has won five of their last six games (their only loss was to Virginia Tech), so the Cougars will likely have their hands full in Greenville, N.C.