(AP Photo/Don Heupel; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)
The Texans (5-3) dominated the game, but somehow found themselves trailing the Bills (3-5) after three quarters.
Previous Texans teams probably would have folded, but this one seems to be improving on defense enough that the offense can shoot blanks for awhile and the game will not be lost (but remember, this is the Bill’s offense that we’re talking about here). The Texans’ offense finally straightened things out in the fourth quarter, hammered away at the Bills’ tiring defensive front and the Texans won this one going away with three rushing TD’s in the final quarter. All in all, not a bad way to prepare for next Sunday’s showdown at Indianapolis against the Colts (7-0).
A couple of notes. Backup RB Ryan Moats played really well (23/126 yd/6 rec/63 yd/3 TD’s) in relief of fumble-prone RB Steve Slaton. Somewhat surprisingly, there did not seem to be any drop-off in production in going with Moats over Slaton and, if anything, it appeared that Moats hit the holes quicker and with more authority than Slaton. And without the fumbles.
Also, the Texans lost their second-best receiver — TE Owen Daniels — to what appeared to be a serious knee injury that will probably end his season. Will we now have a James Casey sighting?
Finally, for some reason, CBS did not show a replay of how Daniels got hurt (he was not involved in the pass on the play in which it occurred). However, Coach Kubiak was furious with the referees on the sideline at the time. Why on earth did the CBS announcers simply ignore how Daniels’ injury occurred and why Kubiak was so upset?
Texas Longhorns 41 Oklahoma State 14
As noted last week, I expected the second-ranked Longhorns (8-0/5-0) to beat the Cowboys (6-2/3-2) relatively easily if the Horns’ offense did not give the game away. As it turned out, the Horns’ rugged defense forced five Cowboy turnovers, returned two of them for TD’s and generally suffocated Okie State’s high-powered offense. An impressive performance, indeed.
Despite this story line, ABC’s absurd television production subjected viewers to dozens of shots of QB Colt McCoy and his parents, plus non-stop blather about McCoy’s Heisman Trophy prospects.
Note to ABC — McCoy specifically, and UT’s offense in general, is not having all that good a season. Yes, McCoy had a very good season last year. But that was last season.
This season, there are at least a dozen QB’s in major college football who are having a better season than McCoy. Yes, Texas remains undefeated, but that is largely the result of its stout defense and the fact that the offense has not stunk it up so badly in any game so far to blow one (although they were close to doing so in the OU game).
So, please. Give this "McCoy for Heisman" stuff a rest.
The Horns have a non-conference scrimmage next Saturday in Austin against Central Florida (4-3/3-3) of C-USA before finishing the regular season at Baylor (3-5/0-4), at home against Kansas (5-3/1-3) and at A&M (5-3/2-2). With its probable opponent in the Big 12 championship game being either Kansas State (5-4/3-2) or Nebraska (5-3/2-2), the Horns appear to have the easiest route of any of the top teams to the BCS National Championship game.
Houston Cougars 50 Southern Miss 43
15th-ranked Houston (7-1/3-1) QB Case Keenum’s legend continues to grow.
This was one of those back and forth Houston games in which the opposition — this time a pretty good Southern Miss (5-4/3-2) team — couldn’t stop the Cougar offense while the somewhat undermanned Houston defense was having trouble slowing down the other side.
Nevertheless, Houston usually wins these games, except when it turns the ball over more than the opposition, which it did in this game. So, when Southern Miss scored the tying TD with only 51 seconds to go, this game looked as if it was headed to overtime.
But Keenum proceeded to direct a five-play, 78 yard drive in about 30 seconds to pull out the win in regulation. His stats on the day — 44 of 54 for 559 yds, 5 TD’s and 1 interception. As I’ve noted many times, Keenum is playing at the highest level of any QB in major college football this season.
The Coogs face another tough test next Saturday at Tulsa (4-4/2-2), which is looking to bounce back from a home loss on Saturday to SMU. After the 70-30 shellacking the Cougars put on Tulsa in Houston last season, expect the Golden Hurricanes to be primed for an upset next week.
For the second straight week, the Aggies (5-3/2-2) generated a productive, balanced offense and won going away against the outmanned Cyclones (5-4/2-3). In their final four games, the Ags have two games in which they could win their sixth game and become bowl eligible — at Colorado (2-6/1-3) next week and home against Baylor (3-5/0-4) on November 21st. The other two games — OU (5-3/3-1) and Texas (8-0/5-0) — appear to be long shots for an Aggie victory.
Thus, next week’s Colorado game appears to be critical for the Aggies’ season. The Ags will probably handle Baylor, which is playing out the string after losing star QB Robert Griffin for the season. A loss to Colorado would likely mean a 6-6 season for the Ags and a marginal bowl bid. Despite its poor record this season, Colorado is not without talent, so the young Aggies will have their hands full in Boulder next Saturday. But 7-5 final record sure looks better than 6-6.
Rice (0-8/0-4) was idle this past weekend. The Owls have a tough game at SMU (4-4/3-1) before returning home to play Tulane (2-6/0-4), which appears to be the Owls only remaining realistic chance for a victory this season.