(Previous weekly reviews are here)
Texas Longhorns 45 Oklahoma 35
In the most entertaining college football game of the season to date, the Longhorns (6-0/2-0 Big !2) vaulted to No. 1 in the AP, Harris and Coaches Top 25 polls with their win over the Sooners (5-1/1-1 Big 12).
Texas prevented OU’s prolific passing offense from getting too far ahead for three quarters of the game and then eventually wore down the Sooners to pull the game out in the fourth quarter. Although QB Colt McCoy (28-35-0/277 yds/1 TD) and his receivers get most of the publicity, I thought that the Longhorns’ offensive and defensive line play in the second half — particularly in the fourth quarter — was the difference in this one.
The Horns better not rest on their laurels, however, as they face a killer schedule down the stretch — 11th-ranked Missouri (5-1/1-1 Big 12), 8th-ranked Oklahoma State (6-0/2-0 Big 12), 7th-ranked Texas Tech (6-0/2-0 Big 12), and 16th-ranked Kansas (5-1/2-0 Big 12) in four of the next five weeks. The Horns are solid, but I don’t see them going undefeated through that stretch.
In an entertaining but not particularly well-played game, the Texans (1-4) finally won their first game of the season by beating the Dolphins (2-3) on QB Matt Schaub’s draw play with 3 seconds remaining.
With a bit of luck, the Texans could be 3-2 and in position to contend for the playoffs. However, the reality is that they aren’t ready for that yet — Schaub is still a relatively inexperienced QB and the defense, although improving over the past three games, still has too many lapses to produce a consistent winner. The fact is that the Texans are in the vast expanse of NFL teams that are below the elite teams and above the truly hideous ones. That means that the Texans will probably win about as many as they lose against teams of their caliber and may pull off an upset of an elite team every once in awhile. They simply aren’t consistent enough yet to be a viable playoff contender.
The Texans have eminently winnable games the next two Sundays at home against the winless Lions (0-5) and Bengals (0-6).
Geez, think how bad this would have been had the Cougars (3-3/2-0 C-USA) had shown up for the first half against UAB (1-6/0-3)? If the Coogs pull that sort of performance next week at SMU (1-6/0-4), the Ponies — who just gave conference leader Tulsa (6-0/3-0) its first scare of the season on this past Saturday night — might just feast on the Cougars for their first conference win of the season.
Kansas State 44 Texas Aggies 30
The woeful Aggies (2-4/0-2 Big 12) basically allowed Kansas State (4-2/1/1 Big !2) to score at will. At least the Ags showed something on offense as they rolled up almost 550 yards of total offense on the Wildcats.
There is simply no telling how many points 7th-ranked Texas Tech (6-0/2-0 Big 12) will put up on the Aggies next Saturday in College Station. Suffice it to say that it will likely be a record score against the Ags in Kyle Field. The Aggies will be lucky to win two more games this season.
Rice (3-3/2-1 C-USA) were off this weekend. The Owls play Southern Miss (2-4/0-2) at Rice Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Big T –
As an OU alum, let me first congratulate Texas on a great win. They played a near-perfect game, and deserved to win on Sat. They were the better team that day.
That being said, I would argue one point you made in your assessment of the game. I think that the outcome of this game turned on the loss of OU middle linebacker Ryan Reynolds (with the tear of his second ACL and third surgical knee injury in 3 years). At the point which Reynolds was injured and left the game (on the second series of the 3rd quarter), Texas had -3 yards of rushing for the day. After that is when Texas’ run game got into gear. OU’s backup MLB, Brandon Crow, is by all reports a good kid – Okla Class 2A all state, honor student – but is a noticeable drop off in talent. He did not have the ability to cover Shipley on those little drags across the middle (accounting for one TD and setting up another). He also could not fill the running lanes as Reynolds had (the long run by Ogbonnaya late in the 4th quarter was his play to make). To Texas’ credit, the coaches recognized and exploited it.
For OU, the loss of Reynolds on D would have been like Texas losing Colt McCoy. It had been documented after the Baylor game that Reynolds was truly serving as the quarterback of the defense – making the calls and adjustments, helping the other two first-year-starter LB’s getting lined up properly, in addition to playing the MLB position exceptionally – he came out of the Baylor game the week before having been the first player to be graded at “100” in the ten years of Stoops’ tenure at OU.
Again, please do not interpret this as an OU fan trying to make excuses – none are needed – OU had too many stupid penalties on defense and continued incompetence in special teams play to come out on top in a game of this magnitude – Texas played better on Sat and deserved to win.
And, certainly, Texas may have worn down the OU D line into the 4th quarter – they were on the field a considerably longer time than the Texas D – OU seemed to either go 3-and-out, or to score in drives of 3 minutes or less.
It is my impression, however, that the loss of Reynolds contributed mightily to OU’s inability to stop the Horns in the 4th quarter. And, as he is gone for the year, I worry that, unless we get better at MLB real fast, this won’t be the last loss of 2008 for OU.
jrb
JB, no doubt the loss of Reynolds hurt OU. He clearly would have made a difference in OU’s ability to stop UT’s running game as the game wore on.
One thing that OU has going for it over the rest of the seasons is that, with the exception of Okie State, none of the rest of OU’s opponents run the ball well. So, if Stoops can continue to figure out how to bring pressure on the opposition’s passers (I thought OU did OK in that department against UT), OU has a chance of running the table despite the loss of Reynolds.