(AP Photo/Donna McWilliam; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)
Texas Longhorns 16 Oklahoma 13
In an entertaining but sloppily-played game, 3rd-ranked Texas (6-0/3-0) rode their hard-hitting defense to tense victory over the now-reeling Sooners (3-3/1-1), who have a real chance at losing five games in a season for the first time since Coach Bob Stoops’ first season at OU in 1999.
The Horns are good, but the inconsistent offensive production has to be a big concern for the Longhorn fans who are hoping for a return to the BCS Championship game.
QB Colt McCoy is not having a good season, the offensive line has been mediocre for most of the season and the wide receiving corps — thought to be a strength at the beginning of the season — was led on Saturday by true freshman Marquise Goodwin.
Despite UT’s stellar defense, the Horns are likely going to need more than 16 points to beat Oklahoma State (5-1/2-0) the week after next in Stillwater.
The Longhorns play at Missouri (4-2/0-2) next week in an ABC Saturday night game.
The Texans (3-3) beat the Bengals (4-2) surprisingly easily, although all four of Cincinnati’s wins this season have been nailbiters than could have gone either way. QB Matt Schaub pitched 4 TD’s on 28-40 passes for 392 yards, although he also threw his seemingly obligatory bonehead interception that set up a Bengals field goal that allowed Cincy to seize the lead at the half.
The Texans had a good game plan against the Bengals. They used quick passes from Schaub to their talented group of receivers to set the pace, and then worked in periodic runs from RB’s Slaton and Brown to keep the defense off-balance. This is essentially the approach that the Patriots have used successfully for years, so the Texans — who have a smallish offensive line — would appear to be well-equipped to emulate it.
But the more encouraging development for the Texans is that, for the second week in a row, the defensive unit shut down an opposing offense with a seasoned QB for the entire 2nd half of the game. NFL defenses tend to improve in spurts, and it would not surprise me that the Texans’ unit — which is sprinkled with high draft picks — is starting to show signs of coming together. Given the potency of the Texans’ offense, if the defense can mature into even a middle-of-the-pack NFL defensive unit, that could well be enough to vault the Texans to their first winning record in franchise history.
The Texans host the 49’ers (3-2), who are coming off their bye week, next Sunday at Reliant Stadium before hitting the road against the Bills (2-4) and the Colts (5-0) leading up to the Texans’ Week 10 bye week.
There is something odd about playing in the cavernous Superdome in front of the tiny crowds that Tulane (2-4/0-3) attracts. As a result, Houston (5-1/1-1) seemed to sleep walk through the first half of this one before QB Case Keenum directed the Coogs’ offense to five straight TD second-half TD drives and an easy victory over the Green Wave.
The 17th-ranked Cougars return home next Saturday to play much-improved SMU (3-3/2-0), which lost a heartbreaker in overtime to a good Navy team on Saturday. The Mustangs are still looking for the signature upset in the second-year of Coach June Jones’ rebuilding program, so the Cougars better be ready to play on Saturday night.
Kansas State 62 Texas Aggies 14
Oh my.
In a game that was not as close as the score indicates, the Aggies (3-3/0-2) took a giant step backward from the overall progress that the young team had shown for much of the season in rolling over and playing dead to a mediocre Kansas State (4-3/2-1) team.
A&M has gone from looking like a reasonable candidate for winning 7 games this season just one week ago to wondering whether they can win another game. It is reasonably certain that a win will not come next Saturday when the Ags travel to Lubbock to play Texas Tech (5-2/2-1), which scorched Kansas State 66-14 just one week ago.
My sense is that the A&M administration is going to be patient with head coach Mike Sherman. However, if the Ags roll over and play dead to Tech as they did against Kansas State, will the Aggie tradition of unceremoniously dumping coaches overwhelm Sherman?
The Owls (0-7/0-3) looked a bit better this week on offense (faint praise given the offense’s impotence this season), but the Owl defense took a hike against a rather pedestrian East Carolina (4-3/3/1) offense. I still think the Owls can win a couple of games this season, but their winnable games begin next Saturday at home against Central Florida (3-3/1-2). So, it’s time for the Owls to start producing.