(Previous weekly reviews for this season are here).

Alabama 37 Texas Longhorns 21

Unless you have been living under a rock, you already know that the Horns (13-1) lost the national championship game to Alabama (14-0) after losing star QB Colt McCoy to what looked like a severe pinched nerve in the first five minutes of the game.

Itís really a shame McCoy wasnít able to play because, as I thought going into the game, the Tide looked as if it could have been had. The Horns could only parley two turnovers in Bamaís first two possessions into six points and, frankly, neither backup QB Garrett Gilbert nor the Hornsí coaching staff was ready when Gilbert was called upon to play in the first half (Gilbert had on thrown .

As a result, the second quarter was a disaster for the Horns, as Bama used short fields to ring up 17 points and then punctuated its dominance with a gift defensive TD off of an ill-advised shovel pass on the last play of the first half.

The Horns staff and Gilbert re-grouped at halftime and gamely made a game of it in the second half, pulling to within three with six minutes left to go using a well-designed short passing offense that did not give Bamaís ubiquitous blitz packages time to confuse and pummel Gilbert. 

But forced to take risks late in the game to get back in scoring position, the Horns coughed up the ball a couple of times in the closing minutes to give Bama a two cheap, but clinching, TDís.

The disappointing finish detracted from an another otherwise successful season for the Horns. Moreover, the future is bright. Although Texas loses such stars as QB McCoy, WR Jordan Shipley and Safety Earl Thomas, Garrett and several other young Longhorns look to be ready to step up so that there will not be a big drop-off in performance next season. In particular, the defense this season became the dominant unit that has been the missing element of consistent national championship contention during Mack Brownís tenure.

However, not all is well in the Longhorn Nation. Stated simply, this season has established with certainty that Texas has lost the capacity to pound the rock.

With increasing reliance on the spread offense, the Horns no long have an effective power running game that they can turn to when defenses put 7 and 8 players in coverage and allow their safeties to forget about run support. That deficiency was painfully apparent in the Hornsí three biggest games this season, this one, the OU game, and the Big 12 Championship game that they should have lost to Nebraska.

There are many reasons for the demise of UTís rushing attack, but the primary cause has been a steep decline in the performance of the offensive line. Although Texas routinely has its pick of the litter of Texas high school football prospects, offensive linemen are notoriously difficult to project from high school to big-time college football. Thus, sound development in that particular area is essential to a well-balanced offensive attack. For whatever reason, it appears that UTís coaching staff is having problems in that key development area.

With the better defenses making it increasingly difficult for spread offenses to throw the ball down the field, Coach Brown is going to have to figure out a way to re-establish a power rushing game or the Horns are at high risk of falling off from the top tier of big-time college football (see LSU). Itís going to be difficult at first and there are going to be some hiccups along the way. But the chances of the Horns returning to the BCS National Championship game in the near future are far higher with a balanced offense than the current version.