Texas Trounces A&M, Now Waits

by PB @ BON on Nov 28, 2008 5:48 PM CST in Football Comment 16 comments

Sitting down to leftovers lunch with my father today, he asked me, "Well, what do you think? Mission accomplished?"

I'd been thinking about it since last night--dreamed about it, even (it's that time of the year)--and nodded as I replied, "Yeah, I think so."

"49-9 is an impressive margin," he agreed.

"It's more than that, though," I went on. "Last night, Texas looked like the team that beat Oklahoma by 10. If we played in Dallas again right now, I'd take the 'Horns without thinking twice about it."

"I won't argue with that.," he said unhesitatingly.

Mistake not to gun for 60+ points? Truthfully, Texas probably should have put up a 60-spot on that Aggie squad, but I don't think our failure to do so hurts in the way some are suggesting. At this point, who knows what voters were looking for, but I think the biggest story from last night is that the Texas defense dominated in a way that should have reminded voters why the Longhorns shut down the Sooner offensive machine for the game's final 20 minutes in Dallas.

Offensively, Texas went with the offensive game plan we saw against all the clearly inferior squads on the schedule--FAU, Arkansas, Rice, etc. Texas didn't even pretend to be interested in throwing the ball down the field, ran the football with our tailbacks enough to provide a modicum of balance, and let Colt do the rest with underneath stuff and his legs. It's not an offensive game plan you'd want to see against a highpowered offensive team Texas might well need to outscore in a barnburner, but for the A&Ms of the world, it suffices.

Computer watch. There's not too much in play that can help or hurt the 'Horns; an Oklahoma win over Oklahoma State likely surges the Sooners up where they need to be with the current distribution of human votes. How much the human voting patterns change (if at all) will, however, affect how much ground OU needs to make up in the computers. If football is a game of inches, this final BCS Standings may be a game of thousands of a point. Which means everything is in play. With that in mind, a few early results and some Saturday games to keep an eye on:

Colorado had a chance to make some real noise in the computers, an upset win in Lincoln boosting Texas and dinging the Sooners. But trailing 31-30 with 2 minutes left, Nebraska kicked a 57-yard field goal and then sealed the game when their defensive tackle ran in an INT for a touchdown. My goodness.
Arkansas scored a late touchdown to take down LSU, a nice result for Texas.
Pittsburgh took down West Virginia, which dings the Buffs slightly.
Florida Atlantic hosts Florida International. Go Owls.
Cincinnati hosts Syracus. C'mon Gerg. Win one for the 'Horns.
Rice hosts Houston. A Rice win here helps the 'Horns and dings Okie State. Though the ding for Okie State affects Texas and Oklahoma equally, the boost to Rice makes this a result we care about.
Missouri over Kansas. A Tigers loss here would be catastrophic to Texas' case, inside and out of computerland.

Bear in mind that Texas could get favorable results in all of the remaining contests and it likely won't change the jump OU will receive with an OSU win. Texas' chances pretty much hinge on Baylor winning over Tech or a not insignificant change among human voters in how they rank Texas compared to Oklahoma.

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texas played a hell of a season, i think our ideas of where this team should be are leaps and bounds ahead of where we expected to be, or even wanted to be.

that said, i agree : mission accomplished.

i can only pray that texas finds a way to eek out a higher ranking than OU, but i don’t have a ton of hope in the voters. we’ll see how well the texas PR machine can turn some voters, but either way, texas is a force to recon with.

by Displaced Longhorn on Nov 28, 2008 6:00 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

well-put...

now I guess it’s up to Coach Brown to work his magic again like he did back in 2005.

In the meantime, I hope you feel better today…leftover turkey does have healing properties, I’m told. Chicken soup is waaay overrated…

"When you get to the end zone, act like you've been there before."

by txex92 on Nov 28, 2008 6:02 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Mistake not to gun for 60 points?

I think the thing that could very well hurt us the most is only putting up 7 in the first quarter and the way our offense looked in the 2nd and 3rd drives of the game.

If we could have put up 60 through 3 quarters then it would have been the right thing to do, but I agreed with Mack’s decision to pull Colt when he did and not put up anymore points with the first string at the end of the game.

In the end the team put a signature on this game that OU and Tech didn’t have this year – holding A&M to single digits.

by Horncasting on Nov 28, 2008 6:02 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

I'm worried as well...

My feeling is that, on a holiday evening, with everyone spending time with his or her family, most people probably stopped watching at halftime.

The score was 21-3, so the outcome was not in doubt, and who but a Longhorn fan was going to watch the entire 4 hours of a blow-out. If this is true, this means that most people saw a relatively mediocre half of football – an offensively uninspired, slow-moving half of football that is unlikely to change anyone’s mind. Most of our highlights came in the second half, and the “45-35” campaign wasn’t discussed until late in the game. It would be interesting, though, to get a look at the television ratings, quarter by quarter.

Texas really needed to come out sharper, something like the the Missouri game; I believe that in a race this close, it is the only thing that could have swayed the voters. I can’t see last night being enough, should OU take care of business in Stillwater.

by BrooklynHorn on Nov 28, 2008 9:05 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

“It’s more than that, though,” I went on. “Last night, Texas looked like the team that beat Oklahoma by 10. If we played in Dallas again right now, I’d take the ’Horns without thinking twice about it.”

Eh, Aggy has a way of making their opponents look really really good. I wouldn’t go too far.

by andy_wooster on Nov 28, 2008 6:28 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

The point being

(Perhaps not made very well) That Texas’ defense looked like the one that wore out the Sooners over 4 quarters. We’d looked banged up and tired through the Baylor game. Fresh again, I saw the same team that beat OU.

--PB--

by PB @ BON on Nov 28, 2008 6:30 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Fresh

Imagine this team with a month to rest and heal? Wherever we end up, it’s going to be an awesome bowl game.

Still a Blaine Irby fan

by patienthornsfan on Nov 28, 2008 6:37 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

right

I did misinterpret you. Thanks for clarifying. I agree with that point.

by andy_wooster on Nov 28, 2008 9:31 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Our worst case scenario

Would be OU winning, Tech loses and then we lose to Mizzou, right? Then OU gets the SEC champ and Mizzou gets the Fiesta while we should land in the Cotton bowl with Ole Miss.

by seth78 on Nov 28, 2008 6:43 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

sounds about right.

by Displaced Longhorn on Nov 28, 2008 7:32 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Cotton may have already picked by then

and we could fall to who knows where like KSU did (in ’99?)

by Horncasting on Nov 28, 2008 10:19 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

What if?

Florida and Alabama both will lose tomorrow? Do we still need to care about the outcomes from Baylor & OU the looners?

by GoHorns1 on Nov 28, 2008 7:17 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

that could set us up for the national championship against them

We should still focus on the OU and Tech games though. If Tech loses then we could go on to beat Mizzou then not only are we a top 3 team but we have the Big XII title which OU doesn’t have even if they beat Ok State. Florida and Bama losing would just be icing on the cake.

by seth78 on Nov 28, 2008 7:26 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Pretty much every talking head on ESPN, at least what I’ve seen, seems to favor Texas, pointing to 45-35. I doubt many, if any, have any say in the human polls, and I don’t know if their opinions have any sway with those that do, but I can’t imagine it hurts.

by txgiant on Nov 28, 2008 8:10 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

More concerned with

people voting us down significantly in the human polls. We destroy aTm who put a few touchdowns up on Tech, OU and Ok State, we hold them to single digits in a solid defensive statement, but the voters would rather put Florida and OU in a bowl so they vote us down so we stay at a distant three or fall lower. I don’t think it will happen but anything could happen. It would be the strongest case for a future playoff system though. I’ll be rooting hard for the cowboys and bears tomorrow no matter how the humans vote.

I will say that the more I hear Colt and heisman in the same sentence from the talking heads the bigger my smile gets.

by seth78 on Nov 28, 2008 8:35 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I think it helps

I think the issue has been raised enough this week that there will be some number voters prepared to switch their votes if OU provides the slightest excuse for them to do so.

One thing I fear, though, is that the voter most likely to make the switch is the typical AP voter. I stereotype them as being, on average, more knowledgeable about their ballots than coaches and the has-beens dragged out to vote in the Harris. (I loved how Craig James called out Lance McIlheny during the game, BTW. Perfect example of the farce of these polls). With a OU win that’s not a blowout, I can very easily see us passing OU in the AP, but not the Harris and coaches. And all that gets you is a trip to Glendale and a slim and tortuous path to a split championship with OU.

by kjm017 on Nov 28, 2008 11:39 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs