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Texas Football Twitter Recap: West Virginia and the game that wouldn't end

A slow first half was followed by an exciting finish.

By Jeffrey Haley
Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

Not every football game causes viewers to address the world with streams of profanity. But some of them do. And who better to fly off into a rage than the famous Texas F-Bomb girl, although despite the above reference, she mostly kept things clean on Twitter Saturday night.

Texas-fan-f-bomb_medium_medium_medium

But some of us were just too damn tired for blue language. People like me. Regular readers of this blog know that I am really more of a basketball guy, but due to a conflict Friday night, I wasn't able to catch the Texas vs. Mercer game live. So I set my alarm for 5 AM on Saturday morning, which allowed me to watch the replay.

After that, I spent the rest of the day doing maintenance on my basketball statistics website (where premium subscriptions can be purchased for $15) and building a multi-compartment composting bin for my wife. By the time 7 PM rolled around, I was tired. But I fought hard, and hung in, as Texas played a game that lasted for well over four hours.

The game took forever, in part because the first half featured two no-huddle teams locked in a defensive struggle. In the first half of the game, Texas had ten possessions, compared with only six first half possessions a week ago. That is a lot of punts, a lot of TV time outs, and a lot of commercials for stuffed crust pizza.

While no huddle offense has the potential to be exciting and fun for fans, it also has the potential to make games drag on forever.

Gametime

The Texas Longhorns got off to a shaky start. A blocked punt, a fumble, and an interception on the first three drives had Texas fans nervous.

But while the offense was a disaster, the defense held things together, preventing the game from getting out of hand. For much of the first half, West Virginia was seemingly unable to block the Longhorn front four.

For Texas fans on Tyrone Swoopes watch, there was a brief sighting. When Case McCoy had his helmet knocked off, Swoopes entered the game for a play.

The tough first half had many fans contemplating self-punishment.

But in the second half, the Texas offense got things going.

The Texas comeback set things up for an exciting fourth quarter. With 2:25 left on the clock and down by three points, Texas got the ball back. Several Malcolm Brown plays moved the ball to mid-field, before the Longhorns found themselves facing fourth and seven with 59 seconds remaining.

It was time to fly the Moxiecopter.

Although to be clear, not all are aboard the Moxie Express. (Or do the four exclamation points signal sarcasm? It is just so hard to tell.)

After an Anthony Fera field goal, the game went to overtime. Texas scored a touchdown on its first possession, putting the game in the hands of its defense.

And the defense quickly found itself on its own five yard line. But the Texas D held, thanks in part to two great plays by Steve Edmond. While it wasn't a pretty win, at least it was a win.

Finally

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