Sunday, November 14, 2004
Longhorns: Still Exhaling
UT's 27-24 win over Kansas was one of the stranger games I've seen.
In the aftermath of the controversial win, most of the fallout has centered around a single play: an offensive pass interference call that negated a late Jayhawk first down. Rather than having an opportunity to milk the clock -- possibly all the way to triple zeroes -- Kansas instead punted, and Texas drove for the winning score with 11 seconds.
Kansas fans have cried foul and KU coach Mark Mangino has cried "conspiracy." Both are utterly absurd.
For all of you Rock Chalkers, who think your team outplayed the Horns, take a look at the stats. Texas dominated you in total yards (581-348), and your column was inflated by a fluke 73-yard completion that led to the 23-13 Kansas lead. Two Texas DBs picked each other off, allowing KU's Mark Simmons to race inside the five, setting up the insurance score. Texas moved the ball at will almost all day, but consistently shot themselves in the proverbial foot with mental lapses and stupid penalties.
As for Mangino, he should concentrate on putting more food in his mouth, rather than that size 16 Nike. Officials decided the outcome? Maybe he watched a different game than the rest of us, but that game I saw had Texas penalized ten times for 103 yards (KU's total: three for 23). And take off the red-and-blue-tinted glasses, because your man blantantly pushed off on the third down play. Besides, if you can't stop a 4th and 18 QB scramble, then you don't have any business winning.
Kansas fans should take satisfaction in putting a scare into a much better team. Good job. Your mighty Jayhawks gave it their best shot against a team that was emotionally letdown after a tough win the previous week, but they didn't win. They didn't deserve to win, just like they didn't deserve to win the six previous games that they lost. There's a reason that Kansas is 3-7 now, and there's a reason that Texas is 9-1. Good teams find ways to win games like yesterday, and mediocre teams make excuses afterward.
As for all the blowhard Kansas fans that are wasting bandwidth complaining on the Internet message boards, get over yourselves. If anyone cared about your team (i.e., if you really had any real fans), then your stadium would have been more than half full for the first three quarters of Saturday's game.
I'm not going to say that I was 100 percent elated with squeaking out an ugly win against an inferior team, but I'm not going to whine about it either. A win is a win. Every good team struggles at some point during the season. USC had a similar game against Stanford a few months back, and Oklahoma nudged past Oklahoma State by the hair on their chinny-chin-chin. Does it matter? No. All that matters is that "W" in the win-loss column.
Granted the manner in which Texas won has, at least for the time being, hurt their BCS standing, but there's plenty of time for that to work itself out. a
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In the aftermath of the controversial win, most of the fallout has centered around a single play: an offensive pass interference call that negated a late Jayhawk first down. Rather than having an opportunity to milk the clock -- possibly all the way to triple zeroes -- Kansas instead punted, and Texas drove for the winning score with 11 seconds.
Kansas fans have cried foul and KU coach Mark Mangino has cried "conspiracy." Both are utterly absurd.
For all of you Rock Chalkers, who think your team outplayed the Horns, take a look at the stats. Texas dominated you in total yards (581-348), and your column was inflated by a fluke 73-yard completion that led to the 23-13 Kansas lead. Two Texas DBs picked each other off, allowing KU's Mark Simmons to race inside the five, setting up the insurance score. Texas moved the ball at will almost all day, but consistently shot themselves in the proverbial foot with mental lapses and stupid penalties.
As for Mangino, he should concentrate on putting more food in his mouth, rather than that size 16 Nike. Officials decided the outcome? Maybe he watched a different game than the rest of us, but that game I saw had Texas penalized ten times for 103 yards (KU's total: three for 23). And take off the red-and-blue-tinted glasses, because your man blantantly pushed off on the third down play. Besides, if you can't stop a 4th and 18 QB scramble, then you don't have any business winning.
Kansas fans should take satisfaction in putting a scare into a much better team. Good job. Your mighty Jayhawks gave it their best shot against a team that was emotionally letdown after a tough win the previous week, but they didn't win. They didn't deserve to win, just like they didn't deserve to win the six previous games that they lost. There's a reason that Kansas is 3-7 now, and there's a reason that Texas is 9-1. Good teams find ways to win games like yesterday, and mediocre teams make excuses afterward.
As for all the blowhard Kansas fans that are wasting bandwidth complaining on the Internet message boards, get over yourselves. If anyone cared about your team (i.e., if you really had any real fans), then your stadium would have been more than half full for the first three quarters of Saturday's game.
I'm not going to say that I was 100 percent elated with squeaking out an ugly win against an inferior team, but I'm not going to whine about it either. A win is a win. Every good team struggles at some point during the season. USC had a similar game against Stanford a few months back, and Oklahoma nudged past Oklahoma State by the hair on their chinny-chin-chin. Does it matter? No. All that matters is that "W" in the win-loss column.
Granted the manner in which Texas won has, at least for the time being, hurt their BCS standing, but there's plenty of time for that to work itself out. a
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