For three quarters on Saturday, the Texas Longhorns were better than the No.1 ranked team in the country.
Its freshman quarterback outplayed a Heisman winner. Its skill players were better than Alabama's skill players. Both lines played toe-to-toe with Alabama's heralded lines. It was more disciplined. Texas was better coached.
Texas was just better.
Yet, the scoreboard only had Texas up by sless than a touchdown because of a variety of things it couldn't control.
The injury to Quinn Ewers. The non-pass interference call in the end zone in the first quarter. The missed 20-yard field goal. The safety that ended up being an incomplete pass. A non-face-mask call with Texas in the end zone. JUST ONE FREAKING BREAK TO GO THEIR WAY.
Sometimes excuses are nothing more than the reason for why something either does or doesn't happen.
At the end of the day, Alabama had Bryce Young and Texas had its back-up quarterback hobbling on an injured ankle. The small details matter.
In the end, this was a great day for Texas football. We can see that this team is light years better than it was this season, which is really the most important thing to take from this game, but....man... something much bigger than a moral victory should have occurred.
What if.... again.
There's no reason to hang your heads and drink yourself to sleep tonight. This isn't a sad day.
Texas football might not be back, but it's closer to being back than most of us could have guessed coming into this game.
That's not a moral victory. That's just the reality of where we are after this game.
(Other thoughts....)
* Bert ****ing Auburn. Attaboy.
* I can't say enough about the Texas defense. Holy hell, that unit played its ass off.Kudos to Pete Kwiatkowski. Kudos to Gary Paterson. Kudos to each and every player. It's an A+++ performance as far as I'm concerned.
* Hudson Card to Casey Cain with the game on the line. Who could have seen that coming?
* Card played well enough today to give Texas a chance to win, despite playing with a bad ankle for most of three quarters. He never made the play that would have knocked Texas out of the game, but he also wasn't able to be much of a playmaker. I'd probably give him a B or B- over three quarters. It was almost enough.
* Texas was never really able to get Bijan Robinson going in the run game, as the Longhorns struggled to gain traction against the one area of the game that Alabama did well all day.
* Man, what kind of day might Xavier Worthy have had if Ewers doesn't get injured?
* I was a little worried that Alabama might find some success against Ryan Watts in this game, but he was excellent today. If only he had finished the deal on the blitz that had him on the doorstep of sacking Young on that final drive.
* Steve Sarkisian has his team ready to play today better than Nick Saban had his team ready to play. Can there be a bigger compliment you can give a coach. Attaboy, Sark.
* How does the officiating crew miss the face-mask call on the pass to Keilan Robinson. That should have been called and Texas should have had first and goal from the 3-yard line. Game-changing call.
* Quinn Ewers not being in a sling coming out of the locker room almost certainly has to mean that he didn't break his collar bone. That has to be a great sign. Of course, he did have a sling on at the end of the game.
* Jaylan Ford bounced back with one hell of a game on Saturday after a poor first game. To lead the team with 10 tackles, two tackles for a loss and a sack was just immense.
* The interior of the defensive line was outstanding.
* I don't have the right words for what happened on the safety that was overturned by the officials. I'm still kind of in shock about the entire set of events and how they unfolded.
* I don't know about the rest of you, but I didn't see that 61-yard punt by Daniel Trejo coming from a mile away. Trejo averaged 46.4 yards per punt on 5 attempts. He gets a game ball from me.
* I thought Sarkisian made two game management mistakes late in the first half. Instead of calling a timeout when Bijan Robinson was tackled after the long gain, he didn't use one of his timeouts and had the offense run to the line of scrimmage to run a play and it cost them 5 seconds off the clock. Those 5 seconds were incredibly valuable when you consider that Texas went into halftime with both timeouts unused. Meanwhile, when you get down to the two-yard line against Alabama, you have to come away with seven points. I would have gone for the touchdown instead of the three points, which Texas didn't get, but I realize that's a very new-age/non-traditional way of viewing how you approach football. JMO.
* Alabama star Will Anderson in the first half: 3 offsides penalties and one tackle.
* Great job of blocking on the Bijan Robinson touchdown run that made it 10-10 by the entire line, but I thought Andre Karic had a fantastic block to help completely seal the edge at tight end.
* Quinn Ewers first quarter: 9 of 12 for 134 yards. That's the fourth most first quarter passing yards that Alabama has allowed in the Saban era.
* On Jase McClellan 81-yard touchdown run, Ford absolutely had to make the play, but he took a bad angle that ran him straight into a blocker and no one else was available to make that play. Everyone got blocked on the play, but he has to make that play..
* Quinn Ewers opening drive: 6 of 9 for 64 yards. It was an excellent opening script by Sarkisian and the drive probably should have ended with seven points.
* 100-percent pass interference on Ja'Tavion Sanders in the end zone on third and goal on the opening drive.
* One of the things that jumped out from the first Alabama offensive possession was the pressure that the Texas defense was able to generate on Young. I mentioned all week that Texas.' best shot at generating pressure would be against Alabama right tackle JC Latham and that's exactly where Ovie Oghoufo came from on the third down sack that got the Longhorns off the field.
Its freshman quarterback outplayed a Heisman winner. Its skill players were better than Alabama's skill players. Both lines played toe-to-toe with Alabama's heralded lines. It was more disciplined. Texas was better coached.
Texas was just better.
Yet, the scoreboard only had Texas up by sless than a touchdown because of a variety of things it couldn't control.
The injury to Quinn Ewers. The non-pass interference call in the end zone in the first quarter. The missed 20-yard field goal. The safety that ended up being an incomplete pass. A non-face-mask call with Texas in the end zone. JUST ONE FREAKING BREAK TO GO THEIR WAY.
Sometimes excuses are nothing more than the reason for why something either does or doesn't happen.
At the end of the day, Alabama had Bryce Young and Texas had its back-up quarterback hobbling on an injured ankle. The small details matter.
In the end, this was a great day for Texas football. We can see that this team is light years better than it was this season, which is really the most important thing to take from this game, but....man... something much bigger than a moral victory should have occurred.
What if.... again.
There's no reason to hang your heads and drink yourself to sleep tonight. This isn't a sad day.
Texas football might not be back, but it's closer to being back than most of us could have guessed coming into this game.
That's not a moral victory. That's just the reality of where we are after this game.
(Other thoughts....)
* Bert ****ing Auburn. Attaboy.
* I can't say enough about the Texas defense. Holy hell, that unit played its ass off.Kudos to Pete Kwiatkowski. Kudos to Gary Paterson. Kudos to each and every player. It's an A+++ performance as far as I'm concerned.
* Hudson Card to Casey Cain with the game on the line. Who could have seen that coming?
* Card played well enough today to give Texas a chance to win, despite playing with a bad ankle for most of three quarters. He never made the play that would have knocked Texas out of the game, but he also wasn't able to be much of a playmaker. I'd probably give him a B or B- over three quarters. It was almost enough.
* Texas was never really able to get Bijan Robinson going in the run game, as the Longhorns struggled to gain traction against the one area of the game that Alabama did well all day.
* Man, what kind of day might Xavier Worthy have had if Ewers doesn't get injured?
* I was a little worried that Alabama might find some success against Ryan Watts in this game, but he was excellent today. If only he had finished the deal on the blitz that had him on the doorstep of sacking Young on that final drive.
* Steve Sarkisian has his team ready to play today better than Nick Saban had his team ready to play. Can there be a bigger compliment you can give a coach. Attaboy, Sark.
* How does the officiating crew miss the face-mask call on the pass to Keilan Robinson. That should have been called and Texas should have had first and goal from the 3-yard line. Game-changing call.
* Quinn Ewers not being in a sling coming out of the locker room almost certainly has to mean that he didn't break his collar bone. That has to be a great sign. Of course, he did have a sling on at the end of the game.
* Jaylan Ford bounced back with one hell of a game on Saturday after a poor first game. To lead the team with 10 tackles, two tackles for a loss and a sack was just immense.
* The interior of the defensive line was outstanding.
* I don't have the right words for what happened on the safety that was overturned by the officials. I'm still kind of in shock about the entire set of events and how they unfolded.
* I don't know about the rest of you, but I didn't see that 61-yard punt by Daniel Trejo coming from a mile away. Trejo averaged 46.4 yards per punt on 5 attempts. He gets a game ball from me.
* I thought Sarkisian made two game management mistakes late in the first half. Instead of calling a timeout when Bijan Robinson was tackled after the long gain, he didn't use one of his timeouts and had the offense run to the line of scrimmage to run a play and it cost them 5 seconds off the clock. Those 5 seconds were incredibly valuable when you consider that Texas went into halftime with both timeouts unused. Meanwhile, when you get down to the two-yard line against Alabama, you have to come away with seven points. I would have gone for the touchdown instead of the three points, which Texas didn't get, but I realize that's a very new-age/non-traditional way of viewing how you approach football. JMO.
* Alabama star Will Anderson in the first half: 3 offsides penalties and one tackle.
* Great job of blocking on the Bijan Robinson touchdown run that made it 10-10 by the entire line, but I thought Andre Karic had a fantastic block to help completely seal the edge at tight end.
* Quinn Ewers first quarter: 9 of 12 for 134 yards. That's the fourth most first quarter passing yards that Alabama has allowed in the Saban era.
* On Jase McClellan 81-yard touchdown run, Ford absolutely had to make the play, but he took a bad angle that ran him straight into a blocker and no one else was available to make that play. Everyone got blocked on the play, but he has to make that play..
* Quinn Ewers opening drive: 6 of 9 for 64 yards. It was an excellent opening script by Sarkisian and the drive probably should have ended with seven points.
* 100-percent pass interference on Ja'Tavion Sanders in the end zone on third and goal on the opening drive.
* One of the things that jumped out from the first Alabama offensive possession was the pressure that the Texas defense was able to generate on Young. I mentioned all week that Texas.' best shot at generating pressure would be against Alabama right tackle JC Latham and that's exactly where Ovie Oghoufo came from on the third down sack that got the Longhorns off the field.
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