Weren’t we here a week ago?
In many ways, yes, but not in one fundamental way for the University of Texas and its football program.
A week ago, Texas did lose a home game on a kicking-game calamity in the final minutes of regulation. However, the emergence of a potent offense and the new credibility it presented as a possibility for the rest of the season gave the Longhorns real hope.
The feeling in and around the program after the 45-44 loss to California, despite a missed (and decisive) PAT by placekicker Nick Rose, was that the future looked a lot brighter than it had at the beginning of September. Texas walked away from the battle with Berkeley feeling that it was assembling both the pieces and the formula needed to win on a relatively consistent basis. No, Texas was not ready to join the top tier of the Big 12, but it did seem well positioned to become an upper-half team in the Big 12, one which could threaten the big boys.
Fast forward to this Saturday against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Big 12 opener for both teams. It’s easy to say that Texas started, continued and finished this game in ways that were similar to the Cal contest. Yet, some particular details in terms of game flow, plus a larger, overarching reality hanging over the city of Austin, Texas, make it hard to say that Texas is truly in the same place one week after kicking itself for the first time.
The fundamental reality of life is that when you’re left kicking yourself two straight times, instead of merely once, it’s hard to say that the ship is moving in the right direction. What felt like progress after California feels like stagnation after this setback against Oklahoma State.
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Texas fans will say — with considerable justification — that a bizarre and incorrect defensive holding call on the Longhorns late in the game, on Oklahoma State’s tying drive, helped the Cowboys win this game. They will also wonder why officials had to nail Texas coach Charlie Strong with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at a delicate point in the proceedings, right after that dubious defensive holding call.
Yet, when you make as many mistakes as Texas did and leave the outcome to chance in a game when you could have established a much more commanding position, you can’t stand on particularly solid ground. Texas-Oklahoma State was not the same game as Texas-California on a few levels, and that’s a central reason why this Saturday doesn’t feel as hopeful for Bevo.
Texas did start slowly in this game, much as it did against Cal. Texas rallied after that slow start, just as it did versus Berkeley. However, the fourth quarter is when the Longhorns made their move against the Golden Bears and nearly forced overtime. On this day, Texas’s offense was paralyzed and noticeably ineffective in the final stanza.
Receivers didn’t get open with regularity, and the Texas offensive line was not as successful as it was against Cal. Heard electrified his team’s offense a week ago, but that same level of impact was not found in the cauldron of Big 12 pressure. A lot of this is due to Oklahoma State’s persistence up front, including the Cowboys’ attentiveness to the need to deny Heard the running lanes he craves.
Another piece of the puzzle is that Heard is young and developing. One breakout game has to be supplemented by more consistent performances, and with Oklahoma State having been able to study film of Heard, the quarterback wasn’t as much of a mystery as he was to the Golden Bears the week before. What should concern Texas in this specific discussion is that its receivers bobbled balls into interceptions and failed to give enough help to Heard to tip the scales in the matchup against Oklahoma State’s defense. These shortcomings enabled Oklahoma State to stick around; had the Longhorns been able to replicate their offensive performance against Cal, they wouldn’t have needed to sweat out the final minutes… or lament a poor call which went against them.
Those shortcomings also meant that Texas was in a fragile enough position to lose on a kicking error once again. Sure enough, special teams bit the Horns in the backside.
Last week, a placekicking problem cost Bevo. On this next Saturday, a punting face-plant doomed Charlie Strong’s team. Michael Dickson bobbled a snap and couldn’t punt the ball downfield afterward. An Oklahoma State team which was propelled into range for a tying field goal without a meaningfully productive scrimmage play (Texas penalties did the job themselves) was then given a drive start in range for its winning field goal.
That was the summary of this crazy and messy day in Austin: Oklahoma State’s offense really didn’t have to lift a finger down the stretch. Yet, it scored twice and won. Texas pushed the Cowboys into the winner’s circle, playing more poorly on offense than a week before while replicating previous special teams mistakes.
Lose once because of a particularly hard-to-accept mistake? That’s life.
Lose twice for the same basic reason, and the very next week? That can’t be explained away as easily.
The Texas Longhorns inhabit 40 Acres of desolation this week. The new sunrise suggested by the Cal loss didn’t quite materialize. The Horns can only try to work through their limitations in 2015, and hope that in 2016, this darkness will somehow give way to a bright new Burnt Orange dawn.
