Horns & Tide
Thoughts on the Texas and Alabama game last night. No doubt about it, this was a hard game to watch. Now I don’t bleed burnt orange or anything, but I was pulling for Texas to win even though I would have been very pleased to have seen a well played game no matter who won.
It was disappointing to see Colt McCoy go down so early in the game. This was beyond a devastating blow for the Longhorns, and the chances of them winning without him were pretty low. Bottom line is he doesn’t go out of the game the game is very different. I don’t like to jump to conclusions and say that Texas wins with McCoy, because I have to imagine that Alabama had plans in place to contain him. The fact that Texas had to settle for that first field goal is a bit of an indication that Colt wouldn’t have his way with them.
Both coaches made some ridiculous calls. Alabama’s fake punt cost them only three points, and Mack Browns shuffle pass with 15 seconds left in the half cost them the game. Texas doesn’t make that mistake I think they win the ball game, but still hard to say. I think Alabama rested in the third, maybe thinking they’d already won, and not expecting Garrett Gilbert to get his legs so quickly.
And what can you say about Gilbert? I have to really applaud the boy’s spirit, after being put into an almost possible situation, getting knocked around and making some terrible mistakes he stepped up and made a game of it. It was a brave and admirable performance on his part, and watching him battle back was a real highlight of the evening. I think if the Texas receivers had stepped up their game a little bit and held on to some balls, because I saw a lot of dropped very catchable balls, then we get a different game. I think Texas hadn’t even thought about idea of McCoy getting injured, because they didn’t seem to know what to do with Gilbert in the game, and maybe with some different play calling he could have gotten his legs a little faster. But you can’t fault Texas too much, they lost the head of their team, and that had to put them all into a bit of shock that unfortunately took the rest of the half to recover from, and by that time they were down 24-6. That’s a long row to hoe no matter how you look at it.
I don’t think Texas has anything to be ashamed of, and they don’t need to make excuses. They took a knockout blow very early in the game and then hung around until the end, putting themselves awfully close to being able to win it.