Burnt Orange Nation

Sitting down to leftovers lunch with my father today, he asked me, "Well, what do you think? Mission accomplished?"

I'd been thinking about it since last night--dreamed about it, even (it's that time of the year)--and nodded as I replied, "Yeah, I think so."

"49-9 is an impressive margin," he agreed.

"It's more than that, though," I went on. "Last night, Texas looked like the team that beat Oklahoma by 10. If we played in Dallas again right now, I'd take the 'Horns without thinking twice about it."

"I won't argue with that.," he said unhesitatingly. 

Mistake not to gun for 60+ points? Truthfully, Texas probably should have put up a 60-spot on that Aggie squad, but I don't think our failure to do so hurts in the way some are suggesting. At this point, who knows what voters were looking for, but I think the biggest story from last night is that the Texas defense dominated in a way that should have reminded voters why the Longhorns shut down the Sooner offensive machine for the game's final 20 minutes in Dallas.

Offensively, Texas went with the offensive game plan we saw against all the clearly inferior squads on the schedule--FAU, Arkansas, Rice, etc.  Texas didn't even pretend to be interested in throwing the ball down the field, ran the football with our tailbacks enough to provide a modicum of balance, and let Colt do the rest with underneath stuff and his legs. It's not an offensive game plan you'd want to see against a highpowered offensive team Texas might well need to outscore in a barnburner, but for the A&Ms of the world, it suffices.

Computer watch. There's not too much in play that can help or hurt the 'Horns; an Oklahoma win over Oklahoma State likely surges the Sooners up where they need to be with the current distribution of human votes. How much the human voting patterns change (if at all) will, however, affect how much ground OU needs to make up in the computers. If football is a game of inches, this final BCS Standings may be a game of thousands of a point. Which means everything is in play. With that in mind, a few early results and some Saturday games to keep an eye on:

1. Colorado had a chance to make some real noise in the computers, an upset win in Lincoln boosting Texas and dinging the Sooners. But trailing 31-30 with 2 minutes left, Nebraska kicked a 57-yard field goal and then sealed the game when their defensive tackle ran in an INT for a touchdown. My goodness.
2. Arkansas scored a late touchdown to take down LSU, a nice result for Texas.
3. Pittsburgh took down West Virginia, which dings the Buffs slightly.
4. Florida Atlantic hosts Florida International. Go Owls.
5. Cincinnati hosts Syracus. C'mon Gerg. Win one for the 'Horns.
6. Rice hosts Houston. A Rice win here helps the 'Horns and dings Okie State. Though the ding for Okie State affects Texas and Oklahoma equally, the boost to Rice makes this a result we care about.
7. Missouri over Kansas. A Tigers loss here would be catastrophic to Texas' case, inside and out of computerland.