Week 4: Texas Recap and the Almost Big 6

By Nick Cantilo

Please excuse my silence last week, folks. Hopefully you'll understand that the game against Ole Miss last week left me in a state of emotional numbness through which I could not write. You can, for the most part, transplant my Week 2 post into Week 3. The defense needed more than three days to get on board with DC Greg Robinson. There was vast improvement (gave up ~250 rushing yards instead of 550... big whoop), but just not enough to get through the game. This is damning when considering that our anemic offense, without its most electric player, made next to zero adjustments at half time. The result? Texas was outscored 27-0 in the second half. Yikes. Moving forward.... 

Before getting into Week 4 entirely, I'd like to offer my thanks to two teams which beat SEC teams from outside the Sure Everybody Cheats conference in Week 3. Louisville downed Kentucky. Oregon did things to Tennessee that are generally investigated by the Special Victims Unit. Neither was a surprise. Both were still good. Our thanks to Oregon and Louisville. (We were supposed to be thanking Texas this week. Good work, Horns....) 

In Week 4 our thanks go to Rutgers. Not that I generally support the state of New Jersey, but this week we salute the State University of New Jersey for taking care of Arkansas. Nobody will care about this game in the long run, but it's still nice to see that one team cared enough to ensure that the supreme luster of the SEC had a blemish this week. I'm sure we'll still have to watch some special TV segment or ad about the SEC's impending IPO on Wall Street which will assuredly skyrocket to 5422% of its pre-opening price range on opening day. This will be followed with a SportsScience feature about how much better Johnny Manziel is at breathing while sitting still than the average athlete. 

Looking Back at the Longhorns

Sigh. Of. Relief. The Longhorns (almost) played a complete game! Many people will try to write this off as a gimme game against a bad KSU team. These people are silly. Texas had not beaten this team since 2003. A decade. Mack Brown was lucky not to play the Wildcats in 04, 05, 08, or 09, when he took the Horns to BCS bowls. If he had, the Horns likely would have lost, despite the inVinceable nature of some of those teams. Bill Snyder just knows how to beat Mack Brown. That's why, entering last night, Texas was on a 2-7 slide vs. KSU under Mack Brown. This included a -20 turnover margin. That is astounding. These things are a big part of what makes last night's win a huge, quality win. 

David Ash was back from a concussion. Daje Johnson and Mike Davis were out. Our most electric playmaker and our most dangerous vertical threat out? Here we go again. Or not? Enter Jonathan Gray. At long last, our white knight arrived. And he was great. David was held out in the second half. It seems this may be a precaution or continuation of the injury. In any event, there's a lot of time before the next game. He ought to be okay, one would think. The offense ran K-State off the field. It was great. There were previously unknown heroes at the receiver position, Kendall Sanders and Marcus Johnson, who played lights out. All in all, the offense wasn't spectacular, but it played the second half without 3 of its 4 most integral players. They did what needed to happen to win, and they never lost confidence. 

The defense won the game for Texas. I'll say it again, because I know it sounds foreign. The Texas defense won the game. Despite a few HORRENDOUS penalties and no calls, the defense made fantastic strides for the second week in a row. I don't wish ill upon Manny Diaz in his next phase of his career, but thank goodness he isn't coaching our defense anymore. The Longhorns still gave up a fair number of yards, which is a concern, but they forced three turnovers and they played nearly perfectly for much of the game. The officials tried pretty hard, it seemed, in the fourth quarter to get KSU back into the game. I do not understand this targeting business. This is the second week in a row this has happened for Texas. It's robbing defenses of their ability to play defense. It's football. You hit people. Pretty simple. If the hit is malicious or extraordinarily dangerous, I get it. This, however, is not in that category. Disgraceful. What's more confusing is that, in the case of last week, the call was reviewed and the ejection overturned. In essence, the officials admitted they were wrong but still assessed a 15 yard penalty. That's ridiculous to me. I'm proud of the defense for overcoming an injury to its best linebacker, a stupid ejection of its second best, some overwhelming odds with a new DC, and a matchup against our achilles heel opponent.

31-21 works for me.... for now... 

The Almost Big 6

Daje Johnson 

Out for a second game in a row with an ankle injury. He hasn't played since early in the first quarter of BYU. Let's hope this heals soon... 

James Sims

James had a pretty average week. 20 carries for 78 yards. His QB threw two picks, which kicked his offense off the field and prevented further carries for Sims in an offense that already limits his productivity by being a generally bad offense. Their win this weekend was their first FBS win in the past few seasons. How very very yikes for Kansas. Sims had 15 more carries than the next most called-upon rusher. He has a lot on his shoulders. 

Trey Metoyer

Oklahoma didn't play this week. I am, however, also going to raise a white flag with Metoyer. Yes it's early to admit defeat, but he had 1 reception last week for 5 yards. I just thought he would make a bigger impact. Perhaps next year. I'll keep tracking him, anyways. 

Casey Pachall Bryce Petty
With Casey out for so long, we'll have to track someone else instead of wasting space. Bryce Petty is playing pretty gosh darn well for the Red Raiders. He's also one of the Big 12's two 1000+ yard passers so far. Baker Mayfield is the other. The difference I notice is the TD:INT ration. It's 8:0 for Bryce and 8:4 for Baker. And Bryce has bigger shoes to fill at a program that has so recently had a taste of elite status. 

Cortez Johnson
No Oklahoma game this week. Hard to tell where Cortex will fit. Two weeks ago he was battling for a spot with, and had the luck of an injury to the starter. He had a tackle against Tulsa last week, his only recorded statistic. We'll see how he does moving forward battling for his spot. 

Cedric Reed
Cedric is still playing hot. His tackles have cooled off a bit, but his production is still solid. Last week he had 3 tackles, 0.5TFL, a QB Hurry, and, perhaps most importantly, two passes batted down. He showed that side of his game last week. This week, he had 1 tackle and 1 sack. More importantly, he forced a fumble and batted yet another pass down. This is great to see. 


I'm 3/6 on these would be stars, in the games they've played. I guess I can settle for that, especially since I called the Horns right. 


In the name of the Bevo, Vince Young, and Coach Darrell Royal, 
Amen!