Texas flood (of tears)
Tough losses all around in the state of Texas, more disaster D in LA, and the empire struck back with Georgia achieving an impressive win.
It appears my “look, the matchups are really lopsided” analysis of the Red River Shootout was lacking. While I still think Texas has a number of personnel advantages, somehow I overlooked the manner in which the Longhorns had repeatedly erased similar talent deficits with careful preparation, physical play, and quarterback run game on numerous occasions in the last decade.
Oklahoma did exactly that, playing their best defense of the season and leaning on diminutive but game Dillon Gabriel to handle 14 carries for 113 yards at 8.1 ypc with a touchdown.
Texas A&M also lost their big game, a trip from visiting Alabama, where I thought they had a pretty decent chance of a win as well. Jimbo Fisher elicited some frustrated reactions for the following decisions:
Punting on 4th-and-1 from the Alabama 45 with the game tied 17-all at the end of the 3rd quarter.
Punting on 4th-and-5 from the Alabama 45 down 24-17 with 11:44 left in the 4th quarter.
Attempting and missing a field goal on 4th-and-5 from the Alabama 24 down 24-17 with 11:09 left in the 4th quarter.
Taking and making a field goal on 4th-and-goal from the Alabama 2 down 24-17 with 2:11 left in the 4th quarter.
Scared money don’t make none, as they say.
Elsewhere in the Lone Star State, the Baylor Bears are back! They lost at home yet again, this time getting crushed by Texas Tech in the BUTT Bowl (BU vs TT). Dave Aranda is finished, either he’ll be fired this year or allowed to fire another offensive coordinator before losing his gig in another year when they can rally the donor money to get him out. Someone will then get a phenomenal defensive coordinator, I want the best for Aranda but this is going terribly.
Tough day for many a Texas team.
Let’s break down some of the interesting action from the week.
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