Univ. of Texas Longhorns Lose another heartbreaker (to Oklahoma State)

There's really no other way to say it.

This game was an exercise in frustration from all sides.  UT's offense was held to field goals and not much else.  The defense's secondary did much better than last week, eventually, and Vance Bedford's defensive squad also put two touchdowns on the board.

But the reffing was simply awful all around, impacting both teams, the mystery moving puzzle of last week's offense that seemed like the start of a bold new era was stopped at every turn by OSU's defense.  Jerrod Heard had some good plays, but the offensive line support he enjoyed last week seemed to evaporate and he showed he doesn't really see the defense all that well when he's in the pocket.

Nick Rose was actually really fine this week.  Did great.  Kudos to that kid for bouncing back when a lesser kicker would have been a mess.  Nope, that we left to our punter who, apparently, was thinking about a final, his date the night before, chicken nuggets, something, anything other than taking the snap on the 4th down and getting rid of the f'ing ball.

We'd been up for most of the game, a position no Texas fan really expected to find the team in, so the crappy way in which we lost the game was more than a smidge painful.  Especially as the refs called back two big TD plays on ticky-tacky penalties, called a nonsensical defensive holding call that impacted the 4th quarter play like no one's business (and was clearly offensive holding, you dumb zebra), called a penalty on Charlie Strong for protesting the shitty reffing.  Oh, and called a fumble for OSU when it was pretty clear that it was recovered by UT.



Death by a million cuts out there today, and we still almost won this one.  I don't say this often, but I think UT would do well to consider sending a strongly worded letter to the NCAA about this reffing crew.

But, win we did not, and this season is looking to be a test of the patience of many a Longhorn fan.

Sunday Morning Late Edit:  The manner in which I watch a football game at my own house usually involves a bit of drinking, cooking out, hosting a few folks, etc...  I don't watch every second of the game.  I also played enough sports to know it's generally poor sportsmanship to throw the referees under the bus when you're losing.  In general in sport, you're supposed to just win the game despite the odds.  And it doesn't behoove your ESPN game callers to sound like they're pulling for either team by complaining about the refs a whole lot.

So I didn't want to go off like crazy on the officiating.  It always reduces any semblance of objectivity you're supposed to strive for in sports commentary, even when you're a homer.  And, with my distracted viewing under the best of circumstances, I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing much.  And, I made an appropriate edit above.

So I'll let Barking Carnival do my ranting for me.  (Thanks for the link, Paul)

It can get tricky, because you're not supposed to point out that something odd was going on with the officiating.  Good luck finding someone in our local paper doing much more than victim blaming.  Because, yeah, if Texas had put a lot more points on the board, there's nothing the refs could do about it.  Except for call back two touchdowns.

But if the calls were phony?  What then?  It's a weird position to be in without sounding paranoid, but...  gametape.