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So close, but yet so far Texas tries to put positive spin on latest loss to Oklahoma
Updated: Sunday October 07, 2001 1:11 AM
DALLAS -- On paper, they did many of the things it should take to win. They held the defending national champions to 206 yards of offense. Their star quarterback was 24-of-42 for 198 yards. And they knocked the other team's quarterback out of the game. But the fifth-ranked Texas Longhorns did not win their football game against No. 3 Oklahoma on Saturday, and despite what their coach would have you think, it wasn't even that close. "With 2:01 left, down 7-3, we thought we'd win the game," an especially testy Mack Brown said afterwards. The problem is, few others among the 75,487 in attendance at the Cotton Bowl or the millions watching on television felt the same way. They'd seen this play out one too many times before, and they knew what the ending would be. Sure enough, in the moments to follow, Texas' Nathan Vasher would mistakenly down an Oklahoma pooch punt at his team's own 2-yard line, leaving Chris Simms and the Longhorns' offense to travel 98 yards if it hoped to win the game. But the junior quarterback, hoping to produce what he foresaw as a "storybook ending," would instead throw his third of four interceptions on the very next play, thanks to OU superstar Roy Williams, leapfrogging his blocker to apply the pressure, and the Sooners would put things away 14-3.
In year four of the much-hyped Mack Brown era of Texas football, and year three for the wonderboy Simms, the Longhorns have yet to find their storybook ending. And it's not likely to happen any time soon. But the 'Horns themselves remain in denial. "Today it was two great defenses and two offenses trying to scratch them," Brown said. "They made turnovers and we didn't, and that's it." Similarly, players spoke of the latest defeat to their border rival as merely a bump in the road. They pointed to the significantly closer margin (14-3 rather than 63-14) as a sign of their improvement, and their hanging around with the defending champs for so long a signal of their own feats to come. "We have talent, they have talent," Longhorns wide receiver Roy Williams said. "It was two national championship-caliber teams out there playing." Williams is right about one thing: The Longhorns have talent. So does Oklahoma. But the Sooners have won 18 consecutive games and a national championship because they know what they do with the talent, something Texas is still struggling to grasp. OU's championship mettle came through on several occasions. Seeing that Texas was swarming the box and preventing any inside running, the Sooners, facing a fourth-and-2 at the Texas 30 in the second quarter, caught UT completely off guard by switching to the option. Quarterback Jason White took the snap, scattered to the left and, just as the defense was collapsing, pitched to Quentin Griffin for a 17-yard gain. Two similar plays later, the Sooners had their first touchdown. Then there were White's three out-of-character dashes on one fourth-quarter series, totaling 34 yards, more than half of OU's net rushing yards. They were nothing fancy and they didn't even produce a score, but they were the type of plays you need to win a close game. Even more impressive was the fact White hadn't started the game. And finally, there was the play that iced it, safety Williams' acrobatic play on Simms to win the game. It was a big-time play by a big-time player, exactly the type of event that decides a contest. If one of Texas' big guns could have done the same at any point, it might have been a different story. Take, for example, the enigmatic Simms, whose up-and-down career took another decided down Saturday. The junior has had his moments during three years in Austin, even playing well enough going into the game to basically silence the Major Applewhite contingent. But when it comes to big games, Simms seems to suffer from Carson Palmer syndrome: lots of interceptions, in this case four. They weren't entirely his fault, nor were his five sacks. But despite having potentially the top deep target in the country in Williams, Simms appeared locked in to the underneath routes, as his 8.25-yards-per-completion would indicate. He would throw completions to nine different receivers, but none for longer than 25 yards. "Chris is fine," Williams insisted. "Texas fans say, 'We want Major, Major, Major,' but Chris is playing fine. Our coaches had a great game plan going into the gane, we just didn't execute at times." Williams wasn't the only one quick to defend his quarterback. Brown spent much of the postgame media sessions intercepting questions intended for Simms, angrily cutting off one reporter who said the player misunderstood his question, and, on more than one occasion, starting a sentence, "Let me say this for Chris ..." But despite the coach's best attempt at spin control, Saturday's aftermath is likely to create another long headache for Simms and Co. They've spent two years trying to deflect the infamous question, "Why can't you win the big game?" and, barring a Sooner collapse that somehow allows Texas into the Big 12 championship game, they might not get another chance to respond all season. "You hear about it every day," Simms said of possibly another year of bad Red River reminders. "It's something you hear about a lot in Austin. And now I'm going to hear about it again." Stewart Mandel covers college football for CNNSI.com.
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