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Enron Mail |
Jerry Scarbrough's True Orange
The Newsletter for the True Texas Longhorn Faithful Volume 11, No. 24, September 24, 2001 Longhorns Bury Cougars, 53-26,Get Ready For Tough Big 12 Opener Against Texas Tech Texas was a 31-point favorite at Houston Saturday night, but the Cougars were primed for an upset until a Longhorn stampede in the final eight seconds of the first half and the first few minutes of the second half buried their chances. The Longhorns took a 53-26 victory to run their record to 3-0 heading into a tough Big 12 opener against Texas Tech this week, but they were fighting for their lives in the first half and early in the second half before blowing the game open. QB Chris Simms passed for 311 yards and three touchdowns, WR B. J. Johnson had four catches for 124 yards and a TD and RB Ivan Williams rushed for 103 yards and two more scores to spark the prolific Longhorn offense. But the Longhorns needed their best offensive showing of the year because the usually reliable UT defense had its worst game of the season. The statistics in this game were like some of those in the old run-and-shoot days. Texas averaged 7 yards per snap, and Houston was right behind at 6.9 yards per play. The defensive play was so spotty that defensive coordinator Carl Reese threatened to make his players practice Sunday. The defense did have some sparking moments, stopping Houston on two crucial fourth-down plays, and setting up a Longhorn touchdown with Nathan Vasher's pass interception deep in Houston territory. But it also gave up lots of big plays and allowed the Cougars to run and pass far too effectively for most of the game. The main culprit was missed tackles, but the Longhorn defenders also were victimized repeatedly by misdirection plays, which is not a good sign with two unbeaten teams - Texas Tech and Oklahoma - coming up in the next two weeks. Both teams love misdirection plays and, after watching the way the Horns played Saturday night, they will be finding even more misdirection plays to use. Here, briefly, is how the game went First Quarter The Longhorns scored on their first two possessions, driving 56 yards after the kickoff to set up a 41-yard field goal by freshman walkon Dusty Mangum for a 3-0 lead with 9:52 left then hitting a big one with Simms and Johnson combining on a 92-yard pass-and-run play. Mangum's kick made it 10-0 with 7:47 left. Houston came back with a 60-yard scoring drive to cut the Longhorns' lead to 10-7 at the end of the quarter. Simms barely overthrew wide-open WR Roy Williams on a near-miss for what would have been another UT touchdown. Second Quarter Texas couldn't move on its first drive and Simms threw an interception on the second. The Cougars drove 53 yards after the interception, taking a 14-10 lead on a deflected three-yard pass with just 1:19 left. The Horns came back with a quick 60-yard scoring drive. Simms completed passes of 20 yards to WR Tony Jeffery and 14 to Williams before hitting Jeffery for the final 17 yards and, with Mangum's kick, a 17-14 lead with just eight seconds left. The Cougars couldn't handle a bouncing kickoff and the Horns recovered at the 30 with four seconds left. Mangum kicked a 47-yard field goal on the last play. At the half, Texas had 265 yards offensively and the Cougars had 197. The Longhorns had the lone turnover, however, and that led to one UH score. Third Quarter Houston started the half with a drive deep into Texas' territory, but QB Kelly Robertson fumbled on a fourth-down plunge and Texas recovered at the 27, then drove 73 yards for a TD to take a two-touchdown lead on Ivan Williams' 1-yard run at 26-14 with 8:50 left. A two-point conversion try faile d. The Cougars gambled again on fourth down on their next possession. Compounding the problem, they were on their own 44. DE Cory Redding slammed Robertson to the turf for no gain, and the Horns covered that distance in seven plays, with Williams again scoring from the 1. Mangum's kick made it 33-14 with 1:59 left. Vasher's interception on UH's next possession again gave the offense a short field at the Houston 25. Ivan Williams carried twice for 19 yards and Simms hit Roy Williams for 5 yards to reach the UH 1 as the quarter ended. Fourth Quarter Simms hit TE Brock Edwards with a 1-yard scoring pass on the first play of the quarter and Mangum's kick gave Texas a 40-14 lead. Mangum missed a 36-yard field goal on UT's next possession. It was his first miss as a Longhorn after seven straight successful field goals. Moments later, UH WR Brandon Middleton got away from the Longhorn defenders and was in the clear by 15 yards when Robertson floated a pass to him. He loped the rest of the way to complate an 80-yard scoring play, and drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taunting his pursuers. Houston's try for a 2-point conversion failed, leaving UT on top, 40-20, with 9:53 left. DE Kalen Thornton sacked Robertson at the UH 14 on the Cougars' next possession, forcing a fumble. LB De'Andre Lewis covered the fumble and backup QB Major Applewhite hit TE Bo Scaife for three yards and a touchdown three plays later. Mangum's kick gave Texas a 47-20 lead with 5:21 left. Houston came right back with a 4-play, 75-yard drive to score again, leaving Texas ahead, 47-26. On the Horns' last possession, freshman TB Cedric Benson carried four times for 33 yards, including a 2-yard TD plunge to run the final score to 53-26. 900 Number Updated Daily I update my 900 number every day with football and football recruiting news. The number is 1-900-288-8839. It costs $1.59 a minute. You must be 18 or older to call. Coach's Corner Coach Mack Brown wanted some explosive offensive plays and he got them in spades Saturday night in Houston. But so did the Houston Cougars, which made the 31-point favorite Longhorns sweat for quite a while before pulling away. Last week, he was worried about the dearth of big offensive plays. This week, he's tickled with his offensive production and worried sick about his defense. "We got complacent on defense," he said. "We just stood there at times. Offensively, we played really, really well. We had good balance between the run and pass, we had 11 big plays, five in the passing game and six in the running game." "But the negative part is they (Houston) had nine big plays. It's a good thing we had great offensive production because we would not have without it because our defense did not play well enough to play anybody left on our schedule." "We've got to get better than that defensively to have a chance to beat Tech this weekend. We've got to get right to work on improving defensively." On the positive said, Brown said, "We are excited to be 3-0. It equals our best start since 1994. Houston played about as good as they can play, and they played as hard as they could possibly play." "I thought the momentum changer was scoring 10 points in the final 10 seconds of the first half to go up 20-14," he said. "then we totally dominated the third quarter, scoring on every possession." The Longhorns only had two possessions in the third quarter and they scored touchdowns on each of them. There was another momentum changer early in the third quarter when Houston took the second-half kickoff and drove to the UT 26. Facing a fourth-and-inches and trailing 20-14, the Cougars went for it. QB Kelly Robertson tried a sneak and he might have made it, but a Longhorn got a helmet on the ball and it shot back to the 27, where the Horns recovered. Texas promptly drove for another TD and a 12-point lead and the rout was on. "That was a big play, too," Brown said. "The defense did have some stops, and that was a key one." But he said he said the Longhorns' overall performance defensively was just unacceptable. "We tackled very, very poorly," he said. "I think our defense has just been bragged on so much, and we shut them out last year, that I don't know if our guys showed them much respect." Getting back to the good news, Brown said the team didn't suffer any serious injuries and he was glad to get TEs Bo Scaife and Brock Edwards more involved in the offense. He noted that both have played very little because of injuries, and he said both are very talented players who need to be involved in the Longhorns offense to make it more effective. Game Notes . . * The Longhorns did not have a three-and-out possession Saturday night. They only punted twice in 14 possessions and they made at least one first down before each punt. In their 14 possessions, they had seven touchdowns, two field goals, a missed field goal, a fumble, an interception and the two punts. * The 92-yard touchdown on QB Chris Simms' throw to WR B. J. Johnson was the sixth play of 90 yards or more in UT history. It was the fourth longest pass play in Longhorn history. * The Texas offense scored on five consecutive possessions stretching from the end of the first half (TD, FG) through the entire third quarter (3 TD). In the second half Texas scored on five of its seven possessions (5 TDs) and advanced into Houston territory on all seven possessions. Flowers Has to Give Up Football; McFadden Quits Team WR Montrell Flowers has had to give up football and backup kicker Matt McFadden has quit the team. Head coach Mack Brown said Flowers suffered kidney injuries when he took a hard hit in the North Carolina game. He said doctors discovered Flowers only has one kidney and advised him to give up football. Brown said he will get a medical scholarship, which won't count against the 85-man limit, and will concentrate on track, where he has two years of eligiblity left. "Montrell's injury is really unfortunate," Brown said. "He is a nice kid who was playing his best football and providing much needed veteran leadership for us." Brown also announced that backup kicker Matt McFadden of Coppell has quit the team to "concentrate on personal matters." The personal matters are a grand jury indictment against him in Dallas County on a felony charge of taking and distributing nude photographs of a 17-year-old Coppell girl. McFadden, a redshirt freshman at Texas, was expected to be the starting place kicker at Texas this season, but he had a disappointing spring and the coaches brought in four freshmen walk-on kickers in August. One of them, Dusty Mangum of Mesquite, beat him out.
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