DALLAS (AP) – Player after player, coach after coach, the Texas Longhorns kept praising each other for the heart they showed in clawing back to make their loss to Oklahoma as close as it was.
That’s what it has come to just five games into this season.
By losing 28-20 to the No. 8 Sooners on Saturday, Texas has dropped consecutive games for the first time in three years.
Sure to slip from No. 21 in the AP Top 25, the Longhorns are poised to be unranked for the first time since Oct. 15, 2000 – a span of 162 polls, nearly twice as long as the next-best run in the country and among the best of all-time. The thud is even louder considering less than nine months ago they played in the BCS national title game.
So, coach Mack Brown, is it finally time to consider this a rebuilding year, to acknowledge that sophomore Garrett Gilbert can’t pick up where Colt McCoy left off?
“I don’t think you ever face anything other than you want to get better,” Brown said. “You go back to work. … If we play hard enough, we’ll be fine.”
The Longhorns (3-2, 1-1 Big 12) won’t lose again next weekend because they’re off. They could be in trouble the following week, though, when they go to Lincoln, Neb., to face the No. 6 Cornhuskers and a stadium full of fans still angry about losing to Texas in the final seconds of last year’s Big 12 championship game. UT hasn’t lost three straight since closing the 1999 season that way.
“We have two weeks of work,” linebacker Eddie Jones. “Work hard as a team, stay up, stay motivated and keep this heart and drive that we had today. We can go back out and win. We can change things around here.”
After all, they said, look at how they persevered in this one – clawing back from being down 14-0 in the first quarter, 21-7 at halftime and 28-10 early in the fourth quarter.
Then again, look how much they helped the Sooners – committing drive-extending, third-down penalties on three of Oklahoma’s four touchdown drives, having another penalty erase a fumble recovery at the OU 19 and letting a pair of first-and-goals result in field goals.
“We just didn’t make a lot of key plays that we should have made,” receiver James Kirkendoll said. “That was to their advantage. With penalties and turnovers we just have to regroup and learn not to do those things again.”
Gilbert was supposed to be ready for this season because he grew up quickly in the national championship game, having led a second-half rally after replacing an injured McCoy on the first series.
He hasn’t been the biggest problem. But he hasn’t made something out of nothing like McCoy and his predecessor, Vince Young, always managed to do.
Perhaps he’s not getting enough help. The Longhorns have struggled to find a running game and no one has emerged as a reliable receiver.
“I wish we had a few more plays,” said Gilbert, who was 27-of-41 for 266 yards, with his lone interception coming on a heave at the end of the first half.
For all their mistakes, the Longhorns still had a chance to pull out this game. Aaron Williams’ muffed punt with 62 seconds left prevented Gilbert from getting those last few plays he wanted.
“We fought our hearts out and we’re going to keep on fighting,” defensive end Sam Acho said. “That’s what we look forward to this season. We can find out what we’re about. Texas is a team that matures through the season.”
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