Sunday, October 18, 2009
McCoy’s a mess, but Longhorns get win
DALLAS (AP) — Colt McCoy was a mess. His right thumbnail was ready to fall off, a nagging cold was wearing him down and Oklahoma was confusing him with blitzes he’d never seen.
Then, with a chance to put the game away for No. 3 Texas midway through the fourth quarter, he threw an interception that could’ve turned into a go-ahead touchdown for the Sooners.
McCoy salvaged it all, though. He made a game-saving tackle on the pickoff return, then, after his defense got him the ball back, managed to grind out the final 3:31, sending No. 3 Texas to a 16-13 victory over No. 20 Oklahoma on Saturday.
“You’ve got to be confident in yourself and trust your teammates,” McCoy said. “‘Let’s find a way to win.’ We did.”
The sloppy performance did little for McCoy’s chances of winning the Heisman Trophy and it won’t earn much respect for a team that slipped a spot in last week’s poll. But what matters most to McCoy and the Longhorns (6-0, 3-0 Big 12) is remaining in line to play for the national championship — and, well, it always feels good to beat their rivals from across the Red River, especially in front of 96,009, the largest crowd in the 104-game history of this series.
That explains why the usually humble McCoy gave a huge fist pump to the burnt orange end of the Cotton Bowl before the final snap, drawing a roar from fans already celebrating their fourth win over the Sooners (3-3, 1-1) in five years.
“It’s such an awesome feeling,” said McCoy, who joined Bobby Layne and Peter Gardere as the only Texas quarterbacks to beat Oklahoma three times. “This is one of the greatest games in college football. Knowing it wasn’t that pretty, but you gave it your best effort ... I’m speechless.”
Oklahoma lost Heisman winner Sam Bradford in the first quarter when he reaggravated the right shoulder injury he sustained in the opener, but was never out of this one. Backup Landry Jones put the Sooners up 6-0 and he drove them for their only touchdown right after Texas scored its only TD, tying the game at 13 in the third quarter.
But the Sooners ran for minus-16 yards on 22 tries. They were stuffed on a fourth-and-1 at midfield at the start of the fourth quarter, then, down by a field goal, asked Jones to win it. His last two drives ended on interceptions, first by Aaron Williams (who KO’d Bradford) then by Earl Thomas.
Texas ran six straight times after that, with McCoy keeping it three of them. His last plunge was for only 1 yard on third-and-8 but a penalty on Oklahoma provided the game-ending first down.
“I thought it was more like a fight,” Longhorns coach Mack Brown said. “It was tough, it was ugly.”
McCoy was only 21 of 39 for 127 yards, with a pair of turnovers within 10 yards of the end zone. Besides the fourth-quarter interception, he fumbled at the end of a long run late in the first half. That came during a spurt of five fumbles in the final few minutes; Oklahoma dropped three of them, losing two, but Texas got only a field goal out of it, and the Sooners didn’t score off Texas’ miscues.