FROM THE REAL ART SPORTS DESK
TEXAS BULLIES HONOR STUDENTS,
LSU GETS DICKED AT AUBURN

First, my beloved Longhorns. From ESPN:

No. 8 Texas holds Rice to minus
12 yards rushing in blowout win

If No. 8 Texas wouldn't have committed all those pesky penalties Saturday's 52-7 win over Rice would have been near-perfect.

And

Though Texas had its way with the Owls on both sides of the ball, coach Mack Brown was concerned with the number of penalties his team had. The Longhorns committed a school-record 19 penalties for 148 yards. On one drive late in the first Texas had three straight penalties -- two false starts and one for holding -- that forced the team to settle for a field goal.

"We made a lot of mistakes," McCoy said. "Their defensive line was yelling things. They did a great job of yelling and moving around and throwing us off."

Offensive coordinator Greg Davis was frustrated.

"It was way too many penalties for our standards," Davis said. "It's no question about it, we've got to get it cleaned up."

Click here for the rest, which includes a nifty video recap.

Well, even though Rice is playing as badly these days as they did when I was a kid in the 70s, it's nice to see the 'Horns bounce back so convincingly. But those penalties are disturbing. Actually, they did pretty well as far as that's concerned in the Ohio State game, so I figure that they're just a bit jumpy after that loss. Still, they did set a school record for penalty yardage, so I hope this isn't a harbinger of bad shit. Sloppy play is what I had to deal with back in the 80s when I was an undergrad in Austin; lots of penalties are, in my humble opinion, only a stone's throw away from fumbles and interceptions, which can turn a great team into a mediocre one. On the other hand, OU lost to Oregon, and A&M only barely beat Army, so maybe I have nothing to fear. The way I see it, the Big 12 Championship is UT's to take.

Next, the one that really pissed me off. Again from ESPN:

No. 3 Auburn outlasts No. 6 LSU
in classic defensive showdown

Brock's game-saving tackle just a few yards from the goal line on the final play preserved No. 3 Auburn's 7-3 win over sixth-ranked LSU on Saturday. He also tipped away a fourth-down pass to end another late LSU threat as Auburn turned away the visiting Tigers again and again.

And

With LSU facing fourth-and-8 from Auburn's 31 and 2:43 left, JaMarcus Russell fired the ball to Early Doucet near the goal line. A diving Brock deflected the pass, but Zach Gilbert was called for pass interference that would have kept the drive alive.

The officials overturned the call, although replays showed the contact came before the ball was tipped by Brock.

Click here for the rest.

I think if that bogus penalty withdrawal hadn't happened, LSU would have punched the ball in on the next play or the next, and their defense would have easily kept Auburn from scoring in the short time left, thereby winning the game. Instead, LSU got fucking dicked. Watching the replay was just fucking hell. One defender fucking tackled Doucet, while the other tipped the damned thing at least a second later: it was definitely pass interference. I mean, it was actually a great game to watch, nothing like a hardcore defensive battle, and losing fairly would have been a big drag. But this was just fucked-up, producing a totally different feeling from the one I got watching Texas lose last week.

I've discovered that I really have absolutely no understanding of what's a reviewable play in college ball and what's not. Fuckers.

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