Late field goal lifts No. 24 Oklahoma State over Texas 30-27
By JIM VERTUNO, AP Sports Writer, Sep. 26, 2015
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Once again a visiting team was getting ready for overtime, only to have Texas hand them a special teams gift and a victory. This week it was No. 24 Oklahoma State and Cowboys kicker Ben Grogan who seized the opportunity.
Grogan, who had tied the game only about a minute earlier with a 41-yard field goal, booted a 40-yarder with 6 seconds left Saturday, sending the Cowboys to a 30-27 win, their fourth straight victory on the Longhorns' home field in a series historically dominated by Texas.
Grogan's game winner came after Texas punter Michael Dickson, an Australian Rules Football player, dropped the deep snap inside the Texas 10 and scrambled to get off a left-footed punt that went only 10 yards. ''It stunned everybody,'' Oklahoma State defensive tackle Vincent Taylor said.
All the Cowboys (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) had to do was run a few seconds off the clock, but even that didn't come easy in a wild finish. They nearly blew the chance when penalized for a false start with 10 seconds left, but because they still had a timeout they weren't hit with an automatic 10-second runoff that would have ended regulation.
Grogan trotted back out and calmly drilled the winner. Texas had two timeouts left but didn't try to ice him.
''I had already had it in my head that I was going to have to kick the game winner, so I was ready for it,'' Grogan said. ''But I was surprised to see that fumble. I just tried not to lose my composure.''
Oklahoma State is the first team to beat Texas four straight times in Austin. The Cowboys' win streak dates back to 2010.
Texas coach Charlie Strong, just 7-10 in his second season, was stunned by the Longhorns' second gut-punch loss in a row. Last week, Texas rallied from 21-points down in the fourth quarter only to have kicker Nick Rose miss an extra point with 71 seconds left in a 45-44 loss. ''Two straight Saturdays you had it right there in your hands and let it slip away,'' Strong said.
Strong had his own major mistake in the latest defeat. Texas led 27-24 late in the fourth when Strong was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after loudly complaining to an official about a penalty. The penalty pushed Oklahoma State all the way to the Texas 19 and set up Grogan's field goal to tie.
Grogan had to keep his cool before both kicks. On his game-tying field goal, he first booted a 36-yarder but had to rekick when Oklahoma State was whistled for delay of game. Both squarely split the uprights.
After forcing the Texas punt, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy had called for his team to try to block it. Dickson may have sensed the pressure coming.
''When the ball was on the ground, we had enough people there to pressure him and force him to kick it left-footed,'' Gundy said.
Mason Rudolph passed for 290 yards and a touchdown for Oklahoma State but also had three turnovers and by the fourth quarter was rotating with former starter J.W. Walsh. Freshman quarterback Jerrod Heard passed for 119 yards and ran for 48 for Texas, but the Longhorns managed only one offensive touchdown a week after Heard set a school record with 527 total yards.
Oklahoma State led 14-3 in the second quarter before Rudolph simply dropped the ball without any pressure from Texas and Hassan Ridgeway picked it up for a 34-yard touchdown return. A Walsh touchdown pass to Jeremy Seaton put Oklahoma State ahead 24-20 in the third.
Texas freshman cornerback Holton Hill intercepted a Rudolph pass into double coverage and zipped 41 yards along the sideline for a touchdown that put Texas up 27-24.
The Longhorns are just 5-22 in their last 27 games against ranked opponents and last started 1-3 in 1956, the year before Darrell Royal arrived and built the program into a national power. In 1993, Texas started 1-3-1 but at least had the tie and a win before dropping its third loss.
''We're doing it to ourselves,'' Strong said. ''It's all about being able to pick yourself back up again.''
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/gametracker/recap/NCAAF_20150926_OKLAST@TEXAS -------------------------------------------------------
Mike Gundy got low in locker room dance after Oklahoma State win
By Chip Patterson | Staff Writer
September 26, 2015 10:15 pm ET
Mike Gundy broke it down in the locker room after beating Texas. (USATSI)
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy was put on the spot for some locker room dancing on Saturday after the Cowboys beat Texas by a field goal in Austin.
It wasn't the prettiest win for OSU, but it's got plenty of value as a road conference win in the 2015 Big 12. It this weekend is an indicator for what's in store, the 2015 Big 12 conference schedule requires blood pressure medicine.
Gundy, for his dance moves, chose this sweeping motion that I'll call "The Janitor."
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Texas loses on special teams miscue for second consecutive week
By Robby Kalland | Staff Writer
September 26, 2015 7:24 pm ET
Charlie Strong's Texas team has lost two straight due to special teams miscues. (USATSI)
For the second consecutive week, there has been heartbreak in Austin. Texas has lost its last two games by a combined four points, and both have come down to late-game special teams mishaps. On Saturday, the Longhorns fell to the Oklahoma State Cowboys 30-27 in Stillwater.
Against Cal last week, the UT missed an extra point that would have tied the game at 45. This week, Texas' punter fumbled a snap while punting inside his own 20, and could only scramble to recover it and shank it out of bounds
Oklahoma State used that field position to kick a field goal with just eight seconds remaining and win the game 30-27 and hand Texas a second consecutive heartbreaking loss at home.
The loss drops Texas to 1-3 on the season, which is the worst start for the Longhorns since a 1-3 record to begin the 1956 campaign.
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Phantom Calls From Corrupt Officiating Crew Bury Texas Longhorns
By Scipio Tex on Sep 26, 2015, 7:40p 563
Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
As if we needed more data points on leaving this backwater league.
The Big 12 has a genuine problem on its hands. And no amount of sanctimonious posturing that comes over the next week will make it go away. Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby may even have to take a break from the autopilot of his 20 hour week to take an interest.
We just witnessed a highway robbery. Comparable to the NBA at the height of the Tim Donaghy scandal, when entire NBA playoff series were determined by whistles and fabricated calls and lead NBA company men like Joey Crawford were being convicted of felony fraud.
I generally despise people who whine about the refs. A single play rarely determines the outcome of a football game and it's a useful crutch for any team that feels they were owed a win. I have almost three hundred Texas post game breakdowns and open game threads in the public record and I think four or five of them may make some passing reference to a bad call as crucial to a game outcome. And half of them are pointing out how it benefitted us. Players and coaches determine 99.5% of football games. When they don't, it's simple human error.
We didn't watch incompetence. We just watched corruption. The question is - what kind?
Typically an incompetent crew penalizes both teams with equal levels of incompetence. It evens out. It's random and slipshod. I saw calculation and the purposeful, constant opportunistic management of a game outcome.
This officiating crew had a clear bias problem, which means, by definition, a corruption problem and, perhaps, even a financial interest problem. At least one of those descriptives is inarguable.
The game outcome was determined by the officiating crew. Any other viewpoint is ignorant of objective and empirical reality. Right now, I'm simply interested in determining what kind of human garbage we're dealing with: pro Cowboy or anti-Texas game riggers, corrupt gamblers, straight up racists who want to undercut a predominantly black coaching staff at the state Flagship or simply petty small men who decided early on they were going to "get" Texas for some unknown slight. I truly don't know. I've just never seen anything so blatantly purposeful in a football game.
At least one official on this crew was an interested party with a compelling interest in a desired game outcome. Hoopleheads will point to Michael Dickson's fumbled punt as the "play of the game" but the game outcome had already been altered a half dozen times upstream from that.
Let me repeat - because I know what the league, talking heads and idiots are going to say in response - this has nothing to do with incompetence. Or mistakes. Or normal human error. We saw multiple instances of calculated fabrication - all against one team, all at key moments in the game flow. A drunk driver is incompetent. A bank robber is calculating. Can you tell the difference in execution?
Incompetence doesn't result in fabrication. Calls were simply made up. Manufactured out of the air.
Patrick Vahe was called for a hold on a first half Longhorn TD run. It didn't happen. He had a perfect cut block on an OSU defender. His hands never contacted the OSU defender. A case of mistaken identity? Perhaps. So I scanned the entire play side view of every Longhorn offensive player. Burt was clean. OL was clean. I'm good at watching film. No hold occurred. It didn't happen. Touchdown erased.
On a key fourth quarter drive, Poona Ford was called for "defensive holding" on a run play. Curious, that. Uncommon, to say the least. This call is typically reserved for a D-lineman grabbing an eligible receiver on a screen play before it can develop. OSU wasn't running a screen. On the replay, Poona Ford gets blocked (and held) and the ballcarrier gets tackled just past the line of scrimmage. Nothing else happens. There is no defensive hold. Because it didn't happen. For that same reason that a balk or icing couldn't be called. Watch the play and it's contextually impossible. That third down conjuring of bullshit set up a new set of downs and the field position necessary for OSU to kick the game tying field goal.
It also sparked Charlie Strong to finally lose it.
Charlie Strong finally had enough and screamed at the sideline official. That official threw a gutless flag instead of walking away. He chose to protect the shoddy officiating product on the field instead of walk away from a livid coach who was being screwed on national television. That flag guaranteed OSU's field goal. Do I blame Strong? Only if I hold him to a higher standard than anything I'm capable of. I would have knocked the official out and emptied his pockets looking for a Caesar's betting slip. Of course, I'm being ironic there. I mean Mandalay Bay.
Beyond the realm of pure fiction, all subjective calls went against Texas. Not many. Or an important one. All.
This is what I like to call a pattern.
The lateral TD throw from Marcus Johnson. Ignore the idiot announcers. The ball wasn't on the 40. The call could have gone either way. I think it was lateral, but reasonable people can disagree. Johnson confused the scene by stepping up post-catch, but that's perfectly allowable. He was still behind the LOS. This was the only subjective call you could actually argue for OSU.
The fumble recovery by Duke Thomas "dug out" by JW Walsh which was then "dug out" by Naashon Hughes? What are the rules for possession? Last man with the ball? Or first obvious possession? OSU loses on both counts. Texas ball. Nope, time for a referee intervention. OSU ball. It goes to the guy who has his hands on the ball briefly in between the first possession and the last that wins.
Shiro Davis was held (egregiously, one hand grabbing outside of shoulder pad across neck, other arm draped around the waist) while pressuring Rudolph on the Kris Boyd interception which drew no call, but when Paul Boyette gently bumped Mason Rudolph while pulling up his momentum post throw, Rudolph went for an Emmy, drew a 15 yard personal foul and the officials gave OSU a probable ten point flip. At minimum, a 3 point swing and 40 yards of field position. Would that call be helpful in a game tied at 27 late?
A first half holding call on Taylor Doyle that was irrelevant to the play outcome that happens on every down, on every running play in America, drew a flag. Even a color man as congenitally stupid as David Lapham Ed Cunningham laughed at it. Later, Patrick Vahe had a second half pancake block on a zone reach. Same deal. Holding. Drive erased.
I could go on...there were plenty more.
Every subjective call went against Texas. When a call wasn't available to subjectively slant, at least one official simply conjured fiction like they were Stephen King's bookie.
Texas finished the game with 16 penalties for 128 yards. Half of them were mythology made up on the spot or over-officious nonsense which wasn't being applied to both teams.
The officials created or altered 24-28 points while doing so.
OSU had 7 penalties for 40 yards. All of them minor motion penalties or clear infractions that you can't swallow a whistle on.
We just watched a fixed football game. The first I've ever seen or can recall in all of my years.
What's the Big 12 going to do?
Nothing, that's what.