FOOTBALL

Not just that Texas won, but how it won

Cedric Golden
cgolden@statesman.com
Texas coach Tom Herman addresses his players before they took care of business in Saturday's 48-13 win over Rice. [ERIC GAY/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS]

What impressed me most about Texas on Saturday wasn't that the Horns won 48-13, but how they won.

It was business, and the Horns took care of it in decisive fashion, kind of like when a bald eagle swoops down on a lake, talons out, on fishing day.

The Rice Owls were exactly who we thought they were, an overmatched opponent that was there to collect a check and a beatdown. They gave it the good ol' college try, but they were up against a legitimate Top 10 team that had no interest in an early struggle.

Texas teams in similar positions have struggled against lesser ones and come out with a close win. In some instances (see Kansas, 2016) those teams lost.

"I think it's a testament to our players and their culture," coach Tom Herman said Monday. "You know, the score is (48-13) with a minute and change left. We've got starters that are on that team that jog out there, and they're fighting and blocking like it's the opening kickoff of the Super Bowl. That's how intense they were."

It's called buy-in, and Herman has it from his first 22 to the last 63.

It's why the Longhorns are capable of going 9-1 over their next 10 games to qualify for a second straight New Year's Six bowl game.

Good thing about that LSU loss: It prepared the Horns for this sort of game. The Cowboys will come in here with plenty of confidence since they haven't lost at DKR since Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley were running things around here.

Texas is equipped for this.

Dak shows his value: Name one quarterback not named Patrick Mahomes who has had more fun over the first weeks of the NFL season than Dak Prescott.

Yeah, I know.

OK, neither the Giants nor the Redskins will be compared to the 1985 Bears defensively, but Prescott is having a career start to the 2019 season, which just so happens to be a contract year. Through two games, he's completing 82% of his passes with seven touchdowns and only one interception, and the Cowboys sit alone atop the NFC East. Prescott was resplendent at Washington, completing 26 of 30 passes to his bevy of weapons.

So why hasn't owner Jerry Jones pulled that Brinks truck up to Dak's driveway just yet?

Jones got headlines Sunday for reasons that didn't directly involve money. When a reporter asked about Prescott's 269-yard, three-touchdown performance, Jerry took exception to the two big hits Prescott took on an 11-yard run with two minutes remaining.

"I know this, I’d like for our end of game strategy would not make our quarterback have to run with the ball and potentially risk the kind of injury he did on that last play when he got hit," Jones told reporters. “We need to go back and look at how to end the game when you got it pretty much put away without having your quarterback get at risk.”

Sounds as if Jones views Prescott as a valuable asset.

How about paying him like one? The price is only going to go up from here.

Walking wounded: Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger have maintained longevity in this league because they have taken care of their bodies plus enjoyed that little piece of luck needed to stick around for 15 seasons plus.

The luck might have run out Monday with the announcement that Roethlisberger will miss the rest of the season after elbow surgery while Brees will be out a minimum of six weeks with thumb surgery. If I'm Big Ben, I would call it a day. He's 37 years old with a pair of Super Bowl rings.

Unlike Brees, who will be throwing a football around in less than two months, Roethlisberger is facing a rigorous rehabilitation to regain his throwing motion.

Let it go, Big Ben. You're a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Nothing left to prove.

Georgia for the win: That was one classy move by the Georgia fans who staged a pink-out Saturday in honor of Wendy Anderson, the wife of Arkansas State coach Blake Anderson. She died of breast cancer Aug. 19.

Scores of Georgia fans showed up in pink and 13 of them had letters spelling out "REMEMBER WENDY" written on their backs.

"It's overwhelming, to be honest with you," Blake Anderson said on ESPN "College GameDay." "We've leaned on a lot of people to get through this."

It’s just another reminder that sports can be a bridge between people on opposite sidelines. Yes, there was a football game that day, and it didn't matter that Georgia walked away with a 55-0 win. What really resonated was the heartfelt gesture.

Behind the wins and losses, what matters most is there are human beings with lives outside of the games we watch. They go through it just like the rest of us. There is a humanity involved that cannot be overlooked.