40 Acres Sports

Saturday night with a national television watching the Texas Longhorns showed everyone (well, almost everyone) that they’re the clear number one. They took a very good [tag]Missouri[/tag] team behind the woodshed and beat them handily. In a near perfect first half the Longhorns jumped out to a 35 – 0 lead before the Tigers knew what hit them.

Watch the ESPN highlights of the game:

Stay tuned to Bevo Sports for more coverage of the Mizzou game and preview of Texas and [tag]Oklahoma State[/tag].

The #1 Texas Longhorns versus the #11 Missouri Tigers is the biggest game of the weekend in college football. The two high scoring offenses will match-up tonight at 7pm in a nationally televised game on ABC and ESPN Gameday was live from the forty acres this morning. With an even bigger target on their backs than usual, can the Longhorns continue their high level play and stay at the top of the polls? See what the editors of Bevo Sports think below:

Brian – [tag]Oklahoma State[/tag] did a great job slowing down Mizzou’s offense in their upset last week and Texas is even better on that side of the ball. If OSU can get after Chase Daniel with their defensive line than [tag]Brian Orakpo[/tag] and [tag]Sergio Kindle[/tag] are going to have huge games. With their defense the Tigers will need to score 50+ to win against good teams, they’re not going to do it tonight. Texas will frustrate Daniel into making mistakes and the Horns are going to win big because of it. Texas 48 – Missouri 27

Matt – Many Longhorn fans seem to think this game is going to be easy. This scares me a little. Missouri is a tough team and they don’t average 555 yards (383 yards passing) for nothing. And then you have the fact that Texas just gave up 5 passing touchdowns. And then you have Chase Daniel who is probably still pissed off with past recruiting issues and will probably be trying extra hard to prove Texas wrong. Now with all of that said I think Texas will be ready for this game and won’t get caught in all the hype the #1 ranking brings. This will be be a high scoring affair (the O/U is only 65). Texas 48 – Missouri 38

Mike – Last week I made the mistake of picking against Texas. This week I’m torn between made to look like an idiot for two straight weeks and jinxing the Horns by picking them to win. I’m hoping [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] and [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] are enough to overcome my jinx because I’m picking Texas in this one. Both teams have Heisman Trophy candidates at quarterback, both teams can make plays in the special teams, and both teams are coming off of season changing games. The difference in this one will be turnovers and pass defense. I think Texas holds the advantage in both of those categories. McCoy is going to shred an overmatched Tiger secondary and the combination of Orakpo and Kindle will remind Chase Daniel why he always wanted to be a Longhorn. Texas 41 – Missouri 20

Don't let Jeremy Maclin beat you

Another week, another tough opponent for the Longhorns. This week it’s [tag]Missouri[/tag] and their Heisman candidate quarterback Chase Daniel in a national primetime game on ABC. The Texas defense will be trying to slow down the Tigers’ offense while [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] and the offense attempt to continue to put up huge numbers on the scoreboard.

Read on below to see what the keys are for the Longhorns to come out on top:

1. Use Missouri’s wide splits against them.

ESPN was useful for the first time in years when they posted a video breakdown of how Oklahoma State’s defense slowed down the Mizzou offense. The defensive end instead of trying to get outside simply takes advantage of the wide splits and speeds right at the quarterback while the defensive tackle twists outside to provide contain pressure. The Missouri offensive coaches better either have come up with a counter for that or change strategy completely because if they don’t [tag]Brian Orakpo[/tag] and [tag]Sergio Kindle[/tag] are going to blow things up all game long.

2. Don’t let Jeremy Maclin change momentum with a kick return.

Last week against [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] the Longhorns were down by 11 when a big [tag]Jordan Shipley[/tag] kickoff return for a score completely flipped the game’s score and momentum. Texas can’t let Missouri wide receiver Jeremy Maclin do the same thing in this game. Texas needs punter [tag]John Gold[/tag] and kickoff specialist [tag]Justin Tucker[/tag] to either kick it away from Maclin or put it high enough and deep enough that the coverage teams can do their job.

3. Continue developing third receiving option.

Last week Shipley and [tag]Quan Cosby[/tag] together absolutely torched the OU defense but at some point this year the Horns will face a team with cornerbacks who can man up against those guys. The team needs to find another option Colt McCoy can rely on. Sophomore [tag]Brandon Collins[/tag] caught three passes against the Sooners and may be becoming that guy. Now that the Texas offense will be using more four wide receiver sets both Collins and [tag]James Kirkendoll[/tag] will get their chances and need to step up.

Former Texas running back [tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] may get his first NFL start this Sunday for the Kansas City Chiefs when they face off against the Tennessee Titans. The Chiefs have suspended Pro Bowl RB Larry Johnson after being charged with assault earlier in the week for a February incident in which he allegedly shoved a woman at a nightclub. Either Charles or Kolby Smith will get the start in his place.

Officially, Johnson was “deactivated” and not suspended by the team:

Running back Larry Johnson will not be active this week when the Chiefs meet the Tennessee Titans on Sunday at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium. Johnson has not been “suspended,” head coach Herm Edwards said today, and his deactivation is not related in any way to Johnson’s pending court case. He won’t be active for the game because “he broke team rules and the consequences are he won’t play this weekend,” Edwards made clear.

“Larry Johnson is not suspended,” Edwards said, “for if you know suspension he can’t be at the facility and he can’t practice. Larry practiced yesterday, he practiced today.” Edwards said Johnson will return to the field next week.

Charles hasn’t gotten a ton of carries this season (21 for 98 yards) but he is averaging a healthy 4.7 yards per carry and has also caught 12 passes for 68 yards. Possibly getting your first start (and for sure getting a bunch of carries) against a tough Titans’ defense isn’t ideal, but it is a good chance for Jamaal to show he should be getting more than six touches per game. The Titans and Chiefs play Sunday at noon on CBS, but the game is not being shown on TV in this area.

Good interview up on Dan Patrick’s site with Dan and [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag]. Colt talks about beating OU, being on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and of course the SI cover jinx. Click play to listen to the eight minute interview below:

Great video analysis from ESPN of what [tag]Oklahoma State[/tag] did defensively last Saturday in their upset win over [tag]Missouri[/tag]. They look at how the defensive line did such a good job getting pressure on quarterback Chase Daniel and at how the OSU secondary took away Daniel’s options if he did have time. Watch:

With the athleticism of the Texas defensive tackles a similar strategy would be effective at getting to Daniel both up the middle and around the edge. It will be interesting to see what wrinkles Texas defensive coordinator [tag]Will Muschamp[/tag] will use to shut down Mizzou’s high powered offense and if their coaches have any answers now that a team has them “figured out”. We’ll find out Saturday at 7pm.

Roy Williams is the newest Dallas Cowboy

Former Texas Longhorns wide receiver [tag]Roy Williams[/tag] was traded just before today’s NFL trading deadline from the woeful Detroit Lions to the Dallas Cowboys. Williams is in a contract year and had been pretty vocal about wanting a new contract and not being happy in Detroit. To get Williams the Cowboys gave up their first-round pick, third-round pick, and a sixth-round pick in the 2009 draft. In addition to Williams, Dallas also gets a seventh-round pick in the same draft.

Roy will be the number two receiver for the Cowboys and will prevent most teams from double teaming Terrell Owens, or else risk being burned by the dynamic Williams. At only 26 he also gives the Cowboys a number one caliber player when Owens is no longer one of the league’s top players.

He has elite talent but so far this season had caught only 17 passes for 232 yards and one touchdown from two different awful Lions’ quarterbacks. Getting out of the bad situation he was in in Detroit will hopefully give him a fresh start and renewed energy for the game. New focus and a much better guy throwing him the ball (at least when Tony Romo returns) could mean a good finish to this season and even bigger things for Williams in the future. This could be the perfect scenario for Williams and his fans.

Also: Listen to Roy discuss being traded to the Cowboys.

The Rocky Mountain News’ weekly Heisman poll has been going strong for over 20 years and is one of the most accurate predictors of the winner of the award out there. In this week’s poll Texas quarterback [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] has vaulted to the top of their list. Nine out of the ten sportswriters voting put McCoy in the number one spot, giving him a comfortable lead over [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] QB Sam Bradford

Check out the top five in the Heisman Trophy poll below:

In his weekly press conference, Texas head coach [tag]Mack Brown[/tag] discusses the upset victory over [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] and the players that excelled during the game. Mack names the players of the game for the defense, offense, and special teams, discusses the Horns being ranked number one, and looks ahead towards [tag]Missouri[/tag].

Watch Mack Brown’s 22-minute press conference:

Voters agree with Colt, Texas is number 1!

Well lookie here, the Texas Longhorns are the new number one team in the land. After the team’s big win over [tag]Oklahoma[/tag] the team vaulted from number five in both polls to the very top. Huge shakeup this week with losses in the top five by OU, Missouri, and LSU, but in the AP poll the Sooners surprisingly only fell to number four. [tag]Alabama[/tag] is a very close second in both polls followed by [tag]Penn State[/tag].

This week’s opponent [tag]Missouri[/tag] fell out of the top ten with a loss, but they’re still a very good team and it doesn’t get easier after them. Due to the way the schedules lay out, the Longhorns could actually face two more top five teams in [tag]Oklahoma State[/tag] and [tag]Texas Tech[/tag] if they win the games they should and stay undefeated.

Check out this week’s rankings or view the top 10 teams below: