For Dallas Cowboys fans, it was more on the rough side,, actually WAY on the rough side, in a 19-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that was already a disaster in the fourth quarter, and THEN they lost their starting quarterback, Dak Prescott for 6 to 8 weeks with a hand injury to compound the agony. Absolutely brutal.
What goes somewhat untold amid the assorted frustrations of NFL fans in Texas on Sunday is that there is a good chance, if you're a Texans or Cowboys fan who attended an FBS college in the state, you probably were already suffering from a college football hangover from Saturday, a day which saw unprecedented angst and carnage on the Texas college gridiron.
I think it's safe to say that if you added up the alum from Texas, Texas A&M, University of Houston, and Baylor, you would have a vast majority, probably over 90 percent, of the FBS alumni base in the greater Houston area. Coincidentally, those are the four most prominent football schools in the area, in terms of 2022 expectations. Also, coincidentally, they all lost in fairly heartbreaking fashion on Saturday, and it shows in the latest AP poll.
To recap the results from Week 2:
#6 TEXAS A&M falls to Appalachian State, 17-14
Maybe it's a case of looking past the Mountaineers, with Miami (FL) coming to College Station next week, or maybe Year 5 of the Jimbo Fisher Era is on its way to what every other year is — high hopes, swallowed up in disappointment, and ultimately an 8-4 record with an eye on the Aggies REAL season of football, RECRUITING Y'ALL! YEE HAW HOWDY!
AP Rankings Effect: Aggies fall from No. 6 to No. 24
No. 9 BAYLOR falls at BYU, 26-20 in double OT
This will be an interesting season for Baylor, in Year 3 of Dave Aranda as head coach. They won the Big XII last season, but Year 3 will be a harbinger for how sustainable the success will be. Baylor showed some gumption in Provo on Saturday, tying the game in the fourth quarter, and holding BYU to 83 yards on 33 carries, but they didn't get the job done. Still, they are the highest ranked Texas school, as of Monday morning.
AP Rankings Effect: Bears fall from No. 9 to No. 17
No. 25 HOUSTON falls at Texas Tech, 33-30 in double OT
The Coogs were kind of fortunate to win in overtime versus UTSA in Week 1, and almost got lucky again on Saturday in Lubbock, but alas, the karma evened out. I'll let U of H head coach Dana Holgorsen sum things up, much more eloquently than I can:
AP Rankings Effect: Coogs fall from No. 24 out of the Top 25Coach Dana Holgorsen: “We didn’t play well enough to win.Just a whole lot of stupid stuff. Stupid,stupid,stupid, undisciplined stuff.I don’t feel like we deserved to win..Just let it slip away again.We’d been lucky to get out of here with a win..Makes me sick” Courtesy @UHCougars pic.twitter.com/sF0lIWg77y
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) September 11, 2022
TEXAS falls to No. 1 Alabama, 20-19 on a late field goal
The best performance of all four of these teams, by far, was from the only unranked team of the four heading into the weekend, as the Longhorns took top ranked Alabama to the brink of upset. Alas, 2021 Heisman winner Bryce Young made enough plays late to eke out a 20-19 win. Losing to Alabama in a close one actually helped the Longhorns elevate INTO the Top 25.
AP Rankings Effect: Longhorns rise from unranked to No. 21
So right now, the great state of Texas doesn't have any teams among the top 16 in the country, according to the writers voting in the AP poll. I hope this doesn't ruin my rewatch binge of "Friday Night Lights" on the Peacock app.
Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.
