Okay, let's just get this out in the open. If McCoy were in the game...

[Writer]

Poll question: Okay, let's just get this out in the open. If McCoy were in the game...

choose one. :)

(I'm STILL congratulating Alabama!)

[rcrush]

1. He would say "Dammit Jim! I'm a doctor not a football player!"

[texanwitch]

2. This game will be talked about for years.

I feel cheated.

[bamacrat]

4. That's football though. in 2005 we were rolling ......

and our star receiver Prothro horrifically broke his leg against Florida. We won the game but werent the same and ended up 10-2. We had a legitimate chance to win the SEC if not the NC with him healthy, but that's football, people get hurt. Just sucks when its in big games.

[texanwitch]

8. The game will still be talked about.

Maybe a video game will be made.

I am glad McCoy didn't come back, he had his future to think about.

It was a good game.

Gilbert got his chance to play, that will help him the next 3 years.

[bamacrat]

3. Bama would have won but by 3 in the last seconds.

McCoy didnt play D, they gave up 37, our D is better.

[Writer]

7. Let me just leave you with this.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/gameflash/2010/01/07/42227_boxscore.html

These are the stats for the entire game. I also heard that Texas' D held McElroy to 3 total yards of offense in the 3rd Quarter.

And... Gilbert outscored McElroy by 2 POINTS in the second half of the game.

Why did Alabama's D allow 15 points - including a 2 point conversion - from a true freshman quarterback suddenly thrust into a national championship game?

No... Texas' D is better. Our offense wasn't operating at 100%.

[bamacrat]

9. Texas D is better? not close.

The teams are pretty even except for the overrated rush D for Texas. They only allowed 63 yards per game rushing....we ran for 220. Our offense wasn't at full tilt either. we ran the ball 50 times and threw 11. we were playing conservative trying to run the clock out. Saban isn't like Meyer or Spurrier or any Big 12 pass happy coach who runs the score up. We played soft when McCoy went out, we didnt have to ball out. We won and that is all that matters or will be remembered.

[Writer]

10. After reviewing the statistics, I don't agree with your analysis at all, however...

I will be classy and congratulate Alabama once more.

[jobycom]

11. Texas's D gave up 17 points until those last two drives.

I don't know when this fantasy that Texas's defense did poorly began, but the box score says otherwise. Texas and Bama gave up about the same number of yards (276-263). Texas gave up more rushing yards, Bama more passing yards, as one would expect from the types of offenses they run.

Texas D gave up 17 points in the first half, and Bama scored another 7 on defense with that goofy shovel pass right before the half. Those were the last points Bama got until they recovered a fumble on the three yard line with under 3 minutes. Even then it took them three tries to score. After Gilbert threw another interception on the 27, Texas wasn't trying to stop them, they were trying to strip the ball.

Texas played great defense. The difference was McCoy not being in the game, pure and simple. bama may have beat McCoy anyway, who knows? But Texas's offense was about a third of what it would have been with McCoy in the game. There's no escaping that.

[soleiri]

5. Other

When all seemed lost, he would stand up and give the most amazing closing argument, ever. EVER.
and he'd win.

[Moses2SandyKoufax]

6. Injuries are part of the game.

You think your precious Horns would have won in 2005 if SC didn't have so many key injuries on defense?

Now Horns fan knows how it feels to be the better team in a NC game....and lose.

[jobycom]

12. So are what-if discussions after the game.

Yeah, the Horns would have won if USC hadn't had so many key injuries on defense. The better team won, no matter how loud Leinart whined afterwards.

The better team won tonight, too. Our receivers were dropping passes left and right, our coach got demoralized and gave up trying for half the game, just handing the ball off and hoping for a miracle. Sloppy play and bad play calling. Take away that idiotic shovel pass, go for it on fourth down for the first score after McCoy got injured, have our receiver hang on to the football when Gilbert hits him in the hands in the endzone (or any of the other times they dropped the ball), and Texas could have won that thing. Instead, they gave up and piddled around and didn't figure out until the fourth quarter that they really did still have a chance.

Now we know how it feels to be the second best team on the field. Maybe we'd have won if McCoy had played, but the fact that they caved when he went down says all that needs to be said. At least we aren't going to pretend for the next ten years that we were really the best.

[texanwitch]

13. You are right.

The team did give up after McCoy was hit.

Gilbert can throw the ball but someone has to catch it.

I was hoping the team would have fought harder after McCoy was hurt.

[Moses2SandyKoufax]

14. What arrogance. Texas won the 2006 game by three.

The horns and the greatest athlete in UT history could only pull out a three point, last second/drive victory against a team that was rotating Jim Abbott, Johnny Walker, Brandon and Ryan Ting, and a 50% at best Justin Wyatt and Darnell Bing through its secondary. (Not to mention starting true freshman Brian Cushing at LB) If Lendale gains another yard, if Reggie doesn't try to lateral, if Matt Doesn't throw that pick in the end-zone, if they reviewed Young's knee being down, SC three-peats. Play that game 100 times the Trojans win it 98-99 times.

[MrCoffee]

15. Texas would have destroyed Alabama

The first five minutes were all Texas. Two sacks, a turnover, the defense was all over Alabama...in the first five minutes. Losing the starting quarterback was a massive blow to the Horns, and blame Mack Brown for not preparing the team for the possibility.

It would have been brutal for Alabama.

[bigwillq]

16. I think Alabama still wins (nt)

[Fleshdancer]

17. I have no idea, but I wish the Horns could have pulled it off with Gilbert

Much love to McCoy, but damn that would have been one hell of a story if we won without him.

[trof]

18. A different QB would have had no effect on Bama's ground game.

And I don't buy that his disappearance completely demoralized the Texas defense.