More Embarrassing: Texas Longhorns? Or the Entire Big 12?

Turns out, the conference with the worst officiating also reminds us it has the thinnest skin.

WHITT’S END: 11.19.21

Whether you’re at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt’s End …

*Forgettable year for the Big 12 marches on, now with an embarrassing, self-inflicted wound. First, Texas and Oklahoma vow to bolt for the SEC. Then no football team is strong enough to be considered for the College Football Playoff. And now, the conference with the worst officiating also reminds us it has the thinnest skin.

Brian Jensen – Dale Hansen’s former TV sidekick at Channel 8 – has been banned from performing his duties at Texas Tech’s radio voice in this weekend’s game against Oklahoma State because, gasp, he had the audacity to highlight egregious officiating errors in last week’s walk-off win over Iowa State.

I watched this game and – with no dog in the hunt – it was preposterous.

Two horrible calls against the Red Raiders, neither of which the referee would even bother with a review.

“Yeah, Bob Bowlsby, you need to answer to this,” Jensen said on his broadcast. “This is ridiculous. The inconsistency of this referee crew in favor of Iowa State. Unbelievable.”

Added Jensen’s sidekick analyst John Harris, “I’ll say it right now, the Big 12 does not want Iowa State to lose this game.”

Tech students pelted the field with debris, before Jonathan Garibay’s dramatic 62-yard walk-off field goal. But afterward, Bowlsby – the Big 12 commish – did indeed answer by banning the radio duo. Censoring free speech, of course, is an awful look. Even if it’s harsh, critical speech.

Bowlsby and the Big 12 should pour as much time and energy into the real problem here – appalling officiating.

*Dak Prescott is a better NFL quarterback in 2021 than Patrick Mahomes. There, I said it.

Now, allow me to show my work ...

If they both have their “average” game Sunday in Kansas City, the Cowboys win. Based on this season’s comparative bodies of work, Prescott is outperforming the former MVP entering the showdown against the Chiefs. Forget what you knew about Mahomes in previous seasons and what you project for him in the future.

The question is: Who is the better quarterback for this game, in this season?

The answer is: Prescott.

Since he’s played two fewer games (thanks to his calf and the Chiefs’ bye), gross totals aren’t relevant. But averages are. You can have the player with the past accolades; I’ll take the one with the present productivity. In fewer attempts per game, Prescott produces the same yards and touchdowns with fewer interceptions and sacks, all wrapped in a higher rating.

Unless you value the most off-balance, left-hand, I-can’t-believe-he-tried-that passes, Dak is superior.

Per-game averages games in 2021:

QB Comp Att Pct Yds TDs Ints Sacks Rating

Prescott 25 35 70.3 292 2.5 0.6 1.3 110.8

Mahomes 27 41 65.8 294 2.5 1.0 1.7 96.7

*Gritty performance by the Dallas Mavericks in Phoenix this week without injured Luka Doncic. But, after the seven-point loss, did we ultimately learn that Cooper Rush is a better backup passer than Jalen Brunson?

*Make plans to be at American Airlines Center Jan. 5. 1. To watch the Warriors’ Steph Curry shoot 3-pointers; 2. To witness the Mavs retire Dirk Nowitzki’s No. 41. Hopefully there will be indelible playoff memories in 2022, but this night will be tough to top.

*Texas Rangers unveiled their promotional schedule for 2022, which will be their 50th season of baseball in Arlington. Though there will be a Charley Pride bobblehead and a Mexican Heritage jersey, in sticking with their conservative agenda there is zero mention of anything remotely associated with the LGBTQ community.

Recognizing – much less embracing – this part of their fan base is akin to not being able to hit a high fastball. Or, for that matter, not even offering to swing at it.

*Friends don’t let friends eat black, mushy, overripe bananas. Do they?

*When I’m wrong, I’m wrong. When I’m right, you’ll likely hear about it. Back on Aug. 1, I predicted the Cowboys’ least important – despite being the most-hyped – game of the season would be the season opener at Tampa Bay. Why? Because an inviting schedule had them playing eight consecutive non-playoff teams in the ensuing weeks, leading into the end of their Super Bowl sandwich at the Chiefs.

Sure enough, the Cowboys went 7-1 in that stretch.

*Dear every announcer in every sport: Unless you’re calling an Alpine skiing race or perhaps the Boston Marathon, there is no “downhill.” Playing fields are very precise, level plots of property. To say “he’s a great downhill running back” or “this guard really gets going downhill and attacks the basket” is just a silly, lazy, wrong cliché.

Stop.

And, while we’re at it, the next analyst to utter “put his foot in the ground” should be subjected to a foot in his you-know-what.

*Hot.

*Not.

*Maybe unicorns are real after all. If Kristaps Porzingis can sustain the energy and efficiency he displayed this week, the Mavs could win a playoff series for the first time in 11 years.

*A tad early to sound the comparison, but when I hear Chiefs coach Andy Reid talk about the 2021 Cowboys it sure sounds like NFL coaches talking about the 1993 Cowboys.

“If you ask me to combine one thing that jumps out at you on their offense, defense and special teams, it’s their speed,” Reid said this week. “They play fast.”

Ask Jimmy Johnson his No. 1 priority in building the roster that won three Super Bowls in four years and he’ll tell you … speed.

*Once upon a time in 2000, Gabe Kapler set the Rangers’ hitting-streak record at 28 games. This week he was named NL Manager of the Year with the Giants. Gotta admit, never thought to draw a line connecting those two feats.

*In a college football season with no standout players but one clearly dominant unit, shouldn’t the Heisman Trophy go to the best player on the best defense the sport has seen in three decades? The Georgia Bulldogs – led by linebacker Nakobe Dean – have allowed seven touchdowns all season.

Seven.

The Texas Longhorns coughed up eight just last week … to Kansas!

Every time I turn on Georgia, Dean is all over the field. He has 4.5 sacks, seven tackles for loss, two interceptions, a forced fumble and 15 quarterback hits. To give college football’s most prestigious award to a pedestrian offensive player that couldn’t score on Georgia would be disingenuous.

*Nobody can adequately cover Cowboys’ receiver CeeDee Lamb this season. Not even the NFL’s social media team. (Apologies to Bob Hayes.)

*Okay, in the GEICO ad with the baby stroller on the football field, who/what exactly are the defensive players playing “peek-a-boo” with? The essence of that game is seeing the baby, making eye contact, and then “disappearing” only to reappear with a giggle. You wouldn’t – you couldn’t – play “peek-a-boo” with a football swaddled in a baby blanket. You’d stop upon “peek”, because you’d know there would be no “boo.”

GEICO has lots of clever commercials. This is not one of them.

*Ready for Cowboys-Bills, Part III? A group of advanced analytics geeks projects them to meet in Super Bowl LVI.

*Latest stats from the CDC: Vaccinated Americans are still just as likely to get COVID, but 20 times less likely to die from it. Let that sink in. Because I continue to hear yahoos saying irrational things like “See, he was vaccinated and he got COVID!”

Seat belts don’t prevent you from being in a car wreck, but they do increase your odds of surviving one.

Since June 1, 20,000 Texans have died from COVID – despite a free, plentiful vaccine. In the end, our real pandemic isn’t a virus but more so a toxic combo of stubborn meets stupid.

*Other than Prescott’s health, biggest difference in the Cowboys from 2020 to 2021? Third-down defense. Under Dan Quinn, they are holding teams to only 32-percent success on third down. Last season that number was 47 percent. Add that to their 24 takeaways (they only had 27 last season) and, presto, improvement.

*According to AAA, more than 53 million Americans will travel for Thanksgiving. 1. That’s an alarming, pre-pandemic level; 2. How in the world do they know if I’m driving to see family or not?

*Losing at home to Kansas sealed Texas’ fate as the most disappointing team of the college football season. Ranked 18th in the preseason with a Heisman candidate in running back Bijan Robinson, the Longhorns were 4-1 and led Oklahoma, 38-20, at halftime on Oct. 9.

In the 18 quarters of football since, Robinson suffered a season-ending injury, receiver Joshua Moore quit the team and they have lost to the Sooners, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Iowa State and Jayhawks.

Tom Herman, all is forgiven?

*Dumbest name of the year goes to … Tom Brady: Man in the Arena. What the what?! During his 22 seasons and 310 games, Brady has taken exactly 0 snaps in an “arena.”

*A grip on their division and a leg up on the conference’s best record isn’t the only prize on the line Sunday in Kansas City. In 1989, former Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt established the “Preston Road Trophy” for games played between Dallas and Kansas City. Both teams got their start in Dallas, and at the time both Hunt and Jerry Jones lived on Preston Road.

*No Whitt’s End next week as we’ll take a Thanksgiving break. Speaking of thanks, a big appreciation to those who have been reading and supporting – or even lambasting – my weekly drivel all these years. Happy Turkey to you and yours.

*This Weekend? Saturday let’s go for a little Turkey Trot tune-up training run. Sunday let’s go for a pre-turkey visit to fam we won’t see next week (sssh, don’t tell AAA), before Cowboys-Chiefs. As always, don’t be a stranger.