 "Photo: Joe Buglewicz")
Gene Chizik has never been one to point fingers.
As a defensive coordinator with a recent personal 29-game win streak, he really hasn't had too many opportunities to do so.
Texas' loss to the Buckeyes lent him the perfect opportunity to place the blame on someone else.
That thought, however, never crossed his mind.
"There was a lot of bad things at critical times, and ultimately that falls on me," Texas' co-defensive coordinator said. "The negatives popped up at bad times."
The Longhorns did a good job of shutting down Ohio State's ground game. The Buckeyes' highly touted duo of Antonio Pittman and Chris Wells combined for 91 yards rushing. In total, the team only rushed for 79 yards on 29 carries.
The Longhorns did as good of a job as a team could hope to do against a talent like Ted Ginn Jr. - five catches for 97 yards and one touchdown. But a few glaring question marks still remain as the team continues its preparation for Rice on Saturday.
Before the season, Texas coach Mack Brown stressed the importance of the defense and its ability to force more turnovers than last year, where the Longhorns forced 27 fumbles. But that hasn't happened yet and Brown isn't too happy about it.
"[I'm] disappointed, not surprised," Brown said. "I don't get surprised anymore."
Texas forced two turnovers - both fumbles - against North Texas in its opening game. But it failed to make Ohio State cough up the ball and defensive end Brian Robison credits that point of concern to too many mistakes.
"You get down to the bottom line, it comes down to mistakes and how you do on the field," Robison said. "Right now, we have just made too many mistakes."
Safety Michael Griffin doesn't think it's a matter of proving that the team can make the necessary adjustments and translate them to the field. They just need to minimize errors.
"I don't think we have something to prove. I think we need to go out there and capitalize on our mistakes," Griffin said.
Because of the suspension to staring cornerback Tarell Brown, inexperienced cornerbacks Brandon Foster, Robert Joseph and Ryan Palmer quickly became battle tested against Ginn, Anthony Gonzalez and the rest of the Buckeyes' potent passing game.
Griffin said the younger cornerbacks played well, but the atmosphere may have gotten to them early.
"There were some blown coverages here and there," Griffin said. "The younger guys tried to step up and did the best that they could. They had never been in an atmosphere like that. Coming out of high school, you may have seen at the most 20,000 people, but coming out here and seeing 90,000 people, a big jumbotron and a great team, a No. 1 ranked opponent that you are used to seeing on TV and that you dream about playing as a kid, and you are actually seeing them play."
The Longhorns did indeed get to see Ohio State play, got beat by them and are anxious to move on.
"There are no excuses," Griffin said. "We lost, and we have to keep going. The season is not over. We still have games to play."
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