Matt Hayes

DALLAS -

Somehow this all seems so fitting. The first BCS poll of the season will be released Sunday, and the annual grousing and griping will commence.

At the front of the line: the Texas Longhorns.

For the second straight season, Texas beat rival Oklahoma. And for the second straight season, it likely will do more harm than good.

If Saturday's 16-13 victory truly was the Longhorns' prove-it game, the No. 3 team in the nation proved it can win ugly. And in this demolition derby/beauty pageant of a BCS system, that's not going to cut it.

"We were sitting in the same situation last year," said Texas coach Mack Brown. "We let it go into a system, and the system kicked us out."

Which makes Saturday's prove-it game all the more confusing. When the Longhorns needed to strut, they could only stumble.

Special feature Texas gunslinger Check out quarterback Colt McCoy in action. NBCSports.com

Instead of making a statement against reeling, injury-ridden Oklahoma, Texas raised more questions. Quarterback Colt McCoy played the worst game of his fabulous career, and saved the game with — get this — a tackle after his second turnover was a tackle away from being returned for the go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

Texas still is trying to find a running game, and still has problems protecting McCoy, who was sacked four times and pressured countless others. In a game set up for the Longhorns to peacock for a national television audience, they waddled and muddled around until the defense saved what could've been a disaster.

"We saw what happened last year when we let other people control our destiny," Texas wideout Jordan Shipley said. "So the answer is pretty simple: win every game. Doesn't matter how you do it."

It most certainly does. Tell that to No. 20 Oklahoma, which last year lost in the this game but looked all pretty with loads of touchdowns and highlights in the second half of the season and won the Big 12 South Division tiebreaker over the Longhorns.

If ever there were a moment when Texas should've humbled its bitter rival, this was it. OU was without its starting quarterback (in the first quarter, Sam Bradford hurt his throwing shoulder again) and its best offensive lineman (Trent Williams), and its best receiver (Ryan Broyles) was playing with a bum shoulder. For the love of Bevo, OU was using a center (Brody Eldridge) at tight end.

Slideshow   Top 25 action See images from the best games around the country. NBCSports.com

Yet this win went down as easy as those fried butter nuggets — yep, fried butter — at the Texas State Fair. It's not so much the guilt as it is the agita.

"We're not apologizing because we're 6-0," said Texas offensive tackle Adam Ulatoski. "But at the same time, we've got a lot of work to do to get where we need to be."

Last week, a number of pre-BCS rankings had the Longhorns at No. 3 for the first poll of the season. If that's the case, they're really at No. 2. With Florida and Alabama at the top of the rankings, one of those two heavyweights from the SEC is guaranteed to lose before the end of the season.

That means Texas, if it continues to win, will in theory find a way to the BCS national championship game. That is, if the loss — uh, the win — to Oklahoma doesn't trip them up again.

"It's a fight, a struggle," McCoy said. "It's going to be ugly at times."

An hour after the game, Bevo, the Texas steer mascot, walked off the field, stopped in the Crimson end zone at the Cotton Bowl and defecated on the "A" in Oklahoma.

Now that's ugly.

That doesn't cut it in this beauty pageant of a race.

SportingNews.com Lots of hype, hope _ and Dion Lewis _ for Pitt 6 teams with something to prove Rutgers looking for bigger and better bowl in 2010 After the fall, a new subdued era at USC It's what's up front that counts for Buckeyes

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