5 QUESTIONS: OKLAHOMA 63, TEXAS 21

EACH OCTOBER, the Longhorns and the Sooners meet for the annual Red Rivalry game, prepared to battle one another as though they were fighting for the National Championship.

This year’s showdown was even more significant for Texas, who after falling about as far as team can fall just two years ago, sought to prove to the world that their swagger had returned. That’s why the then 15th –ranked Longhorns’ 63-21 loss to No. 13 Oklahoma is befuddling. All the talk surrounding the team’s improvement this season is now under question.

The Sooners dominated Texas in every imaginable way. “It’s unacceptable,” head coach Mack Brown said in regards ….

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to the team’s performance. “Some guys player well, but we played poorly as a team. We were outcoached and Oklahoma was more physical. I’m disappointed.”

Oklahoma officially exposed the Texas defense as a liability — a liability that even the Longhorn offense may not overcome. The Sooners’ 677 yards of total offense marked a new record in the 107-year game series, supplanting the 552 yards that Oklahoma racked in 2003 in a 65-13 win. The game was out of hand from the start, as the Sooners had 407 yards of total offense in the first half alone. Texas recorded 65 yards on one play and 48 on another.

The Sooners (4-1, 2-1) took the opening kickoff and drove 75 yards, ending with a Blake Bell 8-yard touchdown on a quarterback keeper. Texas blocked the PAT — after Oklahoma kicker Mike Hunnicutt tried to get the ball up after a bad snap — and Texas’ Quandre Diggs scopped up the ball, running the length of the field to give the Longhorns two points. Those two points were the only points scored by Texas in the first half.

The water started to leak from the Texas dam when Oklahoma running back Damien Williams took a zone read handoff, ran through a hole in the Longhorn defense and outsprinted Texas for a 95-yard touchdown run. William’s 95-yard touchdown rush was the longest rush in Red River Rivalry history.

By the end of the first quarter, Oklahoma had 13 points and 207 yards of total offense on 25 snaps. Texas had 14 yards of total offense on just nine plays. The Sooners added to their early lead in the second quarter when Bell rolled into the end zone with a 1-yard touchdown run. Bell added another 1-yard scoring run three plays after Oklahoma’s Trey Millard took a swing pass and hurdled over several tacklers for a 73-yard run. Texas (4-2, 1-2) gave back the two points when the Sooners tackled Joe Bergeron in the end zone for a safety.

Afterwards, Oklahoma scored on another Bell 1-yard run at the end of an eight play, 47-yard drive. At halftime, Oklahoma led 36-2. Deuces were wild for the Longhorns in the first quarters: they scored two points, racked up two first downs and two rushing yards, and quarterback David Ash threw two interceptions. Oklahoma’s Damien Williams had  yards rushing while Bell had four touchdowns. Carrington Byndom intercepted Sooners’ quarterback Landry Jones on the first drive of the second half. Byndom ran the pick back 28 yards to cut the lead to 36-8, giving the Longhorns some measure of hope.

Minutes later, Hunnicutt drilled a 36-yard field goal at the end of a 10-play, 49-yard drive, and quelled Texas’ glimmer of hope. At the end of the third quarter, Jones — who passed for 321  yards — hit Millard on a 25-yard touchdown pass. The Sooners added another Hunnicutt field goal, a Jones-to-Justin Brown 14-yard touchdown pass and a 1-yard scoring run by Brennan Clay in the fourth quarter. Texas countered with two touchdown passes by backup quarterback Case McCoy, who entered the game after Ash injured his left wrist. McCoy first connected on 44-yarder to Mike Davis and then, on the game’s final play, to John Harris.

By that time, most Texas fans were on the State Fair midway, trying to eat enough fried foods, corn dogs and funnel cakes to ease the woozy feeling in their stomachs. Asked afterward about his team’s blowout win, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops added fuel to the fire. “It feels good to dominate Texas and to play as well as we did,” Stoops said. “If we left our [No. 1] defense out there, I don’t think the [final score] would’ve been the same.”

Oklahoma has outscored Texas 126-58 in the past three rivalry games. Texas has lost nine consecutive games against ranked teams (dating back to its win against Nebraska in October 2010). The loss dropped the Longhorns to No. 25 in the rankings.

1) CAN TEXAS DEFENSE STOP THE RUN?

In the past three games, the Longhorns gave up 980 yards rushing. In comparison, Texas allowed 795 yards rushing the entire year in 2006, 1,086 in 2008 and 1,013 in 2009. Defensive Coordinator Many Diaz said  he needs to get to the defense to play faster, and better, versus the run.

“We have guys on the defense who aren’t sure about what to do and where to go,” Diaz said. “We’re getting out-hit. When you don’t play fast and confident, you end up catching blocks instead of attacking blocks.” The Sooners averaged 6.7 yards per rush against the Longhorns and Williams ended up with 167 yards on 22 carries. “If you can’t stop the run, you open up the whole playbook for their offense,” safety Kenny Vaccaro said.

When asked if Oklahoma’s offense showed anything new, Brown shook his head. “Nothing,” he said. Can the Texas defense rebound? Diaz says not to give up all hope. “Confidence in the defense is multi-tiered,” he said.

“What I saw today was leadership starting to develop in an adverse situation. We challenged some guys at halftime, and we’re starting to see how we’re growing up and how that’s going to affect the future.”

2) WHY WAS THE TEXAS OFFENSE INEFFECTIVE?

Oklahoma threw some curves at the Texas offense and once the ball started rolling downhill, Texas couldn’t get out of its own way. “What we received [ from the Oklahoma defense ] wasn’t what we expected,” Texas co-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin said. “We needed to get some mojo going early and we didn’t.”

Texas had trouble getting the ball to its playmakers, especially the wide receivers. The starting receivers – Davis, Jaxon Shipley and Marquise Goodwin – combined for six catches for 92 yards. Davis led with five catches. Shipley had one catch for three yards and Goodwin blanked. “We started slow and we had our mistakes,” Davis said. “Oklahoma played well and we tried.”

The Longhorns ended up with 289 yards of total offense and just 60 snaps compared to Oklahoma’s 90. Texas running backs Bergeron, Johnathan Gray and Jeremy Hills ran for just 17 yards on 13 carries. “This was the best defense we’ve played against,” Brown said. “[Oklahoma] outplayed us.”

3) WHY DID TEXAS START SLOW?

Maybe the Red River Rivalry means more to Oklahoma than it does to Texas. In the first half of the pat two games, the Sooners have outscored the Longhorns 70-12, gained 722 yards, forced five turnovers and committed none.

Diggs said Texas didn’t match Oklahoma’s  intensity early in the game, placing the Longhorns in a big hole. “They were ready to play and we weren’t,” Diggs said. “You would think we understood what we were going to see, but I guess not.” “[We] let them get away with the game, and we couldn’t come back with it,” Gray added.

For Oklahoma, playing well against Texas was sweeter than eating a fried Milky Way bar. “I have to complement our players for their excellent play today and our assistant coaches for having a good plan and having the players prepared to play,” Stoops said. “I was pleased to play so well in every facet of the game.”

4) WHAT DOES TEXAS NEED TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS GAME?

The Longhorns need to improve every aspect of their game before thinking about their return to college football’s mountaintop. Not only did Oklahoma beat Texas on the scoreboard, the Sooners physically manhandled the Longhorns.

The one thing Texas gained from this game is that their players will continue to try, no matter the score of the opponent. Nearly every player in their post game press conference mentioned that the team played better in the second half this year than in 2011,  when the Longhorns lost to Oklahoma, 55-17. The problem is that the Sooners played better, too. Brown said his players never quit.

“On offense, we weren’t out there long enough to quit,” he quipped. “We made plays on defense we haven’t made in the past, and we did tackle better,” he said. “It’s just unacceptable for Texas to lose like that to Oklahoma, much less anybody, especially two years in a row. That’s not who we are.”

5) AFTER STARTING THE SEASON SO WELL, HAS TEXAS REGRESSED?

We can attribute the Longhorns’ troubles with the teams they’ve lined up against. Remember that Oklahoma earned a top ranking before the season started. Still, Texas looked unprepared and uninspired against Oklahoma – a disturbing sight since this game served as a benchmark for resurgence.

“You can’t tell [if Texas is regressing] week to week,” Brown said. “The game wasn’t pretty today. It’s not a proud moment for us. We can’t forget this; we have to learn from it, move forward.  We’re sitting in the same spot we were last year, so we have to finish stronger.” Texas was 4-2 overall and 1-2 in 2011 after its loss to Oklahoma.

The second half of the regular season saw the Horns go 3-3, with wins against Kansas, Texas Tech and Texas A&M. The Longhorns lost to Missouri, Kansas State and Baylor, and ended 2011 with a victory over Cal in the Holiday Bowl. “We’re all feeling sick right now,” Shipley said.

“But there are two ways you can go about this: you can let it beat you down for the next couple of weeks, or you can bounce back and come together as a team. And I think that’s what we’re going to do.”

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