Mistakes doom No. 14 Texas in loss to No. 5 Oklahoma in Big 12 Championship

By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas — There’s not much to differentiate the level of talent between No. 5 Oklahoma and No. 14 Texas, so the last thing the Longhorns could afford to do was lose sight of the details in the Big 12 Championship game.

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The Longhorns were up to that task, for the most part, back in October when they beat the Sooners by three points in the Red River Shootout. But the little things got away from Texas in the rematch Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington in contest that was significantly more important that the one at the Cotton Bowl.

Those mistakes, combined with a baker’s dozen penalties, cost the Longhorns as Oklahoma was at its best late in the game in securing a 39-27 win that earned the Sooners their fourth straight Big 12 title and likely a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Yes, Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray amassed 418 yards of total yards, including 379 yards and three touchdowns through the air, and yes, the Sooners — hell-bent on revenge after Texas handed then their only defeat this season — seemed to have the emotional edge in a raucous stadium populated by 83,114 fans, the largest crowd to see any conference title game in history.

But for the most part, the Longhorns were undeterred and went toe-to-toe with Oklahoma, with the game tied at 27 heading into the fourth quarter. That’s when UT’s penchant for giving the Sooners extra plays because of penalties and its lack of a running game proved too much to overcome.

“Hard-fought game,” Texas coach Tom Herman said afterward. “I’m really proud of our effort, proud of our physicality. We obviously didn’t make enough plays down the stretch. Extremely disappointed in the outcome for these seniors, especially. This is something they had worked so hard for the last 12 months. To come up just short is a tough pill to swallow.”

Texas (9-4) ended up with just 88 rushing yards, its lowest output of the season. The Longhorns best ground gainer was quarterback Sam Ehlinger, who had 42 yards and two touchdowns on the ground while also passing for 349 yards and two more scores.

“I felt like we weren’t running the ball like we thought we would be able to,” Herman said. “That was certainly an issue, when you’re kind of playing one-handed a little bit, (just) throwing the football.”

The Longhorns drove 75 yards in nine plays on its opening possession to a 16-yard touchdown run by Ehlinger that spotted Texas a 7-0 lead at the 11:38 mark of the first quarter. A 32-yard pass from Ehlinger to wide receiver Collin Johnson helped Texas convert one third down on the march and another on a 16-yard pass to Humphrey to set the table for the scoring run.

Oklahoma (12-1) answered by marching 72 yards to the Texas 1-yard line before Gary Johnson and Anthony Wheeler stopped the Sooners’ Trey Sermon for a 2-yard loss on third down and forced OU to settle for a 20-yard field goal by Austin Seibert.

After a Texas punt, the Sooners used 13 plays to cover 55 yards and another Seibert field goal, this time from 27 yards out after the Longhorns’ Kris Boyd slapped the ball out of OU receiver Marquise Brown’s arms in the end zone.

A picture-perfect 23-yard pass to Johnson on fourth down from the OU 38 set the table for Ehlinger’s 3-yard touchdown four plays later and culminated another nine-play, 75-yard march for the Longhorns. After Cameron Dicker’s extra point, Texas led, 14-6, with 11:22 to play in the second quarter.

The rest of the half belonged to Oklahoma.

The Sooners responded with a six-play, 87-yard march to a 28-yard touchdown pass from Murray to CeeDee Lamb that brought OU to within 14-13 with 5:01 to play until halftime. Murray and Lamb connected on a 46-yard pass to open the drive and combined for 74 of the possession’s yards.

After another Texas punt, Oklahoma had just enough time to drive 80 yards to the lead score, which came on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Murray to Grant Calcaterra with 18 seconds left until halftime and a 20-14 OU advantage. Murray passed twice to Nick Basquine for 44 yards on the march, before Lamb hauled in a 17-yard catch on the sideline and UT’s Breckyn Hager was flagged for a face-mask penalty to help the Sooners’ cause.

Oklahoma held a 256-233 edge in total yardage at the halftime intermission, although Texas had a 16- to 14-minute edge in time of possession. The real difference in the half was the Longhorns’ undisciplined play — they had eight penalties for 78 yards to just 2 for 15 for OU — with 45 of those yards coming in the first quarter against Boyd.

“Those penalties definitely hurt us,” said Johnson, who finished with eight catches for a Big 12 title game-record 177 yards. “But, again, we have no say on the call. We just gotta kinda figure out a way to overcome it and we weren’t able to do that today. It definitely hurt us, that’s for sure.”

The Sooners kept their momentum on the opening possession of the second half, using five runs during an eight-play march and another pass interference penalty on Texas to add to their lead, with Sermon’s 6-yard run into the end zone off right tackle making it 27-13 with 12:01 to play in the third quarter.

“Coming out of the second half, we made too many mental mistakes,” Texas linebacker Anthony Wheeler said. “Against an offense like Oklahoma, you can’t make mistakes like that. Even though we lost, I feel like we won by the way we played. I feel like we played hard and never gave up.”

Ehlinger drove the Longhorns back down the field on their next possession, moving 75 yards in seven plays to a 27-yard touchdown pass to Johnson. On the scoring play, Ehlinger had all the time he needed against an OU defense that rushed just three, waiting for Johnson to uncover at the back corner of the end zone and lofting a pass into a small window over the outstretched arms of Sooners’ cornerback Tre Brown.

Texas then tied the score on a pass from Ehlinger to Humphrey from five yards out that capped an 11-play, 68-yard drive. But the Sooners’ Ben Powers crashed through the line to get a hand on Dicker’s extra point try, and it clanged off the crossbar, denying the Longhorns the lead with 2:44 remaining in the third quarter.

Oklahoma jumped back in front on a 31-yard field goal by Seibert that boinked off the left upright and over the crossbar, giving the Sooners a 30-27 advantage with 12:37 to play.

Then things got crazy. Lamb, juking across the field for extra yardage on a deep pass that netted 54 yard, was hit from behind by Texas linebacker Gary Johnson and fumbled, with Brandon Jones pouncing on the ball at the UT 8.

Two snaps later, OU’s Tre Brown roared in untouched on a cornerback blitz and tackled Ehlinger in the end zone for a safety, expanding the Sooners’ lead to 32-27 with 8:27 remaining.

After the free kick, Oklahoma sealed the deal, driving 65 yards in 11 plays and a one-handed 18-yard touchdown catch by Calcaterra on a drop-it-in-the-bucket throw from Murray that gave the Sooners a 39-27 lead with just 2:00 remaining.

Texas drove to the OU 19 in the final minute before suffering an interception at the 6 by the Sooners’ Tre Norwood with just 51 seconds left.

The Longhorns will now have to wait and see where they will play in a bowl, with the likely landing spots the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on New Year’s Day or the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio Dec. 28.

“We learned that we can hang with anybody when we play well,” Ehlinger said. “So that’s going to give us a lot of confidence heading into the bowl game and heading into next year. I think, like Coach said, we really bought into what the coaches preached, and we loved each other and we’ve learned that the only thing that can stop us is us. (In) the games that we’ve lost, we’ve hurt ourselves.”

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