By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer
DALLAS, Texas — Everyone knows the Texas-Oklahoma game is just one of 12 on both teams’ regular-season schedule each year. Winning or losing wasn’t always the be-all, end-all for either team’s ultimate success.
But the 11th-ranked Longhorns would be lying if they said they left the Cotton Bowl[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] Saturday after a 34-27 defeat to the sixth-ranked Sooners in the AT&T Red River Showdown with the feeling that they lost more than just a game. Especially since Texas was so close to winning despite not playing up to, or even close to, its lofty standards.
Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts racked up 366 total yards (235 passing and 131 on the ground) and four touchdowns, including three through the air to phenomenal OU wide receiver CeeDee Lamb.
Lamb, who was by a large margin the best player on the field Saturday, juked his way through the Texas defense for 171 yards on 10 catches. Running back Kennedy Brooks added 105 yards rushing on just 10 carries for the Sooners in the win, their second straight over the Longhorns and third in the past four meetings.
“Oklahoma is an extremely talented and well-coached team led by an exceptional quarterback that had a heck of a day,” Texas head coach Tom Herman said after the loss. “They are really, really good and played really, really well. We did not, and it’s disappointing, certainly, for our seniors. But we’ll learn from it and come back to work tomorrow.”
Texas (4-2 overall, 2-1 in Big 12 games) stayed in the game with a stout defensive effort in the first half and a resurgence on offense after halftime, when the Longhorns scored 24 of their 27 points. Quarterback Sam Ehlinger finished with a season-low 210 yards passing and 201 total yards after absorbing nine sacks that lost 56 yards.
Those nine sacks were the most allowed by Texas since the 2009 Big 12 Championship game against Nebraska and the other-worldly Ndamukong Suh.
“Defensively, we were just awesome,” Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said. “We tackled well, covered them well. Obviously, we were able to get quite a bit of pressure on their quarterback, which was the key to the game.”
Converted running back Roschon Johnson continued to put himself in a position to be the Longhorns’ featured running back by carrying for 95 yards and a touchdown on eight carries. Wide receiver Devin Duvernay led Texas with eight catches for 54 yards, while fellow wideout Collin Johnson, back on the field for the first time since Week 2 because of a balky hamstring, had six receptions for 82 yards.
The box score will show that the Sooners (6-0 overall, 3-0 in Big 12 play) dominated the sun-splashed afternoon on the grounds of the State Fair of Texas, outgaining the Longhorns, 511-310. But Texas gave itself a chance with a relentless ball-hawking defensive effort that has become the hallmark of the team under Herman.
“Everybody knows the ‘what.’ Right?” Herman said. “The “what” is we didn’t play well and we pressed and we’ve got to figure out why. Our job as coaches is to get to the root of the issue and make sure that we correct those things and they don’t happen again.”
Oklahoma scored on its opening possession, moving 66 yards in 10 plays to a 1-yard touchdown pass from Hurts to Lamb on fourth down. Later in the quarter, Hurts fumbled during a 27-yard run when he was hit in the open field by Anthony Cook and D’Shawn Jamison pounced on the loose ball at the UT 7-yard line.
Midway through the second quarter with the Sooners knocking on the doorstep again, Hurts threw across his body into the end zone and was intercepted by Brandon Jones, who returned the pick to the 10 yard line.
Texas dodged another bullet in the waning minutes of the second quarter when the Sooners, who were dominating the game with their run attack everywhere except the red zone, eschewed staying on the ground at the UT 2-yard line and settled for a 19-yard field goal by Gabe Brkic.
The Longhorns made good use of the final 1:49 of the half, driving 48 yards in eight plays to a 49-yard field goal from Cameron Dicker that brought Texas back to within 10-3 at halftime.
Oklahoma outgained the Longhorns 260-83 in the first half, and 165-12 on the ground. Texas ran just 28 offensive plays over the first 30 minutes, averaging only 3 yards per snap. Ehlinger was sacked four times in the half, losing 24 yards, while Hurts ran for 107 yards on 12 carries.
“I thought we pressed [in the first half],” Herman said. “You know, I didn’t get that sense coming in. I didn’t get that sense pregame. I thought our guys were loose and relaxed.”
Only the Sooners’ two turnovers and their inability to get out of their own way allowed Texas to keep things close.
Texas tied the game midway through the third quarter when Roschon Johnson burst into the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown run one snap after he weaved through the OU defense for a 57-yard gain. He also had a 9-yard catch for a first down on third-and-8 earlier in the drive, in a showcase series for the Longhorns’ backup quarterback-turned-running back.
“Our mindset was to just continue to chip away, we understand that when we play our best, everybody does their job we can be really hard to stop,” Ehlinger said. “Offensively we did a better job of that in the second half. So I’m just reminding everybody to keep your head down and keep fighting, and take it one series at a time. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”
Oklahoma answered with a flea flicker pass to Lamb in which Hurts handed off the ball to Brooks, who pitched it back to Hurts, who found the mercurial wide receiver wide open in the Texas secondary. Lamb somehow eluded three Longhorn would-be tacklers for a 51-yard catch and run and a 17-10 Sooners lead.
Brkic added a 34-yard field goal with 4:44 to play in the third quarter to push the Sooners’ advantage 20-10.
Texas countered with a 2-yard touchdown run from Ehlinger to make 20-17 thanks to a big 23-yard run from Roshcon Johnson and a couple of penalties on Oklahoma.
“Those are some talented guys on the opposite side of the ball,” Roschon Johnson said, “and they just made some plays. A lot of times I made some plays and on others we got mixed up with our protections here and there and they were able to take advantage of that.”
Hurts connected with Lamb for a 27-yard scoring pass with 11:56 to play to push Oklahoma’s lead back to 10 points, at 27-17. Lamb again made the Texas defense look foolish, dancing through tacklers after making the catch before tight-roping the sideline and walking into the end zone.
Dicker hit from 32 yards with 6:53 to play, but the Sooners drove the field in five plays, one of them a 42-yard run by Brooks, to Hurts’ 3-yard touchdown run with 4:19 left. That made Ehlinger’s 4-yard scoring run with 1:49 to play just window dressing.
“The second half just kind of became a prize fight,” Riley said, “each team taking their shots, making a lot of plays. We just made a few more in the end.”
Texas returns to play next Saturday night when it hosts Kansas.
Despite the loss to the Sooners, there’s still plenty left on the table, including a likely rematch in the Big 12 championship game if the Longhorns win their final six regular-season contests.
“Losing is not a failure unless you refuse or don’t learn from the things that you did poorly, and as long as we do that and continue to improve,” Herman said. “I told our team we’ve got a team coming into our place next week that could care less what the outcome of this game is, and they shouldn’t, and they are going to give us their best shot. We need to be able to, again, learn from this, put it behind us, and move forward.”
[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [habeabk] [/s2If]
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.