OU Tops Texas 45-40

DALLAS – – Fans are often cautioned to throw the records out the window during rivalry games, and the Red River Showdown is a good example of why. The Longhorns entered the game reeling from two straight road losses, coaching staff turmoil, and questions about Charlie Strong’s job security. Oklahoma came to Dallas following a big win over TCU to get their season back on track. One team was clearly trending up while the other was in a freefall.

With his job potentially on the line, Charlie Strong took over defensive play calling duties, and his unit looked improved as they showed a bend but don’t break mentality as they held the Sooners to a missed field goal on their first drive. The Texas offense struggled to find any success. The Longhorns went three and out on their first drive, but a reinvigorated defense forced their first turnover of the year when Dylan Haines came up with a ball that was jarred loose from Mark Andrews. Malcolm Roach made a big hit on the play that launched it into the opportunistic hands of Haines. The Longhorns were once again forced to punt, but Dylan Haines once again found himself in a position to make a play. Haines intercepted a Mayfield pass thanks to a fortuitous no call on a clear pass interference, and his 38 yard return put Texas in the red zone. Texas missed on a near touchdown pass to Collin Johnson, and settled for a 33 yard Trent Domingue field goal.

The Sooners found success in the middle of the field running the ball, but Texas was able to keep the Sooners out of the end zone for most of the first quarter. With the Longhorn offense still trying to find their feet, D’Onta Foreman turned the ball over on the Texas 16 to set up a very short field for the Sooners. Samaje Perine finished off a 3 play, 16 yard drive with a touchdown to give Oklahoma a 7-3 lead. Texas responded with an 8 play, 66 yard drive aided by 30 yards in penalties called against Oklahoma on one play. Foreman made up for his earlier fumble with a 1 yard touchdown run that put Texas back in front.

The Longhorn defense kept finding big plays, as a burgeoning Oklahoma scoring drive was halted by Poona Ford’s strip of Joe Mixon. The Longhorn offense was not able to capitalize, and Shane Buechele spent the first half looking like a true freshman quarterback. Buechele missed on multiple deep throws to wide open receivers. His first half stats tallied a pedestrian 9-21 for 79 yards. Buechele displayed some happy feet in the pocket, and missed a wide open Armanti Foreman for what would have been a touchdown in the closing seconds of the first half. On the other side of the field, Baker Mayfield struggled through most of the first half as well. While the Sooner offense was clearly superior to Texas, Mayfield tossed two interceptions, and missed several open throws. Late in the second half Mayfield got some mojo back when he found Dede Westbrook for a 71 yard touchdown pass. That score accounted for the longest touchdown completion for OU in the storied history of this rivalry. Texas put together an 18 play, 64 yard drive ending in a Trent Domingue 29 yard field goal as time expired in the half. That score cut the lead to 14-13 Oklahoma at the intermission. As both teams entered the locker rooms for halftime the story was clear to see. Oklahoma out gained Texas 281 to 130, including 87 yards on 11 carries for Samaje Perine. Texas minimized that performance three turnovers and much better tackling.

The Longhorns opened the second half on offense, and much like Frampton, Buechele came alive on that drive. After under throwing a go route to Jerrod Heard, Buechele found freshman wide receiver Devin Duvernay for a 63 yard touchdown. Oklahoma responded immediately with a 3 play, 79 yard drive capped off with a 42 yard touchdown pass to Dede Westbrook. A shootout officially began when Buechele answered the OU score with a 45 yard touchdown pass to Dorian Leonard. The Sooners answered back with an 85 yard drive that ended with a Baker Mayfield touchdown run. Texas was the first to blink, and a drive that included a false start, and a John Burt dropped. Dede Westrbook continued his record breaking day when he scored his third touchdown on a 47 yard pass to give the Sooners a 35-27 lead with 5:39 left in the third quarter. Westbrook broke the Oklahoma record for receiving yards in a game. His 10 catches also accounted for an OU record in this series. A Joe Mixon muffed punt gave Texas the ball in the red zone, and it looked like Texas could equalize. On a critical third down, Buechele threw a back breaking interception. Oklahoma drove the dagger in with a 13 play, 93 yard drive capped off by a Samaje Perine 3 yard touchdown.

The Foreman brother came up huge on the next drive. D’Onta Foreman pushed his rushing total to 114 yards, and his brother Armanti finished the drive with a 10 yard touchdown reception. Oklahoma took over up 42-34, and the Longhorns were unable to get them off the off the field. The Sooners choked out a majority of the clock with a 15 play, 60 yard drive that took up nearly 8 minutes of possession before extending the lead by 3 after a field goal. With Texas on the ropes D’Onta Foreman factored in big on a on the following drive. The junior runner put on a gutsy display today pushing through a frustrating first half to finish with a career high 159 yards on 22 carries for 2 touchdowns. This performance was the sixth straight 100 yard game for Foreman, and the 8th of his career. The Longhorns failed to recover the ensuing onside kick, and ultimately got the ball back too late.

The loss drops Texas to 2-3 on the year, and now the heat on Charlie Strong is just about unbearable. In a week where he demoted Vance Bedford and took over play calling duties, Strong’s unit gave up 672 total yards (5th most in school history) and 45 points. He also gave up individual rushing and receiving performances of over 200 yards to Samaje Perine (35-214-2) and the aforementioned Westbrook. Baker Mayfield overcame his shaky start to amass 390 yards passing and 3 touchdowns on 22-31 passing. Charlie Strong’s comments were all too familiar and hollow to the ears of many. “We’ve just got to continue to work and get better”, said Strong following the loss.

Strong’s defense looked like it could be effective in the first half, but when the dam broke in the second half it was clear we would see the same story. “We lost the game so there wasn’t improvement”, said Strong when asked to assess his play calling performance. Safety Dylan Haines thought the team played hard, but once again it was the same story for this beleaguered unit. “Just busted coverages. I know that’s been said before, but we’re just not finding a way to get our assignments and execute those”.

The eyes of Texas will turn to Strong once again this week as he endures more scrutiny. The loss dropped his record to 9-11 against Big 12 competition during his tenure at Texas. He’s also out of excuses and cards to play. Texas will look to rebound in a “revenge” game against Iowa State next week, but the most important task will be to get this team believing in themselves once again. At this point in time that task looks as tall as the State Fair mascot “Big Tex”.