Well, the undefeated season was fun while it lasted. This game was certainly there for the taking for Texas but missed opportunities and key mistakes did Texas in. I’d love to say this was a fluke loss and that OU got lucky, but that’s not how it looked to these eyes. The Sooners looked like the better team for much of this game, and they certainly looked like they wanted it more than Texas did.
What a gutty performance by Quinn Ewers after a slow start. That was a big-time, NFL-caliber performance and he did it while facing a lot of early pressure/adversity.
Jonathon Brooks is damn near impossible for one person to tackle in the open field. He also finishes runs much better than Cedric Baxter. Brooks continues to show that he needs to be the lead back and Baxter should really only come in when Brooks needs a breather.
If there’s a better back in the country than Jonathon Brooks, I’d like to see it.
I’m absolutely shocked that Texas wasn’t able to control either line of scrimmage in this game. Tip of the cap to the OU offensive and defensive lines. Those two groups outplayed their Longhorn counterparts.
How the hell did the refs miss that facemask on the opening kickoff?
I’m not quite sure what Quinn Ewers saw on that first interception? He hesitated because the route was covered but then decided to force the throw anyway. Terrible start.
Sark said all week, including several times in pregame, that he wanted his team to enjoy the moment and have fun. I get it, but the team sure came out flat and didn’t match OU’s intensity early on. I have zero clue if it would have mattered, but maybe the pre-game message should have been more about focus, energy and intensity.
What a ballsy call on that fake punt in the first quarter. Texas needed some sort of spark and Sark threw caution to the win on that play and it paid off. Huge momentum-changing play right there and then he came back with another huge call on 4th-and-short with a wildcat pass from Savion Red.
The call on that pass mentioned above to Gunnar Helm was incredible, but that was a damn good throw from Savion Red. The linebacker was coming over in coverage but Red threw an accurate enough pass to hit Helm in stride.
Those two tremendous calls were all for naught with Texas turning the ball over on the second consecutive drive with another interception near the goal line.
Unreal momentum shifts in this game. After Texas turns the ball over, the UT special teams come up HUGE with a blocked punt for a touchdown. Unreal. Blink and you’ll miss something in this game.
Holy crap, that was a lot of action in the first 6 minutes of this game.
Hey ESPN/ABC, get your shit together. Ridiculous issues with the broadcast early on.
You think Texas was in that punter’s head after that block? That second punt was comically bad.
Huge mistake on the running into the punter penalty. It looked like Robinson tried to avoid him but still made a little contact, enough to draw the penalty and give OU a first down.
A 53-minute first quarter that featured a little bit of everything.
Quinn Ewers in the first quarter … 5-9 for 13 yards and 2 interceptions.
Ewers needed to be better early on, but he needs some help from his offensive line too. That group was not up to its usual standards today.
What a great run by Jonathon Brooks in the second quarter where he popped it into the secondary. He made a man miss at the second level and did a great job of covering up the ball when the OU defender came up behind to try to punch the ball out, while also carrying the defender for about another 10 yards. Just a heady play by Brooks.
I loved the call to go for it on 4th and 2 in the second quarter (even before the touchdown). Texas would have been looking at about a 40-yard field goal from Bert Auburn and Sark decided to go for it … end result, a WIDE OPEN Gunnar Helm for a touchdown.
Texas was VERY fortunate to not be trailing by a touchdown going into the half. That was a frantic finish to the first half but that should have been an easy touchdown for Oklahoma on a low pass that was dropped. Four-point swing right there.
I’m shocked that Oklahoma was the more physical team for most of this game. That first drive of the second half, OU just muscled its way down the field and made it look pretty easy.
Not having Ryan Watts out there had a bigger impact on this game than I expected. OU was able to target Gavin Holmes quite a bit and had a lot of success.
How is that not unsportsmanlike conduct on Ethan Downs when he went roid rage on Quinn Ewers following a sack in the third quarter? Two plays later, Ewers coughs it up on a scramble and Texas was on the ropes.
Huge three-and-out by the defense following that Ewers fumble. If OU scores a touchdown there, this game might have been over.
If you can’t score from first-and-goal from the one, down by seven, you probably don’t deserve to win this game. Brutal sequence of plays there. We all like the jumbo package when it works, but it does make Texas pretty one-dimensional and you know Oklahoma had prepared for that package. I’d like to see Texas try the wildcat there with Savion Red.
It was good to see Jordan Whittington come up big in this game. There have been a lot of calls for more Johntay Cook, including from me, but Whittington was one of the better players in the game today. Good for him.
Some of Xavier Worthy’s decision-making on punt returns leave a lot to be desired.
Bert Freaking Auburn. After taking some heat in recent weeks, he came up with two HUGE kicks in this one. Well done, young man.
I just don’t understand some of Sark’s clock management decisions. Going hurry up when Texas should have been eating clock late in the fourth quarter? Not taking a time out to preserve some time on OU’s last drive? Costly decisions.
This loss is going to sting. Big time. Any time you lose to OU, it’s going to hurt, but this one will be even more painful for Longhorn fans because of everything that was on the line. That being said …
All hope is not lost. This wasn’t the outcome Texas wanted, obviously, but the Longhorns still have a lot to play for, including a possible Big 12 title and College Football Playoff run. There’s no more room for error, but if Texas can run the table from here on out, the Longhorns will still find themselves in the CFP discussion.
