Texas QB Jerrod Heard, who couldn’t hit water from the proverbial boat throwing the ball, didn’t have to throw the ball, because we couldn’t stop the run. Texas gashed us for 313 rushing yards, thus torpedoing the idea of forcing Heard to beat us with his arm. The Horns were able to run the ball and shorten the game, and the back-breaking blunders that have been the hallmark of their 2015 season were notably absent in Dallas. Not a fumbled punt snap or missed place kick to be found.
On the other side, the Sooner offensive line, which struggled with Akron in the opener and hasn’t really gotten much better, got absolutely abused. Baker Mayfield was sacked six times on the day, and it felt like 16. Frankly, Mayfield probably felt a lot like A.J. McCarron did in that Sugar Bowl game Bob Stoops likes to mention now and then. The Sooners, with a pair of world-class running backs in Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon, couldn’t bust a grape on the ground, piling up an abysmal 67 yards rushing on the day.
The die was cast early on, when Texas rolled the length of the field for a TD on their second possession, with the touchdown play allowed by horrible Sooner tackling. That was followed immediately by Alex Ross fumbling the ball on the kickoff, and just like that, Texas was up 14-0, and we knew we’d be lucky to get back in it.
After a 14-3 halftime deficit, UT ate up almost half the third quarter on the opening possession and picked up a field goal. The Sooners struck for their first touchdown of the day on the ensuing possession, and it looked like we had a good chance at 17-10 with 5:16 to play in the third quarter. But on the last play of the third quarter, with Texas backed up on their own nine-yard line with second and long, they gashed us for an 81-yard run that led to a TD with 13:52 to play that made it 24-10 and necessitated a Tennessee style comeback.
Mayfield authored the first half of that in fine style, converting with a scramble on fourth and eight from the Texas 37 en route to a one-yard Perine blast for a TD. With eight minutes to play, it was a ball game at 24-17, if the Sooner defense could get a stop.
And they did so, holding Texas to one first down and securing a punt back to OU with 6:05 left. The Sooners ran that misdirection punt return play, where they send the punt returner and all the blockers to the other side of the field from where the ball is going, leaving only one guy to catch the ball and run it back up the undefended sideline. It worked perfectly, other than that Michiah Quick, who was supposed to return the kick, misjudged it and let it bounce. He picked it up and returned it only to the OU 20.
After moving the ball out to the 38, though, the Sooner offensive line gave up a pair of sacks that left us in fourth and 31 from our own 17. That left no choice but to punt it away and use times out to try to preserve enough time for a desperation drive.
The Sooner defense had wasted one time out (coming out of a time out, too) because of a personnel problem (and where have we heard that before), but it ended up not mattering. The Sooners couldn’t stop the Horns anyway, and the game ended with the humiliation of Heard kneeling it out on the Sooner three-yard line and Charlie f-----g Strong wearing the Golden Hat on the field.
Texas used the same game plan they have used the last three years, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone. They ran us over, pure and simple. It wasn’t as lopsided as the ***-kicking we took two years ago, but there was no doubt which team was the better team in Dallas this year. That’s the sad truth of it, as much as it hurts to say.
It’s not sunshine pumping to say that this team controls its own destiny in the Big 12. That is an objectively true statement. But it’s not likely to stay true for very long, maybe not even until next Sunday. After all, Snyderball is, and always has been, just about like what happened to us in Dallas. And we’re eminently capable of being Snydered on Saturday afternoon in Manhattan, just like TCU almost got Snydered Saturday night. They will throw the pop pass, and Mike Stoops will not defend it, and veins will pop out of his head at the unfairness of it all, and he might even be right, but it won’t matter.
We are not saying that the Sooners will lose in Manhattan – far from it. We are only saying we wouldn’t be surprised. We would also not be surprised by a win.
We heard talk from optimists on Saturday about last year’s Ohio State team, and that this loss doesn’t change anything.
Again, that’s objectively true. Were these Sooners to win the rest of their games, they would be Big 12 champs and a likely playoff participant.
But while we would all love to see that, there is no objective reason to believe at this point that these Sooners can beat TCU, much less Baylor, and maybe not Kansas State, without massive improvement. Five games into the season, that’s what we’re left with.
We hope to be proven wrong about all this, but we call it like we see it. We can only hope that Stoops is able to rally his troops after a tough loss as he has been so effective at in the past, 2014 notwithstanding. At this point, 10-2 would be a masterful coaching job. 9-3 is likely, but perhaps not as likely as 8-4.
But that’s why they play the games. Just like anything could, and did, happen in the Cotton Bowl, anything can happen anywhere else, too. We’ll just have to play them out and see how it ends up.
See you in Manhattan on Saturday.
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