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The Road Warrior Report - Texas Review - October 15, 2017

The Road Warrior Report - Texas Review - October 15, 2017



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DALLAS, TX
– OU-Texas should really always be a fistfight. This one was. The Sooners prevailed 29-24 Saturday in the Cotton Bowl in a game that really shouldn’t have been that close, but somehow was. It continued a disturbing trend of fast starts followed by letting the opponent back in the game. Against Baylor and Iowa State, the Sooners had jumped out to 14-0 leads before coughing them up – this time it was a 20-point lead. This really does not need to keep up.

However, one thing this team displayed in the Cotton Bowl that it didn’t against Iowa State was fight. They fought Texas all day in the 90-plus degree heat, and Texas fought them right back.

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The Sooner defense, frankly, played pretty well. Much better than against Iowa State. Unlike in that game, the defense constantly pressured and hit UT frosh QB Sam Ehlinger all day. Obo Okoronwko was everywhere, giving maximum effort all day in the heat. It didn’t help that he was being tackled on virtually every play, in one of the most poorly officiated games we have seen in some time.

Baker Mayfield was 17 of 27 for 302 yards, two TDs, and his first pick of the season. Trey Sermon led the Sooners on the ground with 96 yards on 20 carries. Mark Andrews led all receivers with four catches for 104 yards and the game-winning TD.

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Until deep into the second quarter, it looked like the Sooners could and would name their score in this one. Texas picked up 15 yards on a screen pass on their first offensive play after taking the opening kickoff, and that play was most of their offense for most of the first half. The Sooners wasted little time after forcing the first Texas punt of the day, going 85 yards in five plays for a 7-0 lead less than three minutes into the game. The drive, in which OU never faced a third down, was capped off with Mayfield’s 54-yard TD pass to Jeff Badet.

After a Texas three-and-out highlighted by an Okoronkwo strip of UT QB Sam Ehlinger on third down, the Sooners would score again. This time, it was a 12-play. 62-yard drive that ended with an Austin Seibert 25-yard field goal, and OU led 10-0 with 3:49 to play in the first quarter.

Another UT three-and-out led to another OU scoring drive. This one went eight plays and 80 yards. It was concluded by Rodney Anderson’s 15-yard TD run, and the Sooners were up 17-0 with 13:11 to play in the first half.

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UT finally moved the ball into OU territory on their next possession, but failed on fourth and eight from the Sooner 43. The teams exchanged punts, then the Sooners got another field goal with 4:32 to play in the first half to make it 20-0. This one was set up by a halfback pass from Trey Sermon to Marquise Brown for 42 yards to the Texas 16. And then, just when it looked like the Sooners would continue to roll, things went sideways.

It started, as these things often do, with bad special teams play. The Sooners allowed a long UT kickoff return, then compounded it with a late hit out of bounds. As a result, Texas started its next possession on the Sooner 42. Another personal foul penalty helped the Horns some more, and they scored their first points of the day on a perfectly called screen pass right into the teeth of a Sooner blitz. The TD trimmed the Sooner lead to 20-7 with 3:14 to play in the first half.

The Sooners moved the ball to the Texas 31 on the ensuing possession, but Mayfield was intercepted on a swing pass attempt on fourth and three, and Texas had the ball on their own 31 with 59 seconds to go in the half. They would move to the Sooner 17 before the dwindling clock forced them to kick a field goal on the last play of the half to make it 20-10.

OU took the opening kickoff of the second half and moved smartly to the Texas 17, with the big play being a 13-yard carry by Sermon on third and 12 from the Sooner 44. Mayfield hit Dmitri Flowers with a 17-yard TD pass, but a questionable holding call, of which there were many on the day, mostly of the no-call variety, called it back. The Sooners would have to settle for yet another field goal, and it was 23-10 with 9:10 to play in the third quarter.

Texas would answer with a 12-play, 75-yard TD drive that made it 23-17 with 4:43 to play in the third quarter. The teams would then begin trading punts. Texas’ Australian punter pinned the Sooners at their own 2 with a 62-yard bomb, and when they could not move the ball, Seibert returned the favor, bombing one 56 yards, plus another nine lost on the return.

A 42-yard pass on the first play of the ensuing possession got the Horns to the Sooner 29. However, four plays from there netted only two yards, and Texas turned it over on downs. OU went three-and-out again, and then things started getting hairy.

An eight-play, 73-yard drive from Texas gave them the lead at 24-23 with 8:01 to play in the game. The Sooner season was very much in the balance. And the Sooner offense, dormant most of the second half, responded. After Mayfield hit Andrews for eight yards, and Anderson ran for another 11, the Sooners took the lead back for good. Mayfield found Andrews running wide open down the right sideline for a 58-yard TD strike, and the Sooners were up 29-24 with 6:53 left in the game, after a two-point conversion attempt failed.

Texas would move the ball to the Sooner 31 on the ensuing possession, but would go backward from there, eventually turning it over on downs at the Sooner 34 with 1:52 to play in the game. However, three runs gained only seven yards, and two UT times out kept some time on the clock. Seibert punted the Horns down to their own three, and they had 97 yards to go in 49 seconds to win. They would get no closer than their own 42, after a couple of bad calls on the field were reversed to incomplete passes. The game ended as last year’s did, with a Keystone Kops lateral play that didn’t get much of anywhere, and the Sooners secured their second straight five-point win over Texas.

As often happens, once one top team drops a shocker, many more follow suit. After we blew it against Iowa State last week, we got company this week. Washington, Clemson, Washington State, and Auburn all lost to unranked teams this week, and just like that, the Sooners are back in the top ten of both polls. Not that those matter at all, but they approximate what the committee will roll out in their first ranking. Things appear to be setting up nicely at this point for the Sooners to still make a run at the playoff, as long as they keep winning. Of course, if they don’t stop coughing up leads instead of stepping on some necks early, none of that will matter.

Next up is a 3:00 kickoff against Kansas State in Manhattan on Saturday. The Wildcats are coming off a 26-6 home loss to TCU in a game that was supposed to be an 11:00 a.m. kickoff and didn’t end up being over until 6:15 p.m. due to hours of weather delays. See you in the Little Apple.

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