Oklahoma football: Sooners rally late, but fall too far behind early
By Chip Rouse
The signs have been building for several weeks, and on Saturday in Dallas, Oklahoma football ran into a buzz saw that pulverized the Sooners on both sides of the ball.
The Sooner defense came too life in the fourth quarter, but a three-touchdown deficit proved too high a hill to climb against a determined Texas Longhorn team. Freshman Longhorn kicker Cameron Dicker nailed a 40-yard field goal with nine seconds remaining in the game to give a 48-45 victory to the Longhorns, who moved to 5-1 on the season and 3-0 in conference play.
The final score made it appear this game was much closer than it was. Texas marched 75 yards in 11 plays to score a touchdown on the opening possession of the second half, its sixth scoring drive in seven possessions to that point. That put the Longhorns up 31-10 and virtually put the game out of the Sooners’ reach.
Two key mistakes by Sooner quarterback Kyler Murray — an interception on Oklahoma’s second possession in the game and a fumble in the third quarter — swung the momentum in the 113th renewal of the Red River Showdown in the favor of the guys in burnt orange. Both of those turnovers led to scores for the Longhorns and 10 unanswered points.
Oklahoma pulled within seven points, at 31-24, and had possession of the ball with a chance to draw even, but Murray coughed up the ball at the OU 23-yard line on a first-down play, and Texas recovered. It took just five plays for the Longhorns to turn the Oklahoma miscue into seven more points and a 38-24 advantage.
The Sooner defense struggled most of the game against a very balanced Texas offense. Texas scored on four of five first-half possessions (the fifth was a one-play kneel down to end the half) and on 8 of 13 possessions for the game.
Oklahoma got two key third-down defensive stops in the final quarter, opening the door for an improbable 21-point OU rally, but it proved the be too little, too late for the seventh-ranked Sooners, who had a two-game winning streak in the Red River rivalry snapped, as well as their unbeaten 2018 season.
For all practical purposes, this game was lost in the third quarter, when Texas rung up 21 points, 14 unanswered, to go out in front 45-24 after 45 minutes of play.
The Sooners’ strike-fast offense scored three TDs in a little over four minutes, one coming on a 67-yard dash to paydirt by Murray.
Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger was brilliant all afternoon, throwing for 314 yards and two touchdowns and adding three more rushing touchdowns. Murray completed 19 of 26 passes for 304 yards and four touchdowns and also led the Sooner rushing attack with 92 yards on the ground.
Marquise “Hollywood” Brown caught nine passes for 131 yards and two touchdowns, one that covered 77 yards on a pass from Murray.
For the third consecutive game. Oklahoma lost the time of possession battle. Texas controlled possession for 33 and a half minutes in the game and ran 18 more plays than the Sooners. The disparity was widest in the all-important second half, when the Longhorns controlled the ball for over 21 minutes and ran 24 more plays than OU (48 to 24).
Former head coach Bob Stoops always said about the annual Red River rivalry that the team that wins the turnover battle is generally the one that wins this game, regardless of the record or the rankings. Oklahoma was 0-3 in that department on Saturday, and that was the major contributor to the outcome.
Oklahoma (5-1, 2-1) now heads into a bye week before traveling back to Texas to take on TCU on Oct. 20.