Oklahoma football is at a critical crossroads in its season this weekend as the Sooners and Texas hook up in the Red River Showdown.
Outside of a couple of blowout victories by both teams in the season openers, neither the Sooners nor the Longhorns have looked particularly good in games against Big 12 teams the past couple of weeks.
Oklahoma has suffered back-to-back losses for the first time since 1999 and comes into its annual rivalry matchup at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas with a 1-2 record and a highly unusual 0-2 in the Big 12. Texas comes in at 2-1 and 1-1 in the conference after barely getting by Texas Tech in Lubbock and losing at home to TCU last weekend.
The Longhorns may not have looked all that spectacular in their two Big 12 contests, but for not looking all that impressive they have still managed to light up the scoreboard, averaging 51.0 points a game.
The Sooners rang up 48 points in a win over Missouri State, but that haven’t reached 40 points in their last two games.
That covers the current history of these two longtime bordering-state rivals, here is some Red River rivalry history to feast on in advance of the 116th edition of OU-Texas football:
- Since 2000 (Bob Stoops’ second season at Oklahoma), the Sooners have outscored Texas by 162 points in October games played at the Cotton Bowl. OU is 13-7 in those games. The Sooners have won 8 of the last 11 overall meetings with Texas, including a 39-27 win in the Big 12 Championship game in 2018.
- Lincoln Riley is 3-1 against Texas as the Sooners’ head coach. On Saturday he is looking to become just the second coach in Oklahoma history to win four of his first five games against the Longhorns. Bob Stoops won four of his first five Red River rivalry games (1999-2003).
- Oklahoma has scored at least 28 points in a school-record 55 consecutive games. It’s probably going to take more than that to beat Texas on Saturday.
- The Sooners are the designated home team for this year’s Red River Showdown. Oklahoma has beaten Texas six of the last seven times the Crimson and Cream have been the designated home team.
- Since 2000, Texas is 3-0 against Oklahoma when rushing for 200 or more yards; the Longhorns are 0-3 against the Sooners when held below 100 yards rushing.
- Six of the last seven games between OU and Texas have been decided by seven or fewer points. Oklahoma is 5-2 in those games.
- Texas is 25-3 overall since the start of the 2017 season when leading at halftime.
- Since 2000, Oklahoma has lost the game immediately prior to the Texas game three times. On all three occasions, the Sooners prevailed over the Longhorns the following week.