Oklahoma football: Sooners’ Red River win their 5th over Texas in last 6 meetings

With former Oklahoma football star Baker Mayfield in the house, Saturday’s dramatic win over Texas marked the second time since 2017 the Sooners have knocked off a top-3-ranked team in the AP poll and Mayfield was present for both.

Mayfield, who was 2-1 in three Red River Rivalry starts at quarterback for the Sooners, was back attending the 119th edition of the classic rivalry and was the guest picker on ESPN’s popular “College GameDay” program.

Oklahoma was the underdog on Saturday to a Texas team that had embarrassed OU in a 49-0 victory in last season’s Red River game and was universally believed to be much stronger and more talented than the Sooners in just their second season under head coach Brent Venables. The Sooners found themselves in similar position in six years earlier when they traveled to No. 2 Ohio State a year after the Buckeyes had beaten OU 45-24 in Norman.

With Mayfield at quarterback, the Sooners surprised Ohio State and the college football world with a 31-16 win over the heavily favored Buckeyes in 2017. And history repeated itself at the Cotton Bowl on Saturday with the Oklahoma upset over the Texas Longhorns.

This year’s OU-Texas rivalry game marked the third time in the last six years that the outcome was decided in the final minute of the game.

In 2018, Texas’ Cameron Dicker booted a 40-yard field goal with nine seconds remaining in the game to break a 45-45 tie and give the Longhorns a 48-45 victory. Two years later, Kennedy Brooks scored on a 33-yard touchdown run with just three seconds remaining in the game to overcome a 21-point first-quarter deficit and complete a remarkable 55-48 comeback victory led by freshman quarterback Caleb Williams.

And this year, it was Dillon Gabriel’s three-yard touchdown pass to Nic Anderson with 15 seconds to go in the game that finished off the Sooners’ improbable 34-30 comeback win over Texas.

Here are a dozen more numbers that help tell the story of OU’s impressive win over archrival Texas in the final Big 12 season for both teams:

1 — Nick Anderson’s game-winning touchdown catch in the back corner of the end zone was his only catch in the game and his only target. Six of his 11 receptions this season have been for touchdowns.

3 — Defensive back Gentry Williams recorded his third interception of the season, picking off a pass from Texas QB Quinn Ewers on the Longhorns’ second play of the game. That led to Oklahoma’s first touchdown of the game to take an early 7-0 lead.

5 — OU sacked Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers five times, a season-high for the Sooner defense.

6 — Oklahoma scored six times in six chances in the Red Zone on Saturday. Texas was just one for three in Red Zone chances, including an incredible Sooner defensive stand that kept the Longhorns out of the end zone on four consecutive tries from the OU one-yard line.

7-1 — The Sooners have won seven of the last games with Texas when both teams are ranked.

8 — Eight Sooners caught a pass in this year’s Red River Rivalry contest. At least eight OU players have caught a pass in each of the Sooners’ six games this season.

18-11 — Oklahoma’s record against Texas in Red River Rivalry meetings in the Big 12 era.in the 28-year history of the Big 12 Conference.

24 — When Texas running back Jonathan Brooks scored on a 29-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter, it was the first rushing touchdown allowed by the Sooners in 24 quarters.

36 — Texas’ success rate on third-down conversions on offense (5 of 14) on Saturday against the Oklahoma defense. The Sooners have held four of their six opponents in 2023 to 30 percent or below on third-down attempts.

54 — Days until the likelihood that Oklahoma and Texas could meet again in the Big 12 Championship on Dec. 2 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

201 — Oklahoma’s season-high rushing yards against Texas, which came into the game as the nation’s 17th-ranked team against the run, allowing just 94 rushing yards per game. Sooner quarterback Dillon Gabriel accounted for 113 of OU’s 201 rushing yards, a career high.

486 — The Sooners’ 486 yards of offense was nearly 200 more than Texas’ season average of yards allowed per game (291.8).