OUch! Top-ranked Horns hammer undermanned Sooners in 34-3 Red River rout

Chalk this one up as one of the worst games Oklahoma has played on offense in many a year, and as good as the Sooner defense is this season, it wasn't able to make up for the offensive ineffectiveness in a 34-3 Texas victory in the 120th renewal of the the Red River Rivalry.

The Oklahoma defense held the explosive Texas offense to just 13 yards of offense in the first quarter and led the Longhorns 3-0 after the first 15 minutes. That was the first time No.1-ranked Texas had trailed all season. Oklahoma had an opportunity early in the opening quarter to go up by three more points after intercepting a pass by Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers on the Longhorns' first possession, but Sooner kicker Tyler Keltner missed a 44-yard field goal.

The second quarter was a much different story, however, as the Texas offense finally found its rhythm behind the quarterback Ewers, exploding for 21 unanswered points on 223 yards of offense to just 53 by the anemic Oklahoma offense. The second-quarter avalanche included 14 Texas points in less than a two-minute span. And it could have been worse if not for a missed Longhorn field-goal attempt from 44 yards right before the end of the half.

With OU's five leading receivers out with injuries, the Sooner offense behind true freshman quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. was never able to amount any kind of sustained ball movement against an outstanding Texas defense that consistently took away pass routes and forced OU to run the ball for just 89 total yards and 3.9 yards per carry.

Then second half was more of the same with Oklahoma going nowhere on offense -- it almost seemed as if the Sooners were going backward more often than forward -- and the Texas offense having little respect for an OU defense that was slowly withering under the 90-degree Dallas heat.

This game had a eerily similar feeling to two years ago when the Longhorns throttled the Sooners 49-0, handing Oklahoma its largest margin of defeat in the long storied history of the Red River Rivalry. It also marked the first time that OU has lost by more than 20 points to Texas twice in a five-year period.

An Oklahoma offense that just a few years back was the best on college football has completely come off the rails and is desperately seeking an answer to its continuing ineffectiveness. It's easy to blame all of this on the quarterback, but unfortunately the problem is much broader than that.

This is the third consecutive week -- all against SEC opponents -- that Oklahoma's 121st-ranked offense has failed to produce 300 yards in a game, something that past OU offensive units have often amassed in one half. The Sooners are down to their sixth, seventh and eighth wide receivers on the depth chart. That, in itself, is not the reason for the total absence of offense, but when the quarterback consistently can't find an open receiver, it makes the offense totally predictable and one-dimensional.

And then there is the totally refigured offensive line this season that has battled its own injury issues. Continuity and consistency has been major concern in this group now six games into the season. On Saturday against the Longhorns, the Sooner offensive line allowed constant pressure, yielding five quarterback sacks and 11 tackles for loss totaling 42 yards. It's next to impossible to move the chains with any consistency under these conditions.

As embarrassing as the outcome was for the Sooners and their fans in this year's border war with archrival Texas, there were some positive things to take away from it.

Not all is doom and gloom

True freshman Eli Bowen (younger brother of starting safety Peyton) was the highest-graded player on the Sooner defense on Saturday, according to Pro Football Focus. The younger Bowen played a total of 57 snaps and led the team iwith eight tackles and a tackle of loss. Another true freshman, wide receiver Zion Kearney, came into Saturday's game with one career catch. He led the Sooners against Texas with four catches for 45 yards, including OU's longest pass play of the game, which went for all of 15 yards.

Punter Luke Elzinga had twice as many punts on Saturday (6) as Oklahoma had in points and more punt yardage (286) than the Sooners produced on offense (237). He booted two punts of 50-plus yards and pinned Texas inside its own 20-yard line three times.

We said after the loss to Tennessee that there was no need to panic, that the sky was not falling after just one game. Looking at what lies ahead, the debacle on Saturday tells another story. Might be time to batten down the hatches.

Where do the Sooners go from here?

As one local sportswriter wrote on Saturday, "OU is staring at third-and-long this season. (The Sooners) can't let Saturday's loss avalanche (their) season like the offense plateaued against the Longhorns."

"It's the consistency of execution," offensive coordinator Seth Littrell said after the game. "It gets frustrating for everyone...There are a lot of young guys out there. We've got to do a good job making sure those guys stay comfortable, understand how we're trying to accomplish the execution part of things."

There was conversation right before halftime between Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit, the national TV announcers doing the game, questioning whether it was time for OU to change quarterbacks and bring in former five-star prospect Jackson Arnold. Littrell acknowledged in his postgame interview with reporters that there was never thought about replacing Michael Hawkins Jr.

It's pretty obvious that Oklahoma needs to change up things on offense and quickly. And that responsibility falls squarely on head coach Brent Venables and the OC Littrell.

Venables continues to state the obvious every time he appears in front of a microphone, saying the team has to get better everywhere. "I like the leadership, the will of this team and the hunger," he said in the postgame interview session on Saturday. "We've got to continue to help guys. We've got to continue to help them, get them to know what to do every play and be able to play in a competitive way whoever we're lined up against."

It all starts with getting more guys healthy. But you can only play the games with the players that are available, and for the Sooners, that obviously hasn't been enough. OU entered the game on Saturday in the bottom 10 percent of the country and dead last in the SEC in total yards per game and yards per play, as well as third-down percentage, passing yards per play and rushing yards per play.

That's clearly not something that is going to change overnight, but if the Sooners don't find some ways to be more successful on offense, even a postseason bowl appearance is going to be in jeopardy.

To be continued...