Peyton Bowen perfectly sums up Sooners’ Texas disaster with one honest line

Now onto Week 8 and South Carolina on Saturday, Oklahoma safety Peyton Bowen perfectly summarized the Sooners’ loss to Texas to put a bow on it and move on.

A previously unranked Texas team beat the then-No. 6 Sooners 23-6 in the Red River Rivalry on Saturday in Cotton Bowl Stadium. Fans were infuriated by the loss even though it was OU’s first of the season, and it wasn’t even necessarily who it was to, but because of how poor the Sooners played in such a massive game with essentially three weeks to prepare for it.

Sooners onto South Carolina after loss in Red River Rivalry

“Nobody played their best game, and a lot of people played their worst game,” Bowen said Monday after practice.

OU’s elite defense as a whole played its worst game so far while giving up a season-high 23 points. That’s certainly a respectable number and OU’s defense did enough to win a football game, but it definitely was the Sooners’ worst game defensively of the season.

It was the worst offensively, too, as the Sooners failed to reach the end zone for the first time under offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle. OU averaged a measly 1.6 yards a carry. Just 17 days after getting surgery on his throwing hand, quarterback John Mateer threw three interceptions. The offensive line gave up a season-high five sacks.

It was unsatisfactory all around, from top to bottom. There was no one player or even position group that could have been the difference to turn the loss into a win. It was the Sooners’ worst day, hopefully not so far, but for all season.

“We could use this loss,” Bowen said. “I was thinking to myself, like, when’s the last time the national championship winner was undefeated? That’s just the day and age we’re in now. We have a lot of goals still left on the table that we can accomplish easy.”

To answer Bowen’s question, Michigan in 2023 was the last team to go undefeated and win a national title. Last season, Ohio State went 14-2 while winning the national championship.

Now imperfect at 5-1, the No. 14 Sooners will travel to South Carolina on Saturday to prove if their showing in Dallas was just a fluke.