On Saturday afternoon in a sun-splashed and heated (both literally and figuratively) rivalry game environment at the historic Cotton Bowl and as a traditional part of the Texas State Fair, Oklahoma fell victim to a desperate and angry Texas Longhorn team that was determined not to lose, even if it took a little while for the Longhorns to rise up and wreak their havoc.
After a low-scoring first half largely dominated by Oklahoma and its top-ranked defense, the Sooners seemingly ran out of gas halfway through the 121st renewal of the Red River Rivalry. If the so-called "middle eight" are perceived as the most important part of a football game, Saturday's annual border war was a prime example.
With a half-minute to go in the first half and Oklahoma leading 6-3, facing a third-and-two on the Texas 30-yard line and in field-goal range that could have stretched the OU lead by three more points going into the locker room at intermission, head coach Brent Venables elected to let the clock run down to 10 seconds and called the Sooners' final time out of the half. Instead of settling for the field-goal try, however, OU quarterback John Mateer attempted a throw to the end zone that unfortunately was off the mark and intercepted by veteran Texas defensive back Malik Muhammad. Points squandered.
That questionable sequence in the closing seconds of the first half regrettably proved to be the beginning of the end for the Sooners on Saturday.
Texas received the second-half kickoff and methodically marched down the field, surgically mixing run and pass and converting three third-down plays in going 75 yards for a touchdown and erasing OU's 6-3 halftime advantage to go up 10-6.
The third quarter was an absolute disaster for Oklahoma. The Sooners ran just four offensive plays the entire quarter for a total of five yards. Meanwhile, Texas controlled the ball for over 13 minutes of the decisive third quarter, leading to 10 unanswered points and a 140-26 advantage in yards gained.
The final quarter started with Texas owning a 13-6 advantage. Although still just a one-score advantage with a full quarter to play, all the momentum was clearly on the Longhorns' side.
A 75-yard Texas punt return for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter widened the Longhorns' lead to 20-6. The Sooners turned the ball over on downs on their next possession, and Texas finished off the scoring on a 39-yard field goal with three minutes to go.
Answered the 75 yard call 🏠📞 pic.twitter.com/LhM6YYuyFa
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) October 11, 2025
It was a massive punch to the gut in a week that is always filled high emotion and anticipation and this year plenty of speculation and gamesmanship on whether Mateer would be healthy enough to play.
As everyone knows, Mateer did play, showing great grit and determination. But it was not his finest three and a half hours. The Washington State transfer accounted for 207 of Oklahoma's 258 yards of offense, but he completed just 55% of a season-high 38 pass attempts and no touchdowns. His afternoon also included three interceptions, and he could easily have had a couple more as a result of poor decisions.
In hindsight, quite a few Sooner fans were critical of the decision to play Mateer because of the way things turned out. In truth, however, even a fully healthy Mateer might not have overcome the sense of urgency and determination that Texas brought to this game.
The Sooners must now quickly get over this game, their third loss to their archrivals in the last four seasons, and all by three or more scores. They have to regroup and get back to work in preparation for a game at South Carolina on Saturday. The immediate focus now is not to let one loss turn into two or more in domino form.
"Today was a bad day, and we still have a really good football team," Venables said postgame. "Just didn't deserve to win today. We still have a chance to have a heck of a year. Lot of ball still in front of us right now."
But the road surely doesn't get any easier with five of OU's six remaining regular-season games against teams currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 25.
Oklahoma was outplayed and outcoached in practically every phase of the game. And the numbers bear that out in vivid detail. Here are a dozen of the more notable ones:
Notable numbers from the Red River Rivalry
0 -- Oklahoma never reached the red zone at any point in the entire game. Coming into the game, the Sooners were a perfect 20-of-20, including 15 touchdowns, in points scored when reaching the red zone.
0 -- For the fifth time in Oklahoma's six games this season, the Sooners failed to record a takeaway. The OU defense has just two for the season.
1 -- Oklahoma came into this year's Red River Rivalry tied for the lead nationally with 21 sacks in five games. The Sooners recorded just one vs. Texas. Meanwhile, the Longhorns had five sacks of Mateer.
1:34 -- Total time of possession by Oklahoma in the third quarter on Saturday.
5 -- Half of Oklahoma's 10 offensive possessions in the game resulted in 19 or fewer yards.
10 -- Approximation of how many of the 46,000 Sooner fans in attendance at the game were left in the stands in the final five minutes. By contrast, the Texas half of the stadium was still nearly completely filled.
10 -- Although Texas has won three of the last four games against Oklahoma, Saturday's win was just the 10th win by the Longhorns in the last 27 Red River Rivalry games.
55 -- Mateer's completion percentage (21-of-38), his worst of the season.
48 -- Rushing yards by the Sooners on Saturday, just 1.6 yards per carry, their second lowest total of the season. True freshman Tory Blaylock had 33 of the total.
59 -- Texas converted 59% of its third-down tries (10-of-17) against the Sooner defense on Saturday. That marked the first time this season that an OU opponent successfully converted more than 21% of its third-down attempts.
136 -- Rushing yards by Texas in the game. The Sooners had not allowed their last three opponents this season to rush for more than 100 yards.