Steve Sarkisian saw positive takeaways from Texas' loss to Oklahoma

Every instant classic college football game typically comes with heartbreak for the losing team, and on Saturday the Oklahoma Sooners broke the hearts of Texas fans as they defeated the Longhorns 34-30 in one of the most exhilarating Red River Rivalry matchups in recent history.

Neither team played perfect in the back-and-forth battle that featured numerous big-time plays from both sides, the Sooners just made a couple more in the right moments to secure the win.

The Longhorns now head into their bye week at the halfway point of the season, and will definitely take a detailed look at the mistakes they made in their most recent loss. But head coach Steve Sarkisian also wanted to highlight what he thought his team did well on Saturday in a recent press conference.

“I will say there were some real positives in the game,” Sarkisian said. “I know sometimes when you lose it’s easy to look at what went wrong, I think there was a lot of things that went right.”

Turnovers and penalties did hurt the Longhorns significantly in this matchup, giving the ball away to the Sooners three different times and accumulating nine penalties for 70 yards over the course of the game. But special teams were definitely an area that Texas excelled in on Saturday.

“Obviously, the fake punt was a great play for us that swung some momentum, the blocked punt for a touchdown, those are huge plays,” Sarkisian said. “And Bert Auburn what a kick, 47-yard field goal with just over a minute to go, I think getting him back into his fold of what he’s capable of being, that’s gonna be big for us in the second half of the season.”

The Longhorns executed a fake punt and a blocked punt for a touchdown within the first six minutes of the game. But the leg of Auburn was consistent for them all day, knocking down all three of his field goal attempts including two that were 45 yards or longer.

His 47-yard make with 1:17 left in the game had the potential to serve as the game-winner, but unfortunately for the Longhorns, a five-play, 75-yard drive from Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel resulted in the Sooners getting revenge from a season ago.

“I will stand on I loved our competitiveness, I loved our resiliency, our grit, our toughness, our fight even when we weren’t at our best Saturday. And we weren’t, and we just didn’t execute the way we’re capable of executing all the way down to the touchdown on the last play,” Sarkisian said.

Texas dropped from No. 3 to No. 9 in the AP Top 25 Poll following their loss, but a reset during the bye and a strong finish to the second half of the season could allow them to still reach the goals they set at the start of this season.