Red River Rout: No rivalry game voodoo could slow Texas in blowout of Oklahoma 

DALLAS — To get into the Cotton Bowl to witness the annual Red River Rivalry, you have to walk through the Texas State Fair while people-watching all sorts of interesting humans devouring odd deep-fried foods and massive turkey legs, playing carnival games and consuming more alcohol than the recommended daily serving. 

This Texas-Oklahoma game is always weird. There’s nothing else in college football like this. So regardless of our preconceived notions about the teams or where they’re headed in a given season, this game has a funny way of going off the rails. Wild upsets, quarterback changes, dramatic back-and-forth affairs that end in jaw-dropping ways. It’s never what we anticipate. 

So as we geared up for this year’s edition of the Red River Rivalry, some of us talked ourselves into how a 17-point spread in favor of Texas was too much. We didn’t know how, but Oklahoma, in a rivalry game it has mostly dominated the last 15 years (winning it 11 times in that span), would find a way to keep it close. We thought the Sooners could keep it weird.

There were weird quarterback dynamics for both teams. Quinn Ewers came back from injury after a three-week absence to replace phenom Arch Manning. Oklahoma benched its former five-star prospect in Jackson Arnold a few weeks ago in favor of Michael Hawkins Jr. Maybe there would be a development in there somewhere? We are, after all, a few years removed from Caleb Williams replacing Spencer Rattler in this game and staging an incredible before becoming a star in this sport.

Then Ewers, one of the preseason Heisman Trophy favorites, threw an interception on his second pass of the day. He came out looking rusty. It was like … “Oh boy, here we go.”

No, no, no, no, no. 

Even in this bizarre setting, with players surrounded by a split sea of burnt orange- and maroon-clad fans toting Fletcher’s Corn Dogs and deep-fried deviled eggs, no voodoo could have kept this Oklahoma team on the same field with these Longhorns. They could have played this game 100 times, and Texas probably would have won every one.

Sometimes analyzing football is complicated.

Sometimes it’s easy.

Saturday, during a 34-3 Texas win, it was easy. So, so, so, so easy.

The Longhorns are a national title contender, boast one of the deepest rosters in college football and have an array of players who can break open a game at any moment. Even when Texas got off to a slow start and didn’t really start making plays until midway through the second quarter, it barley had to sweat to win this football game. By the end of the third quarter, Texas had built a 21-point lead.

Oklahoma, meanwhile, doesn’t have an offensive identity. Perhaps it’s because it has an unreliable offensive line and a receiving corps decimated by injuries, but Hawkins completed only five passes for 51 yards in the first half. Oklahoma coach Brent Venables probably felt like he had no choice but to make the move to Hawkins. Why? Because his elusiveness gave him a better chance operating this fractured offense, but it’s hard to envision a world where Arnold would have made much a difference had he still been playing. That’s especially true because Arnold had a turnover issue during his four games as Oklahoma’s starting dating back to last year’s Alamo Bowl loss to Arizona.

This isn’t a quarterback issue for the Sooners. Oklahoma just isn’t in a good place.

Some may question whether it pulled the plug on Arnold too soon. After all, he was viewed as the next great Oklahoma quarterback two months ago. Then he only started four games this season before being yanked in the middle of the Tennessee loss. The truth is, it doesn’t matter. Arnold and Hawkins haven’t had an offensive playmaker available to make things easier. Both were doomed in this offense.

Oklahoma has two losses already and still has South Carolina, Mississippi, Missouri and Alabama on its schedule. It could be a long season in Norman.

Things are a lot cleaner on the Texas side.

Though there was always the potential of there being a Manning-Ewers debate — especially after Ewers’ slow start against the Sooners — head coach Steve Sarkisian handled this month perfectly. There was never a second guess on who was this team’s starter, even with Manning illustrating that he’s a future NFL quarterback. Even if Ewers is playing poorly, it’s his team. The onus is on him to get himself right in the event he’s playing poorly.

The difference between Texas and Oklahoma? This Longhorns team has so many weapons, it can win with ease even when its quarterback is having an off game. What happened here at the State Fair of Texas was the perfect illustration of that. Ewers finished the game with 199 passing yards and never looked particularly sharp, his teammates picked him up. Tight end Gunner Helm scored. Silas Bolden chased down a fumble in the end zone and landed on it for a score. There are athletes everywhere.

In so many years in the recent past of this rivalry, Oklahoma was the team with national title aspirations and the Longhorns were deep, talented team that never reached their potential. With that distinction, it’s easy to understand how games got weird.

But on Saturday? Texas is built more like the Alabamas, Georgias and Ohio States of the world and the Sooners looked like a team that needs three more years of building before being able to handle the transition to the SEC.

The result was a blowout.

So now we turn our attention to Texas against Georgia in Austin next weekend. That should be more of a, well, fair fight.