Red River Rivalry quick-hit: Miscues costly, OU downed vs. Texas
DALLAS – A bye week for both OU and Texas gave the Red River Rivalry a little bit of a different flavor Saturday afternoon.
The Sooners brought out some wrinkles, but not the positive results. After a fired up start, everything went downhill in a hurry.
The Golden Hat is going back to Austin as No. 1 Texas had its way with OU 34-3 in the first edition in the SEC at the Cotton Bowl.
Here are the quick-hit takeaways from a rough afternoon for OU.
OU tried offensively, but nothing worked
Different formations, different personnel. OU absolutely came out with a new look on offense, but it simply didn’t matter.
It usually took one negative play on a drive to derail anything it had worked so hard to get. And quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. didn’t have that legendary initial outing vs. Texas.
Defense wilted
OU held Texas scoreless for the first 18 minutes of the game. Included in that was an interception by safety Billy Bowman on the third play of the game.
But you simply could not expect that to be sustained for 60 minutes. And it all went spiraling quickly in the final minutes of the second quarter.
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A 7-3 deficit turned into 21-3, and that was about all she wrote. OU simply doesn’t have the offensive firepower to come back from a differential like that. And the offense made it incredibly tough with a couple of turnovers in the final four minutes. The juice was gone.
It was coaching, too
Not just rough offense. Not just the defense finally wilting. But not a great day for head coach Brent Venables, either. Some puzzling coaching decisions that put OU in a rough spot.
Fourth down calls continue to be an issue for Venables and OU. It was again vs. Texas. Using a timeout or not using a timeout was an issue. One needed to be called defensively to get the lineup set. Instead, it was a Texas touchdown.
It’s a little bit of everything, and it wasn’t an afternoon where OU could afford to have those types of gaffes.
It wasn’t 49-0 from two years ago, but it wasn’t much better.
Up next
A little bit of a crossroads here. Because OU has to be able to show it can do something offensively. Or it’s going to be a long season. The Sooners (4-2 overall, 1-2 SEC) welcome South Carolina to Norman next Saturday. The Gamecocks lost 27-25 at Alabama on Saturday afternoon.
