The numbers tell the story of Texas' dominant win over Oklahoma

DALLAS — Looking for evidence to prove just how much of a beatdown the Texas Longhorns issued to the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday? Let’s start with the scoreboard, which read 49-0 in Texas’ favor.

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It was the first time the Longhorns shutout the Sooners since 1965, and the tenth overall time in the series. Not only that, it was the first time Oklahoma was held scoreless by the Texas defense since 1984. The 49 Longhorn points, all via seven touchdowns scored by the offense, created the largest final margin of victory in Texas’ favor in series history.

Not enough? Here are some more.

Without typical starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel, the Sooners looked to Davis Beville to lead the Oklahoma offense. It’s safe to say Beville didn’t resemble any of the other OU quarterbacks that have played in the Cotton Bowl in recent years, like Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts, or Caleb Williams.

In fact, Beville was split out wide more often than he was under center. The OU offensive brain trust led by Jeff Lebby didn’t have faith in him to run the offense against Pete Kwiatkowski’s Longhorn defense. So Lebby decided to run the Wildcat with various backs and receivers.

It wasn’t effective.

Not only did the Sooners not score, they didn’t even break 200 total yards. Oklahoma only tallied 39 passing yards and 156 rushing yards on 42 carries. Their only real scoring chance came in the first half, when OU drove to the Texas eight-yard-line. Brent Venables’ team needed a fake field goal in order to even get inside the 10, and tried to make it 1st-and-goal instead of taking the points. T’Vondre Sweat and Moro Ojomo made sure no points were scored with a fourth-down stuff.

The Sooner offense recorded five first downs in the first quarter, but couldn’t get the one they needed to get closer to the end zone.

They’d only move the chains six more times in the remaining 45 minutes. OU went three-and-out six times, including on five-straight drives in the second half.

Contributions came from all levels of the defense. Anthony Cook, Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey, Keondre Coburn, and Justice Finkley each recorded half a sack. Two of Sweat’s four tackles were for loss, as were two of Coburn’s three tackles. Jahdae Barron and D’Shawn Jamison each recorded interceptions in the first half.

No matter what OU ran, it wasn’t successful.

Meanwhile, the Texas offense stayed on the gas the entire game.

Quinn Ewers, playing for the first time since the Alabama contest, was magnificent. He was 21-of-31 for 289 yards and four touchdowns over one interception. He spread the love to several targets. Jordan Whittington had five catches for 97 yards. Ja’Tavion Sanders hauled in five for 71 yards and two scores. Xavier Worthy was in on the scoring action, too. He had three for 29 yards to go with his touchdown. Several other receivers had two catches, with Keilan Robinson bringing in a Ewers’ touchdown pass, too.

The rushing game was productive for the Longhorns on Saturday, falling four yards short of the 300-yard mark. Bijan Robinson had 22 carries for 130 yards and two scores. Roschon Johnson had nine carries for 57 yards. Jonathon Brooks got in on the scoring action with seven carries for 39 yards and a score.

The only time the Longhorns erred was late in the game, when Bert Auburn missed a 42-yarder with just under six minutes left.

By that point, the game was at its final margin. Backups were playing. Venables had waived the white flag.

More stats tell the tale of just how dominant the Longhorn win was. 585 total yards to Oklahoma’s 195. Texas’ 36 first downs to OU’s 11. Texas was 10-of-15 on money downs. OU was a combined 5-of-19 on third and fourth down.

Average yards per play? Texas doubled up the Sooners, winning that battle 7.2 to 3.3. In the Red zone? Texas was 6-of-7, Oklahoma 0-of-2. Of course, the all-important turnover margin went the Longhorns’ way too, like just about everything in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday.

The list of stats that reveal Longhorn dominance goes on and on. It helped Texas improved to 4-2, and 2-1 in Big 12 play.

49-0 is nice, other stats are too.

But to be 1-0 versus Oklahoma on Saturday, October 8? That’s the stat Texas relishes most.