Texas earned Saturday’s 27-24 walk-off loss to Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout.
The Sooners beat the Longhorns in the trenches in the second half, out-rushing Texas (4-1, 1-1 SEC) by 30 yards (82-52) and forcing two turnovers. Arch Manning, not John Mateer, made catastrophic mistakes, with two interceptions that led to 10 points for Oklahoma (3-2, 1-1), including Tate Sandell’s game-winning 47-yard field goal.
The inexplicable loss isn’t solely on Manning’s shoulders. The Longhorns couldn’t get a push in the running game when it mattered, Steve Sarkisian’s play-calling was as questionable as ever and Will Muschamp’s defense faltered down the stretch (although the defense was by far the better of the three phases on Saturday).
Texas is an undisciplined team that can’t run the football when it needs to, is inexplicably sloppy on special teams and failed to put its foot on the gas with a double-digit lead for the second consecutive game.
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Oklahoma had a distinct path to victory. The action at the Cotton Bowl unfolded in the Sooners’ favor.
The Longhorns lost the turnover battle, 2-0.
Oklahoma improved to 16-2 under Brent Venables when scoring a non-offensive touchdown.
Mateer (18-for-26 for 155 yards) avoided making the backbreaking mistakes that plagued him through the Sooners’ first four games.
Oklahoma won the line-of-scrimmage battle when it mattered and seized the momentum when Texas left the door open for a potential comeback. We’ve seen Red River upsets unfold similarly in the past, which is why the Sooners taking the Golden Hat back to Norman isn’t a surprise, given how things unfolded in Dallas.
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Even though Oklahoma’s defense lived up to its billing, seven three-and-outs, a pick-six and a missed field goal would’ve been more than enough to question where Sarkisian’s offense is going.
Then there was the last drive of the game.
The four-play drive that ended with Courtland Guillory’s interception of Manning felt like a microcosm of what’s wrong with the Longhorns on a side of the ball that’s putting out a product on par with last season's lackluster showing. Whether it’s a lack of hot routes or built-in advantage throws against blitzes, Manning’s inability or unwillingness to get the offense out of bad plays or questionable football IQ in a two-minute situation, Texas is too disjointed to take advantage of the talent Sarkisian’s organization acquired in the offseason.
Inconsistency is the only thing consistent about the Longhorn offense. The boom-or-bust nature of Sarkisian’s offense has a low ceiling for a team that can’t rely on the kicking game to do anything other than put the defense on short fields or give up points.
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While the season isn’t over, the loss means that Sarkisian has no choice but to look in the mirror and see what changes must be made to improve the product.
Texas’ offensive identity, when push comes to shove, is still to snap the ball to Manning and hope something good happens. When it works, it’s great. When it doesn’t work, you get the outcome you got on Saturday.
Sarkisian can figure out what’s working and hammer those concepts so that the Longhorns can lean on a few things. Or he can keep dialing things up that, while they might look cool enough on tape to put on the call sheet, aren’t doing anything other than getting the offense behind the chains.
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The opening kickoff going out of bounds was a bad omen.
I don’t like calling for a coach’s job. Still, for Jeff Banks’ unit to answer a forgettable showing against Tennessee with a performance that was worse against the Sooners is troubling, to say the least.
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There aren’t enough adjectives to describe the nature of Saturday’s loss.
After doing what it needed to do to keep their College Football Playoff fate out of the selection committee’s hands through the first four games, Texas now has little to no margin for error. Unless Sarkisian's long-awaited desire for his club to play consistent complementary football is realized, the loss to Oklahoma won't be the last that the Longhorns suffer before the end of the regular season.
Texas did enough right to win the Ohio State and Tennessee games. It didn't do enough right to win on Saturday, with a lot of mistakes and misfires looking all too familiar.
The Longhorns have played with fire more than once this year. They finally got burned.
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