Sooners Demoralize Longhorns In 63-21 Rout

There are no "advanced metric" numbers that will make Texas fans feel any better about what their Longhorns experienced at the hands of the Sooners on Saturday in the Cotton Bowl. The Longhorns were beaten fundamentally by an Oklahoma team that was better prepared and able to execute on both sides of the ball. They were beaten numerically in every aspect of the game, including the scoreboard, in one of the most spastically lopsided affairs in the history of this storied rivalry. They were beaten physically by an Oklahoma team that was stronger and faster. The Sooners abused the Longhorns with viscous hits and a physicality that literally left the carnage of bodies all over the field.

Most frustrating and shaming to Texas fans, was that their team was exposed by their archrivals to be a complete fraud. David Ash was forced to try and make plays time and again, after Oklahoma stuffed the Texas rushing attack, and failed to deliver on just about every occasion. Texas fans had bought into the notion that games against high-powered offenses, like Oklahoma State and West Virginia, painted the defense to appear worse than they actually were (this is the advanced metrics theory). The Sooners overpowered the Longhorns to the tune of 677 total yards.

As a whole, Texas was so inept on both sides of the ball that when Blake Bell scored to give the Sooners a 27-2 lead in the second quarter, the total yards gained advantage favored Oklahoma 314 – 14. As bad as that sounds, it still doesn’t tell the whole story of just how dominant OU was. Texas didn’t pick up a first down until the second quarter and posted no offensive points until late in the fourth when the Sooners replaced their starters in garbage time.

Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones threw for 321 yards and two scores (also had a horrible interception that was returned for a score) but was a long way from being labeled the offensive player of the game. That distinction has to go to either running back Damien Williams or fullback Trey Millard. Williams ran for 167 yards on 22 carries (7.5 YPC) and had a 95-yard touchdown scamper that was the longest run in the history of the rivalry. Millard had a career high 119 receiving yards with a score. His highlight moment of the game came when he leaped over Longhorn safety Mykkele Thompson while simultaneously stiff-arming corner Adrian Philips before he landed (photoed above). That play went for 73-yards and set up one of Blake Bell’s four rushing touchdowns.

For the second week in a row Oklahoma offensive coordinator Josh Heupel called a seemingly perfect game plan, leaving more than just a glimmer of hope that he is coming into the job. The adjustments that Mike Stoops made with the defense should trouble Texas fans at how simple it was to remove the Longhorn offense as a factor.

In essence, the Sooners did pretty much anything that they wanted against the Texas defense on Saturday while not allowing the Longhorn offense to do squat and there was no mercy. Oklahoma undressed the Longhorns on national television and completely exposed all of their shame. However, the worst part has to be that Bob Stoops walked off the field with a 9-5 career record against Mack Brown which all but ends the argument regarding who was the better of the two coaches. Texas fans know it as well. As they sit and listen to Brown attempt to explain his fourth blowout loss and, second consecutive, the reality sits in that of all of the mismatches on the field today, the greatest one was between the two coaches on the sidelines.