Texas heads to the locker room with a 21-17 lead in Stillwater against Oklahoma State, but the Horns have certainly not been all that impressive. Or at least their supposed mighty defense has very much failed to live up to its billing thus far. David Ash on the other had has looked very much improved connecting on a number a nicely thrown deep balls. In fact, Ash might look a little too good (by Texas standards, mind you) as his success seems to have led to Bryan Harsin's forgetting about the Texas running backs. Malcolm Brown, Joe Beregon, and Jonathan Gray have a combined 11 carries for 26 yards. Meanwhile, Ash is 12-16 for 123 yards and two touchdowns.
Back to that Texas defense though. Oklahoma State is absolutely gashing the Horns and can seemingly run at will (especially over left tackle). OSU's Joesph Randle finished the first half with a cool 147 yards on just 15 carries, good for a hefty 9.8 yard average. J.W. Walsh, starting in place of Wes Lunt, has looked the part of a freshman playing in his first big game but hasn't been terrible. It does appear thought that the OSU coaches feel somewhat limited with what they can do with Walsh as they've not looked to thrown the ball down the field at all so far.
From an Oklahoma perspective, Texas' defense looking very ordinary certainly makes the matchup in Dallas seem much more,um shall we say, manageable. OU's secondary matches up very well with the Texas wide receivers, so the Red River Shootout will hinge on the Sooners defense ability to slow down the Texas run game. With respect to Okie State, not much new information here. We knew, even though "this was the year", that their defense was terrible. And we knew their running game would carry the offense this year.
We'll see how the second half of this one plays out as OU fans watch on seeking some more insight on our enemies.