By Scott Salomon
Texas Head Football Coach Steve Sarkisian is going to have a hard time falling asleep tonight.
He is going to relive the four plays that his Longhorns had in inside the Oklahoma one-yard line that they could not convert into points in the third quarter. The failure to score equated into a failure to win in a 34-30 Texas loss to the Sooners in the annual Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl.
“We didn’t play our best football today,” Sarkisian said after the game. “The promising thing is we know we can play better than we did today. And we will.”
Oklahoma stuffed Texas power back Jonathon Brooks on three consecutive plays to set up a fourth and goal at the one. The pass from Quinn Ewers at the two, after Brooks ultimately lost a yard on second down, was caught by Xavier Worthy but came up one yard short of the endzone.
“I expect us to get back on the horse,” Sarkisian said after the game. “We’ve got a locker room full of competitors. This is a tight knit group/ I am super proud of them for what they bring every single day.”
Ewers completed 31-of-37 passes for 346 yards with a touchdown and committed three turnovers (two interceptions and one fumble), while Texas had only two offensive turnovers during the first five games.
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Brooks finished the game with 129 yards on 22 carries, but if he made it to 130, he would have been a hero. Instead, he is a statistic and will be on SportsCenter for all the wrong reasons.
The Longhorns, who had a shot to the tie the game up at 27, lost the ball, the momentum, the game and possibly a ticket to the College Football Playoff.
OKLAHOMA STOPS TEXAS FOUR TIMES ON THE GOAL LINE ? pic.twitter.com/pxp5udUPyw
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 7, 2023
“I was proud of them today. So we’ll go one day at a time,” Sarkisian said. “I think this locker room is full of champions and our goal is to win a championship this year. We’ve got to go handle our business.”
Credit the surge of the Oklahoma defensive front seven for stopping Brooks and keeping him from crossing the goal line. Their pass rush on fourth down forced Ewers to rush his throw and get off the field empty-handed.
Despite the fact that Brooks scored on the ensuing drive to temporarily tie the game, however, his three failures from the one will be remembered by college football fans for a long time.
Sarkisian was despondent after the game, unlike last year, when his Horns won the Red River Rivalry 49-0. Oklahoma’s solace was that Dillon Gabriel was injured and did not participate.
Bert Auburn kicked a 47-yard field goal which put the Longhorns ahead 30-27 with 1:17 to play in the game, but the Texas defense, which has been stout all season, could not contain Gabriel and the Sooner offense before the game ended at 0:00.
When Auburn kicked the field goal, the question became why did they give the ball to Brooks on third down when Ewers was hot and completed 24 out of his last 25 passes at the time.
Venables countered the move by slowing the game down by utilizing his timeouts and taking the fire away from Ewers and Sarkisian who were moving the football with tremendous ease. It was almost like Texas and Sarkisian was playing for the field goal and was ultra conservative.
It Gabriel’s three-year pass to Nic Anderson with 15 seconds to play that won the game for the Sooners and sent Oklahoma (6-0, 3-0) fans into a frenzy. The Sooners drove 75 yards in five plays, taking barely over a minute to come from behind to win the game.
DILLON GABRIEL AND NIC ANDERSON GIVE OKLAHOMA THE LEAD OVER TEXAS ?
OU goes 75 yards in 1:02 ? pic.twitter.com/DDCHdWxYkA
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) October 7, 2023
“This is what OU football is all about. This is why I came here,” Gabriel said after the game. “This game. A lot of respect for Texas. Man, they played their butt off.” I’m all about OU Football. I love this place. Let’s go.”
Oklahoma coach Brent Venables agreed.
“He’s the calmest guy I’ve ever been around at the quarterback position,” Venables said. “He was fearless. I don’t put any limits on what Dillon can do. He’s playing as confident as anybody on our team right now.”
