The No. 19 Texas Longhorns’ 48-45 win over the No. 7 Oklahoma Sooners in the Red River Showdown Saturday was the upset that almost wasn’t. Texas got off to a great start, leading Oklahoma 10-7 after the first quarter, 24-17 at half and 45-24 heading into the final frame. But the Sooners then almost pulled off a crazy comeback, putting up 21 straight fourth-quarter points to tie the score. That led to Longhorns’ freshman kicker Cameron Dicker’s game-winning field goal from 40 yards out with 14 seconds left:
Oklahoma did get two final plays after that, but they didn’t get too far on either, leaving the Longhorns with the 48-45 win. And that was a remarkable game, with the 93 points there marking the highest-scoring game in the history of the Texas-Oklahoma rivalry. The Longhorns finished with 501 total yards of offense, while the Sooners had 532. The disappointing part for Oklahoma was how they were more efficient on a per-play basis (7.2 yards per rush, 11.5 per pass versus 4.7 and 8.8 respectively for Texas), but weren’t able to translate that into many points until late in the game, hurt by an interception and two lost fumbles (as compared to no turnovers for the Longhorns). Texas also managed to pull off plenty of unusual plays, such as this handoff-reverse-throw back to quarterback Sam Ehlinger:
That set up a long Ehlinger run for a touchdown:
And that was part of Texas’ early dominance. But in the fourth quarter, Oklahoma came roaring back:
And the Sooners then tied it up with less than three minutes left on a pitch to RB Trey Sermon:
The Longhorns responded with a key drive of their own, though, setting up Dicker’s field goal attempt. That gave them their only points of the fourth quarter, but the only ones they’d need. And the Longhorns and Sooners are both now 5-1 as a result of this, with Texas continuing their improvement this year and Oklahoma suffering their first real misstep of the season.
[Kevin McGuire on Clippit]
