The Texas Longhorns were a team on the ropes heading into the Red River Showdown, needing a win against their rival for more than just pride and bragging rights.
Not only did the Longhorns come away with a lopsided win over the Oklahoma Sooners to claim their third win in four chances, but they did so by playing smothering defense and shoring up places that had plagued them the week before. Only time will tell if it was a one-week aberration or if Texas has finally found itself this year.
Arch Manning:
21-27, 166 yards, TD. 4 car, 34 yards
The Texas quarterback has been under fire as of late, and while Arch Manning didn’t put up outlandish numbers in the win, he paired efficient play with a few jaw-dropping moments to create the situations for the win.
From a pure yardage standpoint, it was not only his second-worst performance of the year, but the lowest passing yardage by a starting quarterback in the Red River Showdown since Jerrod Heard in 2015 – a game that Texas won 24-17. Despite the pedestrian number on the surface, Manning did what Texas needed him to do, with both his arm and his feet.
Manning was 11 of 12 on third downs for 117 yards and a touchdown, an average of 9.8 yards per attempt. Seven of those completions resulted in a first down or a touchdown, including 6-6 on Texas’s first two drives of the second half to put the Longhorns ahead 13-6. If you add his two rushing conversions, he was responsible for nine of Texas’s 10 3rd third-down conversions.
Texas 3rd Downs: 10/17 (58.8%)
Speaking of the money down, Texas looked night-and-day different from a week ago, when they managed to convert just three of their 11 3rd Down attempts.
While things looked shaky early on, the Longhorns’ ability to keep drives alive is what fueled their 23-unanswered points in the contest. Texas looked like a completely different team on 3rd Downs to open the second half, going 4-4 on the opening drive, capped by Manning connecting with a wide-open DeAndre Moore, Jr. to take their first lead of the game. The next drive was perhaps even more impressive, with Texas starting the drive on its own five-yard line. Facing 3rd and 8 and potentially giving Oklahoma great field position, Manning escaped pressure, rolled to the right, and fired a missile down the sideline to Parker Livingstone to keep the drive alive.
Three plays later, Manning kept the ball and rushed for six yards to extend the drive and put Texas into field goal range, extending the lead to a full score.
Texas’s average distance to go on 3rd Downs was 9.2 yards per carry, a number that is significantly floated by two awful drives in the first quarter. If you remove the 3rd and 23 and the 3rd and 30, the Longhorns faced an average of 6.86 yards to go on third downs, which includes four of two yards or shorter.
Texas Defense: 5 sacks, 7 TFL, 4 QBH
One of the other much-maligned units coming out of the Florida debacle was the Texas defensive line and the lack of production in the trenches. They seemingly heard the criticism and responded, capitalizing on a pedestrian Oklahoma rushing game and an offensive line that had not been thoroughly tested this year.
When Colin Simmons brought down John Mateer in the second quarter, it was the Longhorns’ first sack against a Power-4 opponent this year and his first since Sam Houston State. It also came at an opportune time for Texas, halting an Oklahoma drive and forcing them to settle for a field goal. This became a theme for the Texas front as the Longhorns put a stranglehold on the Sooners’ offense.
Four of Texas’s five sacks came in the 4th quarter, two of which came as Oklahoma tried to recover from Ryan Niblett’s haymaker punt return touchdown to take a two-score lead. The Sooners quickly moved the ball into Texas territory and looked on the verge of closing the gap before Micahel Taaffe blitzed, slipped Oklahoma center Jake Maikkula, and brought down Mateer to set up 3rd and 20. On the next play, Simmons beat freshman tackle, and former Texas recruiting target, Michael Fasusi one-on-one to put the Sooners even farther behind the chains on 4th Down.
