The Texas Longhorns fell out of the top 25 after an embarrassing loss at the hands of the Florida Gators, where the defense looked out of sorts and the offense couldn’t get out of its own way. The running
game was nonexistent, and Arch Manning showed both the highs and lows of his play in the narrow loss.
Texas doesn’t have any margin to figure things out, as they head to Dallas for the annual rivalry game against the Oklahoma Sooners. Their undefeated rival has looked like a buzzsaw thus far this year, taking care of all outmatched opponents while battering the Auburn offense to come away with a conference win. There would be nothing better for the bitter rivals to be able to officially put a nail in the Longhorns’ aspirations for the year and avoid their first back-to-back losses in the Cotton Bowl since 2008 and 2009.
A big question heading into the game is the health of Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer, who was a Heisman frontrunner before undergoing surgery on his throwing hand prior to Oklahoma’s bye week. Backup Michael Hawkins, who struggled a year ago against the Longhorns in Dallas, didn’t do much to inspire confidence against Kent State, despite Oklahoma rolling 44-0. Regardless of who is in the backfield for Oklahoma, the Texas defense needs to prove it is better than what they showed in The Swamp, where DJ Lagway and the Gators had their way with it on both the ground and through the air.
