Another Cotton Bowl classic shows how much Big 12 will miss Texas-OU Red River Rivalry
Texas #Texas
On a glorious fall afternoon at the State Fair, Texas and Oklahoma didn’t play like it was their last dance in the Big 12. They played like it was their last game ever. Wall-to-wall, edge-of-the-seat, hold-your-bladder intrigue. The only person who couldn’t at least have appreciated the aesthetics was Brett Yormark, who famously called upon the rest of his league to make this last lap by the Longhorns and Sooners a difficult one. With no one to root for Saturday, he didn’t show for the conference’s marquee matchup.
He missed a heck of a game.
The Big 12 will miss this.
Brent Venables, whose 12th-ranked Sooners rebounded from what he called an “embarrassment” last season in the Cotton Bowl for a 34-30 win Saturday, testified that, in a career that’s covered stops in Norman as well as Clemson, S.C., he’s coached in a lot of big games. Some with a crystal trophy on the line.
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“This one,” he said, “doesn’t take a back seat to any one of them.”
Related:Goal-line stand exemplifies Oklahoma’s much-improved defense in victory over Texas
Of course, it probably helps your perspective if you’re on the winning side of the equation. Take Steve Sarkisian. Despite the fact that he got a blocked punt for a touchdown, succeeded on a fake punt and was 3-for-3 on fourth down, all in the first half alone, he couldn’t get past the fact that Texas turned it over three times, gave up five sacks and was penalized nine times. He called the game “a nice win for them” but lamented those critical mistakes as well as an inability to score late with four chances inside the Sooners’ 2.
Just the same, in a performance that enhanced Oklahoma’s College Football Playoff possibilities without ruining Texas’, Sark applauded the fact that, after everything that went wrong, the Longhorns still led with 1:17 left after Bert Auburn’s 47-yard field goal.
“When you’re not at your best,” Sark said, “can you find a way to win?”
The third-ranked Longhorns ultimately couldn’t, mostly because of the Sooners’ opportunistic defense and the fact Dillon Gabriel outplayed Quinn Ewers.
Related:Quinn Ewers, Texas haunted by first-quarter errors in Oklahoma Red River Rivalry loss
Last year at the fair, Ewers rose to the occasion with four touchdowns in a 49-0 win. This year, he got off to a poor start, throwing interceptions on Texas’ first two possessions. The first led to the Sooners’ first touchdown; the second prevented a Texas score.
Ewers bounced back nicely, finishing 31 of 37 for 346 yards and a touchdown, often while running for his life.
Unfortunately for the Longhorns, Ewers isn’t at his best when afoot. Gabriel, on the other hand, is a two-way threat and suddenly a legitimate topic of conversation in any Heisman discussions.
Besides completing 23 of 38 passes for 285 yards and a touchdown, he took only one sack and led Oklahoma in rushing with 113 yards on 14 carries. The rest of the Sooners? Eighty-eight yards at 3.03 a pop.
“He deserves the Heisman this year,” said Jalil Farooq, who caught five of Gabriel’s passes for 130 yards.
“So I’m gonna keep promoting that until he gets it.”
Venables didn’t dispute the promotion, calling Gabriel “one of the best in college football.” But he also noted that it’s not at the top of his quarterback’s list of goals. He appreciates the chemistry of this team, which he likened to the Sooners’ championship run way back in 2000. A “bunch of misfits,” he called that group. This one is “shinier” in spots, he said, but harbors the same unity, which might seem odd for a roster with 63 newcomers.
For that matter, Gabriel didn’t play in last year’s game, either. He proved Saturday what kind of difference he could make.
The game seemed out of his hands with five minutes left when a third-down pass to Austin Stogner sailed between the tight end’s arms. The fast-action, see-saw game finally seemed as if it would tilt toward Texas when the Longhorns methodically drove the field for Auburn’s field goal.
They simply gave Gabriel too much time, not to mention too much room. With his pocket crumbling around him and 15 seconds on the clock from Texas’ 3, he found Nic Anderson all by his lonesome in the left corner of the end zone, the roaring Sooner faithful his only company.
If it wasn’t the ending they’d bargained for, the Longhorns can take consolation in the fact that, if they run the table, their goals of a Big 12 title and the CFP remain in full view. Oklahoma established precedence. Of the Sooners’ four CFP appearances, half came after losing at the State Fair.
Sark wouldn’t go there when I asked if he expected to play Oklahoma again this season, preferring to say they need to correct mistakes and take ‘em one at a time. Probably what any losing coach should say, too. But if that’s what he’s thinking, here’s betting he’s right. Here’s hoping the Big 12 title game at JerryWorld is half as good as this was. The commissioner should put it on his schedule, just in case.
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Photos: Texas-Oklahoma, the 2023 Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas