Texas fell to rival Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry and with the loss, the Longhorns are eliminated from the College Football Playoff conversation.
Oklahoma was a double-digit over Texas in the annual Red River Rivalry in large part because of the offensive output of Jalen Hurts, CeeDee Lamb and the Sooners offense. However, the story out of the Cotton Bowl this year was the Oklahoma defense that totally shut the Texas offense down.
The 34-27 loss by Texas wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate. A pair of turnovers in the red zone by Jalen Hurts in the first half kept Texas in the game despite the lack of offense.
Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger combined for nine touchdowns in two games vs. Oklahoma last year but didn’t have any passing touchdowns on his 210 yards passing and his two rushing touchdowns were insignificant in the big picture. Ehlinger also finished with minus-9 rushing yards on 23 attempts when factoring in the loss of yards due to sacks.
Ehlinger was running for his life most of the game vs. a suddenly legit Oklahoma defense. The loss is the second on the year for Texas and all but eliminates them from the College Football Playoff. The Longhorns needed to win vs. Oklahoma and beat them again in the Big 12 Championship Game to have a chance after losing to LSU in September.
Now?
At least their Big 12 title hopes are still alive if they can run the table and take out Oklahoma in a potential rematch.
“This hurts. It really does,” Tom Herman said after the loss. “When you’ve invested what this team has invested, any loss hurts, especially when you lose to your rival. … Again, losing is not a failure unless you refuse or don’t learn from the things that you did poorly. We need to be able to learn from this, put it behind us and move forward.”
It’s a disappointing turn of events for Texas who has made significant strides under Tom Herman, including the development of Ehlinger into one of the nation’s best quarterbacks. However, they remain the little brother to Oklahoma in the conference. And if you can’t beat your rival in your conference, you aren’t going to be on the national stage. This is a similar phenomenon experienced by Michigan who can’t beat Ohio State. Texas has had a little more luck vs. Oklahoma than the Wolverines have had vs. the Buckeyes, but the point still rings true.
Texas had their season ended by their rival in the biggest game of the year.
There is still pride to play for even if championships are no longer in the grasp of reality. Last year’s team fell shy of their ultimate goals but still rebounded with a dismantling of Georgia in the Sugar Bowl to end the season on a high.
That represents the best-case scenario for the Longhorns this year after Oklahoma once again crushed their dreams.
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