At halftime against Oklahoma, Texas appeared to have its third straight Red River Rivalry win in reach.
The Longhorns held a comfortable 17-7 lead, with a defense that had allowed just 54 yards and had finished its 10th consecutive quarter without surrendering an Oklahoma offensive touchdown.
Then came the third quarter.
The Longhorns managed just 41 yards on their first three possessions of the second half, punting each time. Those struggles continued into the fourth quarter, giving Oklahoma a chance to creep back into the game.
Suddenly, the game was tied.
Enter senior quarterback Arch Manning’s first big blunder. Rolling out to his right, Manning threw a pass that sailed over junior wide receiver Cam Coleman’s head into a sea of crimson jerseys.
Senior defensive back Peyton Bowen intercepted the pass and returned it for a touchdown. For the first time in over three years, Oklahoma held a touchdown lead against Texas.
While Manning responded with a 75-yard touchdown drive, another interception minutes later set Oklahoma up for a game-winning field goal.
Saturday’s 27-24 loss exposed the consequences of an issue that had troubled the offense even during its undefeated start: inconsistency.
“There’s a level of anger and frustration because we know we have issues that need to be fixed,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said following the loss. “And we’re working on those issues, … but they reared their ugly head today.”
One of those “ugly heads” was the Longhorns’ inability to sustain drives.
Texas went three-and-out on eight separate occasions Saturday, failing to put the game out of reach and allowing Oklahoma to erase its 10-point deficit.
“Any time you have the amount of three-and-outs that we have right now, that is kind of like when you look at your grandma’s Christmas tree, and there’s that blinking light. That’s the blinking light,” Sarkisian said on Monday. “We’ve got scheme. We’ve got players. We’ve got attitude. We’ve got all the stuff that should make up to where we shouldn’t have the three-and-outs.”
For Sarkisian, avoiding another offensive collapse starts with finding more early-down success. Too often this season, Texas has struggled to escape third-and-long situations, making it hard to establish an offensive rhythm.
A major contributor to that rhythm comes from maintaining a consistent run game.
In the first half, Texas’ running backs combined for 72 yards on 14 carries. Those same backs amassed just 30 yards on 11 attempts after halftime. Freshman Derrek Cooper accounted for 41 of those first-half yards on just six carries, but he received just two carries after halftime, both of which were stuffed for no gain.
Despite the drop in production, Sarkisian maintained that Texas ran the ball efficiently against Oklahoma. However, the Longhorns struggled to break off explosive runs and eventually had to move away from the run game while trailing in the fourth quarter.
“There were good runs today. It just wasn’t consistent enough,” Sarkisian said postgame.
Now 4–1, the Longhorns return to Austin with an opportunity to put the lessons from Saturday’s loss into practice against a Florida team coming off back-to-back losses.
The last time Texas lost to Oklahoma, in 2023, it went the rest of the regular season undefeated and earned a bid in the College Football Playoff.
Sarkisian pointed to his team’s response two seasons ago on Monday, hoping this year’s team can turn that same disappointment into an opportunity for growth.
“Not all storms come to disrupt our life,” Sarkisian said. “Some come to clear our path.”
