There’s no point in trying to predict how a Red River rivalry game will go. Texas and Oklahoma have aligned themselves to this eternal blood feud, some Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid shit. And it doesn’t matter what the records next to their names say or what the expectations for each team are, this game will almost certainly go the opposite of what you expect it to and end in a knife fight in the mud. On Saturday, Oklahoma came out of that fight as the last man standing.
The Sooners beat the No. 1 ranked Texas Longhorns 27-24. With the game tied throughout much of the fourth quarter, Arch Manning threw his second interception with about 19 seconds left in regulation. And after a couple of incredible passes by John Mateer to get within range, Oklahoma kicker Tate Sandell got the chance to kick a 47 yard field goal at the end of regulation to put the Sooners over the top.
Technically, the stats tell a different story. Texas outgained Oklahoma on the ground 122 to 83, and in the air 260 to 155. And Texas more or less controlled much of the game. But thanks to a special teams blunder, in which Oklahoma blocked a punt for a score, along with Manning’s two interceptions, one of which became a pick six, Oklahoma came away the victor and the spoiler.
There’s going to be a lot of blame made and fingers pointed. Neither team was great at running the ball all afternoon. And Manning was having a solid game, accounting for three touchdowns, until the aforementioned back-breaking turnovers. And as fun as it is to complain about Steve Sarkisian and his odd conservatism at the worst times, there’s nothing that happened on Saturday to make you come away feeling like he was outcoached or outschemed by Brent Venables. It was every bit the flukey, confusing victory that it seems on paper. While there’s certainly conversations to have about Manning and his development or lack thereof and how much fault he deserves for each interception, it does seem like an act of the Rivalry Gods took control of this one.
And that’s what makes Red River increasingly unique, in a moment where the college rivalry and rivalry games are being devalued and losing potency. The Red River Showdown or Shootout or whatever they’re calling it these days is the only game that refuses to bend to analysis, or common sense, or the talent of the teams involved. Sure, every now and then you can get a goofy ending to the Iron Bowl. Pittsburgh and West Virginia love to put up a hootenanny every year. Iowa and Iowa State’s legend is well-known at this point. But there’s no other rivalry in which you know for certain that you have no clue what is going to happen, other than this one.
Mateer was about to be lifting weights on the bench a week ago, and now he gets to run with the Sooner flag up and down the Cotton Bowl. Sandell put on the golden cowboy hat after hitting a walk-off field goal, and Venables’s red-faced manic ass gets to walk around like he’s the big dog in charge and not the coach of a team barely over .500. This was the first time the Sooners beat a No. 1 ranked team since 2007, and it was their first time ever beating a No. 1 ranked Texas team. Very few people saw a result like this coming, but Oklahoma could.
“I thought about this game for 365 days,” Mateer said in the postgame. “I think that was the longest fourth quarter I’ve ever been a part of. It was awesome and I’ll never forget it. But I knew 19 seconds left that this was the time.”
There is very little to take away from a game like this. Texas will almost certainly look dominant again next week, and Oklahoma will not be gifted opportunity the same way by their next opponent. This is a blip on the radar and a glitch in the matrix. In other words, the ideal kind of college football rivalry game.
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