DALLAS — The Oklahoma Sooners found an offense Saturday even worse than their own.
And Texas football star Arch Manning somehow got outplayed by OU quarterback John Mateer.
Tate Sandell’s 47-yard field goal attempt sailed through the uprights and the Sooners, awash in a down season, kicked the Longhorns in the gut with a 27-24 win, becoming the second unranked team in as many seasons to climb off the deck and beat the Horns.
Here’s why this sucks so bad for the previously ranked No. 1 Horns, who dropped to 4-1 overall and 1-1 in SEC play: They have much bigger catfish to fry in the coming weeks with Florida, Ole Miss and Mississippi State coming to Austin, but they got hooked by their own mistakes.
And they have played themselves into the middle of the SEC with an uneven offensive performance that not even their elite defense could overcome. If ever there was an Oklahoma team they should have worked, it was this one that came in ranked last in the SEC in total offense.
The Longhorns gave it away. Manning made the two biggest boneheaded throws of his college career and it cost the Horns their top ranking and further exposed this offense as more name than game. Both of Manning’s miscues were interceptions thrown under duress: Peyton Bowen’s pick-six that cost the Horns the lead and the other one by Courtland Guillory with 24 seconds left to set up the Sooners for the unthinkable.
“They hung around and made the plays they needed to make,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said.
Texas had no business hanging around. The Horns should have won by double digits, but it’s obvious there wasn’t a whole lot separating these teams. Texas has more talent but didn’t play up to it for four quarters.
Coming into this one, there was more action at the Golden Gate Funeral Home than the comatose Oklahoma offense that extended its dubious streak to 11 straight quarters without a touchdown. Texas’ 17-7 halftime lead was due more to bad special teams play from Jeff Banks’ crew. Danny Okoye’s blocked punt and Dakoda Fields’ subsequent end zone recovery gave the Sooners their first touchdown against Texas since they rallied for a 34-30 win in 2023 courtesy of quarterback Dillon Gabriel.
Then the Sooners woke up with help from a generous Texas offense. Bowen’s 42-yard pick-six, which was the first of Manning’s career and the first against Texas since 2021, plunged the burnt-orange half of the 92,100 at the Cotton Bowl into a depression, but Manning rallied with a 15-yard touchdown to Jermaine Bishop after a 42-yard connection to Cam Coleman.
Sign up for Cedric Golden’s newsletter for hot takes and expert analysis each Tuesday on Texas Longhorns football and beyond delivered straight to your inbox. It’s called Ced’s Corner, from the NSMA’s 2025 Texas Sportswriter of the Year.
The Longhorns will still be a touchdown favorite when they host the Florida Gators on Saturday — their first home game since they took out UTSA 30-6 on Sept. 19. This scribe announced that the Gainesville Chompers were back on our “On Second Thought” podcast a couple of weeks ago, but it turns out the rumors of their revival were premature after giving up 83 points in losses to Missouri and South Carolina.
But if Oklahoma can climb out of a 2-2 hole and beat Texas, anything is on the table.