DALLAS – It took time for Quinn Ewers and the No. 1 Texas Longhorns (6-0) to settle into the 120th annual Red River Rivalry game against No. 18 Oklahoma (4-2) in the Cotton Bowl.
The Longhorns took back the Golden Hat Trophy from the Sooners with their 34-3 win on Saturday.
The Sooners’ defense came out of the gate booming, intercepting Ewers’ first pass attempt of the game and preventing the Longhorns from converting a first down until their first drive of the second quarter.
Ewers was thrown into his first game as a member of the SEC without having seen action in the two prior weeks due to an oblique injury.
“It’s definitely good to be back,” said Ewers. “It was a rough start, but I think overall we did a good job of when adversity struck, we overcame it. It’s 10% of what happens to you, 90% of how you overcome it.”
With Texas facing a third down and five yards to go on that second-quarter drive, Ewers threw a deep 26-yard pass to DeAndre Moore Jr. on the outside and later found the end zone for the game’s first touchdown.
From that point on, the Longhorns found their rhythm.
“They got the lead, but I don’t think anybody panicked,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “And that’s a sign of a really good team. We showed great poise and composure.”
After Ewers guided the Longhorns to their first scoring drive, the Texas defense awakened — causing Oklahoma’s offense to crumble.
The Texas defense forced back-to-back punts before the Longhorns built a 14-3 lead. Then, that same defensive unit later forced back-to-back turnovers which the offense turned into touchdowns each time.
“Second quarter was obviously huge in the ball game,” said Sarkisian. “Some critical third-down conversions — then DeAndre Moore, Ryan Wingo, [Quintrevion] Wisner showed up and the defense started turning the ball over and stopping the run.”
“I always say our best ball is yet to come,” Texas defensive back Michael Taffe said. “We only let up three points, but we’re going to go look at that film and we’re going to see some run fits that I missed that some other people missed and we’re going to clean those up. And our best ball is yet to come. The press and everybody around, outside the locker room might say, ‘Wow, this is such a complete defense.’ But everybody in the locker room knows that the offense gets after our butt a lot during the week of practice. So we have so much to get better at, and that’s what I’m so excited for.”
The Longhorns’ defense has allowed only three touchdowns through six games.
While Sarkisian said he respects the annual rivalry game against Oklahoma, Texas has its sights set beyond OU and would rather bring another national championship to Austin.
“Don’t get me wrong, the locker room was fun and all that,” said Sarkisian. “But it’s almost like our team knows there’s more work to do. And, you know, two years ago, when we won the Golden Hat, you might have thought we won the Super Bowl. This year, it was like, ‘OK, we got the Golden Hat back. Let’s put it in the trophy case, and let’s keep grinding. Let’s keep going.’ I think that’s the mentality of our team.”
Texas will try to extend its undefeated start to the SEC next Saturday when it hosts No. 5 Georgia. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. in a game that will air live on KSAT 12.
