Texas Football: Report Card Grades for Longhorns Loss to Oklahoma

Oh it was not a great day to be a Texas Longhorn fan if you were at the State Fair of Texas today in Dallas.

The number one team in the nation, the Oklahoma Sooners, showed why they have that ranking today as they buzz sawed through the Longhorns to a 55-17 win in the Red River Rivalry game at the Cotton Bowl on Saturday afternoon.

While Texas didn’t completely do everything wrong, we’ll grade the Longhorns performance as a whole by going across the board and hitting all the major points of today’s game.

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Passing Game

With Garrett Gilbert gone from the program this week, Case McCoy and David Ash shared the quarterback duties today against the Sooners and while the combo has worked since their game against the BYU Cougars, it wasn’t successful today.

The two quarterbacks completed 20 of 36 pass attempts for 223 yards through the air for a touchdown and two costly interceptions during the game today against the Sooners.  

Grade: D

Ground Game

The Longhorns had nine total players run the ball 45 different times during the game today, but only mustered up just 36 yards on the ground against the strong Oklahoma defense.

The leading rusher for Texas was freshman Malcolm Brown today who had 17 carries for 54 yards on the ground.

Grade: C-

Turnovers

Oh, Texas fans really don’t want me to grade this category so they don’t have to relive it again after Saturday’s game against Oklahoma.

The Longhorns had five total turnovers but three of those, two fumbles and an interception, went back  for touchdowns today as the Sooners’ defense outscored the Texas offense by themselves.

Grade: F

Special Teams

Like I said in the intro, the Longhorns didn’t do everything wrong in their rout by Oklahoma today because the lone bright spot for the team was the great special teams play by running back Foswhitt Whittaker and cornerback Quandre Diggs.

The duo combined for 221 yards on kickoff returns while Whittaker scored one of the two touchdowns for the Longhorns today on an 100-yard kickoff return in the waning minutes of the second quarter.

Grade B+

Penalties

The Longhorns didn’t hurt themselves very much with their penalties as the team collected only five penalties against the Sooners for 60 yards during the game. This was one of the few categories during the game that Texas actually beat Oklahoma in as the Sooners had seven for 68 yards.

Grade: C

Efficiency

The Longhorns were stuck in a third down situations 16 times during the game and only able to convert five of those attempts as the team was dominated by their rival Sooners.

Texas also had three fourth down conversion attempts, of which the team only converted one in a game the Longhorns will hope to put out of their minds as they look forward to Oklahoma State next weekend.

Grade: D