Texas Football: 5 Things We Learned from the Longhorns' Loss Against Oklahoma

The 106th running of the Red River Rivalry goes to the Oklahoma Sooners, as the Crimson and Cream recorded a dominating 55-17 win over the Texas Longhorns.

Experience versus youth and takeaways versus giveaways were keys in the Sooners victory at the Cotton Bowl, as the Longhorns were humbled by a football team in a different class.

With Texas' four-game winning streak coming to a halt, the Longhorns will retreat to the drawing board before another top ten opponent in Oklahoma State comes into Austin next weekend.

Here are five things we learned about the Longhorns on Saturday.

Experience Prevailed

Leading up to the Red River Rivalry, much of the talk surrounding the game was about Oklahoma's veteran offense and Texas' youth.

Both of those elements were evident on Saturday.

The Sooners' defense forced five turnovers—picking up three touchdowns in the process—while the Oklahoma offense put up nearly 450 yards.

The Longhorns played from behind for all but three minutes, and the young guns on Texas' roster simply were outmatched by Oklahoma's experience.

Quarterbacks Are Still Young

Against the best defense the Longhorns have faced this season, the Texas quarterbacks struggled against the Oklahoma defense.

David Ash had two interceptions—both in the second quarter—and Case McCoy coughed up the ball twice in the pocket.

Those four turnovers led to 24 points for the Sooners, who were rarely threatened for the entire game.

While Ash and McCoy have shown promise through five games, their youth was extremely evident.

Texas had to abandon much of its running game early and battle back through the air. The cards just weren't on the table for the Longhorns' young signal callers.

Texas' Offense Makes It Tough to Come From Behind

As exciting and unorthodox as the Texas offense may be, it is organized in a way where success begets success, and the Horns experienced little of it on Saturday.

One thing that any offense would be hard-pressed to overcome is turnovers. Three first half giveaways for the Longhorns had them staring down a 24-point deficit going into the break. Overall, five turnovers put Texas in a hole that the offense simply couldn't overcome.

Texas has shown some spark in the running game, but with a passing game that has been inconsistent at best, the Longhorns' offense is not built to catch up from that sort of deficit.

With Texas' downhill running game—the base of much of what the Longhorns will run in a game— slowed, the Sooners forced Texas to drop into a passing game, where production has been shaky for most of the season.

Turnovers Can Win and Lose Games

Texas was the benefactor of  winning the turnover game against UCLA and Iowa State, forcing three in each of those contests and giving up none.

Against the Sooners, however, turnovers drilled the Longhorns into the ground, killing their offensive drives and giving great field position to Oklahoma on a silver platter.

Five turnovers, three of which returned for touchdowns, led to 31 points for OU. By comparison, Texas recorded just 17 points, with its lone offensive touchdown coming via a Jaxon Shipley 4-yard score from Ash late in the fourth quarter.

The Longhorns picked up a consolation fumble recovery late, but minus four in the turnover margin is the recipe to lose a game.

The Longhorns Have a Long Way to Go

On either side of the football, Texas had not faced a team as stout as Oklahoma.

Longhorns defensive backs coach Duane Akina likened the team's first four games against Rice, BYU, UCLA and Iowa State as quizzes, but Oklahoma as a midterm.

To be short, Texas failed miserably.

In the Longhorns' two-deep roster, Texas lists 14 true freshmen, including six on offense. So while the Horns were humbled in every respect in Dallas on Saturday, there is incredible room for growth.

Texas and Oklahoma were in different classes at the Cotton Bowl, and the veteran team prevailed.

While the Horns may very well be a top 20 team this season, Texas is very young with a multitude of issues that demand some attention.