Texas Football: Report Card Grades After the Longhorns' Loss Against Oklahoma

In the 106th Red River Rivalry, the Oklahoma Sooners put on a dominating performance over the Texas Longhorns by way of a 55-17 rout at the Cotton Bowl.

Five Texas giveaways, leading to 31 points for Oklahoma put the Horns in a hole that simply was too much to overcome.

The Horns go back to Austin a humbled bunch, as the Sooners outmatched them in virtually every aspect.

The report card is in, and the grades look like this.

Quarterbacks

Grade: F

The youth at signal caller was glaring on Saturday, as both David Ash and Case McCoy struggled to find and maintain a rhythm throughout the game.

Ash finished 11-of-20 passing for 107 yards and a touchdown pass to go along with 2 interceptions. McCoy completed 9-of-16 passes for 116 yards but the Sooners pressured him to cough up the ball twice while moving around in the backfield.

The two-quarterback system worked for the Longhorns against marginal defenses like UCLA and Iowa State, but against a unit like Oklahoma's, the Sooners' defensive front was consistently disruptive and forced Texas' quarterbacks into bad situations.

Moving forward, neither are ultimately prepared for big time football right now. That may change in a season's time, but the bottom line is that both looked incredibly young and mistake-prone against Oklahoma. Credit the Sooners for a highly sustained defensive effort.

Running Backs

Grade: C

The Texas running backs got the rawest end of the deal.

Seeing as how the Longhorns played from behind for about 57 of the 60 minutes in the game, the tailbacks could hardly get the proper touches to fully develop the running attack.

The Horns' backs rushed the ball 30 times for 120 yards, which was one of very few positives to take away from Saturday.

Malcolm Brown led Texas with 17 carries for 54 yards. Fozzy Whittaker, in addition to his 100-yard kickoff return, gained 43 yards on six carries. D.J. Monroe did excellent in his limited contribution, picking up 23 yards on three totes from the backfield. The three ripped off longs of 13, 18 and 12 yards respectively, so it was not a case of Oklahoma completely shutting down the run game. Rather, Texas' deficit forced the offense into more of an aerial scheme as the game wore on.

Cody Johnson and Joe Bergeron picked up some carries late in the game, but their production offset one another.

Receivers

Grade: D

The Longhorns are in need of some serious help at receiver and tight end.

Apart from Jaxon Shipley and Mike Davis, Texas has no other consistent option when it comes to the passing game.

Shipley had a superb game, all things considered, and while Davis had a decent performance of his own, the completion-turned-fumble-turned-touchdown for the Sooners put a huge downer on his output.

No other Longhorn receiver had more than 20 yards receiving, and just one other player caught more than one pass (Blaine Irby, two).

It did not help much that the Horns were constantly getting pressured in the backfield, disrupting any chances of a rhythmic passing attack.

A receiving corps already void of consistent options was made a glaring weakness on Saturday.

Offensive Line

Grade: F

The Texas offensive line may not have been able to play any worse in some respects, as the Sooners were consistently applying pressure in the backfield on both running and passing situations.

Oklahoma's pressure directly led to turnovers from the Texas quarterbacks—two McCoy fumbles and two Ash interceptions. The Sooners were able to rack up seven sacks.

In addition to those sacks, Oklahoma blew up countless plays in Texas' backfield before they were able to fully develop, whether they were running attempts to the outside or play-action. With depth an issue, there is virtually nothing to fall back on for the Longhorns. This is an area that absolutely has to get better in order for the offense to improve.

Whether it be a result of Oklahoma's defensive coordinator Brent Venables' schematics or lousy play from Texas' offensive line, the Horns were simply outmatched in the trenches.

Defensive Line

Grade: C

This is a group that is difficult to grade because of the nature of the game.

While the defensive line made the necessary stops, especially against the run, in the first quarter when the game was still very manageable, those big plays in the backfield disappeared as the game wore on.

Oklahoma may have run for just 86 yards, but it was not like the Sooners needed to utilize the ground game. Landry Jones dismantled the Texas defense.

The Longhorns needed to apply pressure to Jones, a key to the game that could not be overstated. Plain and simple, the line could not get that job done. 

With the offense giving up three touchdowns and field position to the Sooners via turnovers, it was a little too much to expect the defense to keep Oklahoma's offense at bay.

Linebackers

Grade: D

Playing mostly in a nickel set to match Oklahoma's pass-heavy look, the Texas Longhorns leaned on Emmanuel Acho and Keenan Robinson for most of the day.

The good news was that the duo did not really concede many big plays and were hardly the culprit for Texas' defensive issues. On the contrary, the Longhorns need these two seniors to be an anchor on the defensive front, and anything less than above average is not really acceptable, given the youth around them.

With the defensive line not living up to expectations, especially on the ends, standout performances from the linebackers are essential to Texas' defensive success.

Secondary

Grade: F

While over half of Oklahoma's points can be attributed to sloppy play from the Texas offense, the Longhorns' secondary was nothing special.

Sure, there were few flashes of brilliance, but at the end of the day, the young cornerbacks and supposedly veteran safety presence were torn up by Landry Jones and the Sooners' spread attack.

It started with the defensive line, but every time Jones dropped back, he seemed to find an open receiver with plenty of room to make a move and pick up yards after the catch.

Senior safety Blake Gideon missed a handful of tackles and played poorly in coverage. Kenny Vaccaro, perhaps Texas' most physical defensive player, disappeared for much of the game.

The Longhorns had plenty of opportunities to get the stops on defense, but could not get the job done. You cannot expect to be successful when you give up a 30-yard completion on 3rd-and-25.

Special Teams

Grade: B

Texas' special teams might have had the biggest positive of the day, but it also could have been a result of Oklahoma's poor effort in its unit, but let's not nitpick.

Fozzy Whittaker returned a kickoff for 100 yards, marking the Longhorns' only score until 2:30 to go in the fourth quarter.

Whittaker's scoring run brought Texas to within 17 points, implanting some hope in an otherwise hopeless game.

Justin Tucker converted his only field goal attempt, and also punted for an average of 44.6 yards with a long of 54.

In coverage, however, the Longhorns looked as vulnerable as ever, giving up an average return of 22 yards.

In a matchup with a ton of negatives to take away, surely Texas will view this as a positive.

Coaching and Game Plan

Grade: F

On offense, Texas thought it could use its gimmicky scheme and misdirection to pick up yards at will against Oklahoma.

Not so fast.

The Longhorns may have had success against marginal opponents like UCLA and Iowa State, but against the best defense they have seen this season, the Sooners were able to blow up plays before they even developed.

Defensively, Manny Diaz's unit simply was unable to handle Oklahoma's aerial attack.

Blitzes and four-man fronts applied little to no pressure, giving Jones a world of time to pick and choose his open receivers.

Texas was outplayed on the field and outcoached on the sidelines.

Intangibles

Grade: F

With three first-half turnovers, the Longhorns looked deflated.

While they never relinquished hope and continued to press, Texas simply did not have what it took to overcome that deficit.

When scheme and coaching did not pan out as expected, intangibles meant nothing for the Horns.

Oklahoma was just too precise on offense, and its defensive created big plays on defense. So much that no matter what Texas drew up, the end result was inevitable.

Nothing that the Longhorns did had any wow factor attached to it.