No. 1 Texas 34, No. 18 Oklahoma 3: Five observations and Sunday chat

The first SEC chapter of the Red River Rivalry goes to the Longhorns.

The hat is back… in Austin.

The No. 1 Texas Longhorns showed up to the Cotton Bowl and handled their business as a double-digit favorite against their archrival Oklahoma Sooners, beating the nation’s No. 18 team 34-3. They weren’t perfect by any means, but it didn’t matter. The Longhorns established control of the contest after sluggish first quarter and once they took the lead, they never gave it back.

Those hoping for a surprise upset in this installment of the Red River Rivalry left the Cotton Bowl very disappointed and probably drowned their sorrows with a Fletcher’s corny dog. At least that’s what I would have done.

That’s enough filibustering from me. Let’s dive into my observations from Saturday’s domination of the Sooners of the North.

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Texas played a C+ game offensively and still managed 34 points

The first three offensive drives by Texas spanned just nine plays and netted them a mere eight yards of total offense. Quinn Ewers was sacked and threw his only interception of the day on the first drive of the afternoon and then he had to continue knocking the rust off over the next two drives.

The Texas offense has been a wagon this year regardless of who has been the quarterback, but today was probably their “worst” performance of the season. Ewers ended the game 20-of-29 passing for 199 yards with one touchdown and the aforementioned interception that occurred on a bad overthrow. Ewers also ran in a touchdown on the ground late in the game.

A C+ game for the Texas offense still netted them 34 points and 406 total yards of offense. And that was with them leaving several big plays and points on the field. When you are still able to win games in this fashion, despite not playing your best it says a lot about where you are as a team and a program.

Also, Texas’ depth at the skill positions showed up a bit today. You had guys up and down the depth chart once again contributing in this matchup and it was clear pretty early that the team on the other side of the field did not have that same luxury.

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Texas’ defense made life miserable for Michael Hawkins Jr. all day long

Listen, I’m sure Hawkins has the respect of his coaches and teammates. I’m sure he is going to continue to improve as he gains more experience. With all of that said, my man was absolutely fighting for his life out there in this game.

Texas defensive coordinators Johnny Nansen and Pete Kwiatkowski had the gameplan locked and loaded early on and their defense executed almost flawlessly. Early on, the defense was dealt some short fields due to the offensive struggles but they ultimately bowed their necks and only allowed the one field goal in the first quarter. It was the only time the Sooners were able to light up the scoreboard all afternoon.

Hawkins ended the game 19-of-30 passing for 148 yards, which averages out to a lowly 4.9 yards per completion. The Sooner rushing game was even worse, as they only mustered 89 yards on the ground on 39 carries for a meager 2.3 yards per carry. Jovantae Barnes was their leading rusher with 38 yards on 14 carries, while Hawkins chipped in with 27 yards on 20 (!!!) carries.

The Texas defense was absolutely flying around and played great team defense, but one player stood out above the rest.

Anthony Hill might be the player of the game. Check out this stat line from his afternoon in the Cotton Bowl: 11 total tackles (seven solo), 3.5 tackles for loss, two sacks, AND a forced fumble that resulted in a turnover. Have yourself a ball game, young man!

Hill has been every bit the player he was advertised as coming out of high school, but he took it to a different level on Saturday. When you put together a performance like that and win the game, then you are entitled to talk that talk post-game.

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Did Quintrevion Wisner just ascend to RB1?

Speaking of having themselves a day — Quintrevion Wisner showed up in a huge way on Saturday, as he paced the Texas run game for the afternoon. The Longhorn offense tallied 177 yards on the ground against Oklahoma and 118 of it came via Wisner on 13 carries, which averages out to 9.1 yards per carry. That’ll work.

Wisner did have a blemish on the afternoon in the form of a fumble, but fortunately for him and the Texas offense, the ball was recovered in the end zone for a touchdown. Aside from that, it was pretty clear who the top dog was in the Texas backfield against the Sooners.

Following fall camp, everyone expected Jaydon Blue to be the primary beneficiary in the Texas backfield when CJ Baxter went down, but if Wisner continues to run the ball like he did on Saturday then you have to ride with him moving forward.

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Should we be concerned about Isaiah Bond leaving the game early?

I was expecting the Texas wide receiver group to have a big game on Saturday, but that didn’t end up coming to fruition. Part of that had to do with the Texas passing game being hit or miss and part that had to do with Bond getting a case of the ouchies and leaving the game. Bond left the game before halftime and never returned, so it was a little concerning given his importance to the offense, but his representation tweeted out during the game that he was fine and that he was being held out as precaution.

Obviously if Texas just took the precautionary route and held Bond out that would be ideal, with Georgia coming to town next week. Steve Sarkisian had this to say about Bond’s injury after the game:

For now keep your fingers crossed. Texas will need all hands on deck for the Bulldogs next week.

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Shoutout to Silas Bolden…

I put this play right up there with the hustle plays made by Jordan Whittington and Xavier Worthy last year against TCU. This is a play that will be on every coach’s highlight reel when they want to be about to spotlight hustle and effort.

Look at where he comes from on that play. He comes from out of the frame and beats Danny Stutsman to the ball, who already had a couple of steps on him. You can’t say enough good things about the motor and effort there. That was about to be a momentum-shifting play for Oklahoma and instead it is 14-3 Texas.

When you talk about buy-in and and talk about culture, those are the plays you point to. Bolden was Oregon State’s WR1 last season and he has taken a reduced role in the offense at Texas. For a lot of guys, they would pout and show bad body language, but instead you see him do things like this and you see him selling out on his punt return chances.

Speaking of punt returns, he had a really nice return on Saturday that netted Texas 55 yards. So while he has stressed some people out with his decision making back there, he also has that kind of capability.

I wanted to make sure I gave him some much deserved kudos here. Guys like that will always have a place on my roster.

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6-0 and the hat is coming back to Austin.

You know the drill by now — the 24-hour rule is officially in effect and after that it is time to starting talking about them dang Bulldogs from Athens, Georgia.

Austin is going to be a movie next Saturday.