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Saturday, October 11, 2008
No. 5 Longhorns take down No. 1 Sooners, 45-35
Mack Brown can finally say he’s done something in the Texas-Oklahoma game that Bob Stoops hasn’t — pulled off an upset. And it’s a big one.
Brown’s Longhorns grabbed some second-half momentum by foiling a fake punt today, then Colt McCoy and the defense built on it, carrying No. 5 Texas to a 45-35 victory over No. 1 Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
The Longhorns outscored the Sooners 25-7 after stopping the trickery, and their half of the record crowd of 92,182 fans loved every bit of it. At game’s end, the folks in burnt orange enjoyed the biggest postgame celebration in the 103-game history of this Red River Rivalry.
With the win, Texas (6-0, 2-0 Big 12) grabs the inside track in both the conference and national championship races. History shows the Longhorns should think big. The last two teams to come out of this game unbeaten — Oklahoma in 2004, Texas in 2005 — went to the national title game. And the last time the Longhorns knocked off the Sooners when they were No. 1 was 1963, which turned into Darrell Royal’s first national championship.
Brown and Stoops have brought their programs back to prominence over the last decade. Stoops has been credited with outcoaching Brown, primarily because of two blowout wins. But the higher-ranked team had won every matchup. In fact, this was the first upset in this series since 1996.
Oklahoma (5-1, 1-1) sure didn’t seem headed to defeat when Sam Bradford pulled off another quick scoring drive on his first series of the third quarter, putting the Sooners up 28-20. But Texas answered with a touchdown. And when OU’s next drive stalled just shy of midfield, Stoops gambled.
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