Red River Rivalry

Originally Published: Oct 3, 2010 10:44 AM CDT

OU just  beat Texas. Home Game Bobas some in the shadows began to call Bob Stoops is relieved, although he wouldn’t admit as much. I asked him that after the game and he came back with the standard “you guys look at it that way, we look it at game by game,” bla, bla, bla, bla. The coach may say that but you can bet it was much happier in the locker room than just another game.

Oklahoma reeeeeeaaaaaly needed the win.  The Longhorns are not the team they’ve been recently. They aren’t the team they will be in the future. The very near future. And nor are the young Sooners.

A loss would mean  Stoops would make it six-of-seven (have we heard that enough now), with the prospects of a rejuvenated 2011 UT team. I am optimistic about OU’s chances because even thought Jeremy Beal will leave a void at DE, and  I expect WLB Travis Lewis to head to the NFL a year early, QB Jones returns and I see underclassman Ryan Broyles  a 50/50 guynext season. Stoops had almost as much pressure on him that Mack Brown had on him during OU’s five-straight wins run.

The Sooners tried to make it very interesting late in the fourth quarter. But they’d played so well in the first half that it was impossible to screw up. OU dominated the first quarter so much that the Sooners ran 34 plays to 7 for Texas. Unheard of. I’ve never heard of anything like that.

Texas had a couple of chances to make it a seven point game at halftime. That would have been deflating to Oklahoma. But a defense that would give up big screen yards came through when it had to.

Texas left eight points on the scoreboard when they settled for field goals instead of touchdowns.

Texas was undisciplined, although I was a little surprised in the post game press conference that Mack Brown sounded as if the officiating was disappointing. It was disappointing for UT because they were undisciplined. Not because they got bad calls. The personal fouls were clear as a cold beer. So were most of the others. Untimely? Yes. But bad calls? No.

The mood in the Midway after the game was more of relief than exuberance. But that beats what Sooner fans had felt four of five years.

Oklahoma is not 2 and 2 in the last four. Stoops is not 7 and 5 against Mack. And they’ll meet in about 365 days from now in a game with teams that will be better. But for tonight, it’s finally happy times for Sooners.

 
Oklahoma reeeeeeaaaaaly needed to beat Texas. The Longhorns are not the team they’ve been recent. More to the point, they aren’t the team they will be in the future. The very near future. A loss would mean  Bob Stoops would make it six-of-seven (have we heard that enough now), with the prospects of a rejuvenated 2011 UT team. OU surely won’t be chopped liverI expect WLB Travis Lewis to head to the NFL a year early and underclassman Ryan Broyles is a 50/50 guynext season. But the pressure was really on Bob Stoops, who went into this one with more pressure on him than any in recent memory.

Dean Blevins
Oklahoma Sports