ARLINGTON – The team with “no defense,” in the words of Texas defensive end Breckyn Hager, unleashed a surprising amount of stopping power in Saturday’s Big 12 Championship Game at AT&T Stadium.
A sustained defensive surge by No. 5 Oklahoma, which had surrendered at least 40 points in each of its last four games, carried the Sooners past No. 14 Texas, 39-27, in the rivals’ much-anticipated Red River Rematch. Only once in 10 games this season against Big 12 opponents has the Sooners’ much-maligned defense allowed fewer points than it did in Saturday’s victory over the Longhorns (9-4).
Whether that proves to be enough to lift Oklahoma (12-1), which ranks 111th nationally in total defense, into the four-team bracket for the College Football Playoff remains to be seen. But the Sooners’ defense showed remarkable improvement Saturday over the unit that allowed 704 yards in last week’s 59-56 victory over West Virginia.
The Sooners forced four punts, limited Texas to a season-low 88 rushing yards and held the Longhorns well below their totals for yards (502) and points (48) that Texas accumulated during a 48-45 victory in the schools’ initial meeting, Oct. 6 in Dallas.
Most important, OU defenders made the two biggest defensive plays of the game to snuff out the Longhorns’ final two drives with the Big 12 title on the line in the fourth quarter: a sack for a safety with 8:27 remaining and an interception at the Sooners’ goal line to kill Texas’ final drive in the final minute.
“They were awesome today,” OU coach Lincoln Riley said of his defense, which he described as a unit capable of carrying the Sooners to a national title. “Every week, we’re gaining traction defensively.”
Asked if the Sooners had a good enough defense to run the table in the CFP playoffs, Riley said: “Yes. Yes, I do … I know we can. I have zero doubt.”
That remains to be seen. But the Sooners clearly had enough defense Saturday to stymie Texas, which finished with the fewest yards (437) and points of any Oklahoma opponent since the Sooners hammered Kansas State, 51-14, on Oct. 27.
In particular, OU made the biggest plays at the most crucial time. After the Longhorns forced the game’s first turnover to stop a drive that had reached the 8-yard line, Texas had the ball and the momentum with 9:06 remaining while facing a 30-27 deficit.
But on a second-and-11 play, cornerback Tre Brown unleashed a blind-side blitz. Brown went unblocked and Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger, after a play-fake, never saw the Sooners’ defender before he was dropped in the end zone to switch the momentum and extend OU’s lead to 32-27. It marked the only play of the game in which Brown was asked to blitz.
“The coaches sent me at the right time and I got home,” Brown said. “I made the most of it. When I saw him do a play-action pass, I was like, ‘Wow. I can’t believe he just faked the ball.’ I got a green light and I took my shot and delivered.”
Ehlinger confirmed that he never saw Brown until he hit him in the Longhorns’ end zone.
“Absolutely not,” Ehlinger said. “They had shown (that blitz) a little bit, but not consistently. Unfortunately, we didn’t pick it up in our slide protection and it was my fault for not seeing him because I was looking the other way.”
The play flipped the momentum back to OU and, after the Sooners increased the margin to 39-27 with a 65-yard touchdown drive following the free kick, Texas mounted its final offensive assault. OU cornerback Tre Norwood ended that threat with an interception at the Sooners’ goal line with 51 seconds remaining, marking the team’s first interception in two meetings against Ehlinger this season.
The Longhorns’ quarterback threw for a combined 663 yards and accounted for eight touchdowns in against the Sooners’ defense, which made Norwood’s interception special to him and the rest of the Sooners.
“The defense came up big,” said Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray, who threw for 379 yards and three TDs in the lowest-scoring game by the Sooners’ offense since a 28-21 victory over Army on Sept. 22. “When we weren’t scoring, they got stops and that’s how football is supposed to be played. This was a great team win.”
For Riley, this was the type of defensive performance against a high-caliber offense that he has been seeking since he fired former defensive coordinator Mike Stoops following the midseason loss to Texas. Riley replaced Stoops with Ruffin McNeill, who has called the defensive signals in the team’s last seven games – all victories.
Without question, OU benefitted from lots of mistakes by Texas, which was penalized 13 times for a season-high 128 yards. In the teams’ first meeting, the Longhorns drew just six flags covering 43 yards. In addition to the self-inflicted wounds, Texas coach Tom Herman cited the Sooners’ improved run defense as a significant factor in helping OU erase an early 14-6 deficit and avoid being swept in both games by the Longhorns.
“We weren’t running the ball like we thought we would be able to. That was certainly an issue,” said Herman, whose team averaged just 2.8 yards per carry (32 attempts, 88 yards). “When you’re kind of playing one-handed a little bit, just throwing the football, there are things that can happen.”
Enough of them folded in favor of the Oklahoma defense for Riley heap praise on the most-maligned part of his team as the Sooners await the final verdict from the CFP selection committee in regard to their playoff status.
“We’re a young defense … that we revamped at midseason,” Riley said. “I feel like we’re improving faster than maybe you would expect this time of year because, for our defense, in a lot of ways we’re at midseason. We put them in a lot of tough situations, made big plays and turned the ball over. I think we’re going to do nothing but get better.”
So does McNeill, who smiled when reminded of Hager’s proclamation about his unit following the Longhorns’ 24-10 victory over Iowa State on Nov. 17. At that time, Hager chuckled about the fact that the Sooners had just surrendered 524 yards and 40 points in a 55-40 victory over Kansas, the Big 12 cellar-dweller (3-9).
“Hey, OU has no defense,” Hager said at the time. Hager was not made available for comment after Saturday’s game. But McNeill acknowledged that Hager’s proclamation, as well as season-long criticism of the unit by OU fans and media members, motivated his troops.
“I think the kids, regardless of what people thought, they really have grown a lot as young men,” McNeill said. “They have learned to face adversity and not quit. Think how many controversial situations this group has met and faced and didn’t quit, when other people may have. I’m very proud of them. I like their mentality.”
As of Saturday, he also liked their results.