Brent Venables Explains Oklahoma's Puzzling End to First Half in Loss to Texas

The Sooners came up empty on their final possession of the first half after John Mateer threw his second interception of the day.

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables looks on during the first half of Saturday's loss to Texas. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

DALLAS — Oklahoma handed all the momentum to Texas just before halftime in Saturday’s 23-6 defeat. 

Quarterback John Mateer, who was back in the lineup 17 days after a procedure on his thumb, missed receiver Deion Burks wide open in the end zone. The throw was so far off the mark that defensive back Malik Muhammad was able to haul in an easy interception, his second of the day, to ensure the Longhorns would only trail 6-3 at halftime. 

From there, Steve Sarkisian’s team took control. 

OU had gotten the ball back on its own 25-yard line up 6-3 with 4:29 left in the first half. Oklahoma’s coaching staff would have been perfectly happy with a field goal. 

“It's a huge moment at the end of the half,” OU offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle said. “I mean, talk about winning the middle eight, and we had an opportunity right there to at least probably get three points, and we didn't do that. And so that was just a bad deal right there.”

The Sooners had time to try and score a touchdown, but the drive lacked urgency. 

Coming out of the two-minute timeout, OU had the ball on first-and-15 from its own 45-yard line with one timeout. 

Mateer picked up 10 yards on a rush, then the Sooners moved the chains with a 7-yard completion to Burks. 

The clock stopped with 1:27 left to reset the chains, but Oklahoma didn’t go up-tempo despite getting a new set of downs at the Texas 38-yard line. 

Oklahoma receiver Deion Burks looks on after Texas defensive back Malik Muhammad (5) celebrates his second interception of the day right before halftime. | SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

OU snapped the ball with 1:06 left in the half to hand the ball off to running back Tory Blaylock for no gain. 

Mateer got the next snap with 39 seconds left, and he completed an 8-yard pass to Isaiah Sategna to bring up third-and-2. After the play finished, the Sooners opted to substitute on offense, which allowed Texas to swap in some subs on defense, which the Longhorns did with a deliberate pace. That ran the clock down even further.

Brent Venables then called his final timeout of the half with 10 seconds left, a move he said would allow the Sooners one chance at scoring a touchdown before halftime.

“We wanted to throw it into the end zone, if we had somebody that was open,” he said. “Had a double post route there. Think it was Burks there, open early, threw it late and wanted to get out of bounds there and take the points. 

“We wanted to take a shot into the end zone, didn’t want them to get the ball back. If we didn’t get that touchdown, then we wanted to kick.”

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Mateer nodded as Venables talked about throwing the ball late, and the OU quarterback shouldered blame for the Sooners’ offensive struggles in the Cotton Bowl. 

Oklahoma was shut out in the second half as the Texas defense pressured Mateer after the Sooners fell behind. 

“I thought they played exactly, structurally, everything was exactly what we thought (on defense),” Venables said. “Coverage-wise, front, stunts, their pressure package. They were able to execute. I thought offensively, we had some good success in the first half what you would think with two strong defenses. 

“I think the (numbers) were a reflection of that. In the second half, I felt like us on defense allowed their offense to stay on the field and our offense not be in the game. They complemented each other a lot better than we did in the second half.”

The interception right before halftime was the turning point for the Longhorns, Sarkisian thought. 

“I thought that was a massive play in the game because they had an opportunity to get points there,” Sarkisian said. “… I really felt like that was a momentum-changing play as we went into the second half. And we knew we were getting the ball coming out of halftime. … We possessed the ball, we extended drives by getting third downs. We scored a touchdown. 

“And so all in all, that kind of started that.”