Oklahoma-Texas Stock Report: Who's Up, Who's Down After Another Red River Classic

As the sun began to settle into the State Fair of Texas just outside venerable Cotton Bowl Stadium, sending two football teams and their fans into the shadows, dark times for the Oklahoma Sooners suddenly got much, much brighter.

Bright like a Golden Hat, you might say.

OU shocked rival Texas 27-24 on Saturday in Dallas when Tate Sandell drifted in a 47-yard field goal as time expired.

Oklahoma got a touchdown on defense, a touchdown on special teams, and even a touchdown on offense before Sandell made the second of his two field goals.

OU, maligned for an historically poor offensive performance through their first 4 1/2 games, came to life offensively in the second half — highlighted by two perfect throws from quarterback John Mateer and two almost impossibly acrobatic sideline catches from Isaiah Sategna in the final seconds to set up Sandell’s game-winner.

And, unlikely as it was, that possession was gifted by a defensive takeaway from Texas QB Arch Manning, who was driving his team into position for their own game-winning field goal when he threw an untimely interception.

The Sooners avoided a third consecutive loss to the Longhorns, what would have been a 2-3 start, and perhaps saved the season.

Oklahoma improved to 3-2, while No. 1-ranked Texas suffered its first loss. It was the Sooners’ first win over a No. 1-ranked Texas team.

OU’s offense almost never got out of the starting blocks. The Sooners had zero first downs and five straight three-and-punt possessions to start the game, no running game at all (13 rushes netted just one yard in the first half), and once put the defense in such poor field position Manning just needed to exploit loose man coverage one time for the game’s first TD.

But then, with a good punt, two sacks and Danny Okoye’s blocked punt in the end zone, Brent Venables' Sooners did finally manage to score a touchdown against Texas, as Dakoda Fields pounced on the loose ball just inches from the boundary to make it 7-7. It was OU’s’ first TD in the series since 2023.

OU trailed 17-7 at halftime but, after a second quarter miss, Sandell cut that to just a touchdown deficit with his 53-yard field goal.

That’s when Oklahoma’s offense caught fire as Lloyd Avant and two third-down defensive penalties against the Longhorns powered the Sooners to a 17-17 tie.

It was 24-24 when Texas missed a long field goal with two minutes to play, putting Oklahoma in prime position to win the game. Instead, Sategna couldn’t bring in a deflected ball on third down and the Sooners punted.

Texas just needed an efficient two-minute drive to win. But with the Horns still out of field goal range, Venables dialed up a blitz from Omarion Robinson that forced Manning to throw early, and Courtland Guillory jumped the route for an interception, giving the OU offense the football with just 19 seconds left and setting up Red River Rivalry heroics from Mateer, Sategna and Sandell.

Venables is now 2-3 in his five meetings against Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, and while the three losses were not competitive in the fourth quarter, both of the wins certainly were.

And now, with the bye week in the rear-view mirror, Oklahoma takes another step into eight consecutive weeks of SEC football in an increasingly unpredictable league.

Sure, it’s been dark in Norman. But Saturday’s stunner could be just the thing this team needed to light up the rest of the season.

Here’s the stock report from Saturday’s game:

UP: K Tate Sandell

Sandell missed a 53-yard field goal late in the second quarter, and it seemed his mojo was gone. He’d missed three straight and made only three of his last eight kicks.

That all changed in the second half as he banged through kicks of 53 yards to start the third quarter and 47 yards to end the game and bring the Golden Hat back to Norman.

UP: DB Peyton Bowen

Bowen hushed the north side of the stadium and sent the south side into a frenzy when he picked off an ill-advised throw from Arch Manning and ran it back 42 yard for a touchdown that gave OU a 24-17 lead with 10 minutes to play.

A senior playing in his final OU-Texas game, and with his cornerback brother Eli injured on the sideline, Bowen also delivered seven tackles.

UP: RB Lloyd Avant

Avant didn’t get a snap in the first half, but he started the second half and on third-and-2 to start the drive, he popped through good blocking on the right side and went 42 yards.

On first down before the long run, he caught a short throw from Mateer and spun away from two tacklers for an 8-yard gain.

Before Avant got into the game, OU had netted a grand total of one yard in the first half. In the second half, the Sooners ground out

Avant finished with 10 carries for 72 yards on the ground and added two catches for 16 yards.

DOWN, then UP: QB John Mateer

Mateer got hit hard by All-America candidate Colin Simmons on the first drive, and he looked rattled the rest of the first half.

With his confidence already reeling, Mateer’s accuracy wasn’t far off. But he hurried through his reads too often and never tried to go deep.

Probably not his fault, but he also seemed to run the ball out of fear rather than instinct — outside of on 8-yard scramble.

But Mateer made two perfect throws in the final 19 seconds, both to Isaiah Sategna, to put Tate Sandell in position to win it.

Mateer finished the game 18-of-26 but only managed 155 yards through the air and was held to minus-6 yards on the ground.

Most important of all: he committed zero turnovers.

UP: LB Owen Heinecke

The always steady Sooner senior was spectacular against the Longhorns, leading OU with nine total tackles and dropping Texas runners for a loss 2 1/2 times. Twice his TFLs came on third down and forced a punt. He also added a QB hurry.

UP: DT David Stone

Made a huge third-down stuff on a run up the middle to force a punt and spark OU’s first offensive touchdown drive in Dallas in three years. Stone stood up his blocker at the line, threw him to the ground and delivered a big hit to force the punt.

DOWN, then WAY UP: WR Isaiah Sategna

Texas frequently focused its coverage plans on Sategna, meaning two defenders more often than not. Mateer didn’t force throws into tight coverage, but Sategna was unable to showcase his breakaway skills.

Sategna also couldn’t quite reset his hands on a deflected ball over the middle on a crucial third down throw.

But then he finished the game with back-to-back toe-tapping, contested sideline catches in the final seconds to set up Tate Sandell’s game-winning field goal attempt.

He still led the team with five catches for 64 yards.

UP: DE Danny Okoye

Okoye had played just 92 defensive snaps in OU’s first four games, and the junior from Tulsa had played just 10 snaps on special teams after logging 111 last year.

But he came up huge when needed against the Horns, blocking a punt in the end zone that Dakoda Fields recovered for an Oklahoma touchdown.

It was OU’s first TD against Texas since 2023, and their first touchdown in a loss to the Longhorns snce 2018.

UP: DB Dakoda Fields

Fields continued OU’s surging special teams play — first by recovering the blocked punt for a touchdown, and then in the fourth quarter corralling dangerous punt return man Ryan Niblett for a loss.

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