Oklahoma-Texas QuoteBook: The Best of What They Said

Oklahoma is headed back to the drawing board after a crushing 49-0 defeat in the Red River Rivalry. Sooner players and coaches sounded off after the game.

After a hot start to the season, the wheels are coming off for the Oklahoma Sooners. Brent Venables’ first season hasn’t gone as expected, and what happened Saturday in Dallas certainly wasn’t supposed to be part of the plan.

Texas handed Oklahoma its worst loss in Red River Rivalry history, dominating the Sooners all-around en route to a 49-0 shutout.

This Oklahoma team is breaking all the wrong records after back-to-back blowout losses left more questions than answers. The Sooners were missing key players on both sides of the ball in Dillon Gabriel and Billy Bowman, but they make no excuse to lose in that fashion.

Here are a few of the best quotes from Saturday’s postgame press conference.

“Some ways we looked like maybe a tired football team. There's probably several reasons why. Right now we're having to play near perfect football. And we're just not able to do that right now. Plenty of opportunities in the first half where, if we take advantage of some short fields, execute at a better level, help them with play calls ... whether we're getting off the field. I think they had four touchdown drives of 79-plus yards. No quick touchdown drives. So there's plenty of opportunity within those drives, in my opinion, where we can do a better job of coaching and playing to help get us off the field.”

— Head coach Brent Venables

"I don't think it's one thing. It's a combination of things. It's usually not just one thing. From tackling to communication to whatever. But our inability to stop the run and get off the field on third down, those are things that, it's tough to win when you aren't doing that."

— Defensive coordinator Ted Roof

"Nothing more important than being mindful of our player's health. But (Dillon Gabriel) actually felt great. Whatever the protocols. I don't get into all the weeds of it. I don't get frustrated by it. It is what it is. For all the obvious reasons, you gotta be incredibly cautious and careful."

— Venables

“Adversity and the failure and the losing can divide a team quickly. You see it all the time. Or, it’s people making a choice. It’s literally that easy. 'I believe in this. I have that unshakable belief in what we’re doing.' ”

— Venables

"It is tough and it takes a lot of commitment and a lot of belief. The belief comes through the doing and through the preparation. Our guys have been great at that. For whatever reason, it hasn't shown up on game day. We're all disappointed and frustrated. But at the same time, we've got to get it fixed. That means all of us."

— Roof

"Felt like (the wildcat sets) would just take a little bit of pressure off the QB, hopefully put us into some good situations. And I think that’s what’s most frustrating, is it put us into some really good situations that we didn’t take advantage of there in the first half on those first five drives. So, frustrated about that, embarrassed that it ended the way it did, and time to get back to work."

— Offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby

"I think for it to be put in on Sunday, on Monday, I think we did a great job of executing today with the wildcat formations, you know what I’m saying? With the guys that had to take some snaps, had to play a different role. I think we did a good job of executing, just gotta execute longer."

— Running back Eric Gray

“Missing a lot of pieces. We had a lot of new play schemes. We were executing at some points and at some points we weren’t. I feel like we need to play better as a unit. We were in bad positions. We were missing a lot out there."

— Wide receiver Jalil Farooq

"It was tough to drive down the field and not capitalize. We have to be better than that — especially in the red zone. You have to capitalize on all your opportunities in a game like this. Momentum changes are big. We needed that."

— Farooq

"Shock? I don’t know about shock. I think you hit it on the head. When you’re a competitor and you’re used to success, whether it’s this game or any game, there’s a standard of performance that you’re fighting and competing for every single day. So when you come up short as a coach or certainly as a team, it’s incredibly disappointing like you would expect. Shocked? Nothing shocks me. This game will punish you when you don’t do all kinds of different thing, whether that’s coaching or playing."

— Venables

"This is uncharted territory for us. At the end of the day, all of us have played a lot of ball. The biggest thing is to lead a little bit harder. Push a little bit harder. Leave no stone unturned. Everything has to be held accountable and has to be said. I think that’s the biggest thing right now for the leaders to lead a little bit harder. We have the experience because the young guys don’t know. We have to lead harder and keep on chipping away and stay together."

— Tight end Brayden Willis