Joel Klatt: Oklahoma Sooners Loss 'Not Indicative' of Texas Longhorns Slip

The Texas Longhorns ended up dropping their first game of the season against Oklahoma.

On Saturday the No. 3 Texas Longhorns dropped their first game of the season against their biggest rival the No. 12 Oklahoma Sooners by a score of 34-30.

The Longhorns came out flat and ineffective and it was evident from the jump that they didn't play the best game they could have with Quinn Ewers throwing interceptions on their first two drives of the game. He also later fumbled, but even with all of the issues Texas was having they found themselves with a chance to win the game late.

The game ended with Oklahoma's Dillon Gabriel finding a wide-open receiver in the corner of the end zone for the game-winner. 

However, the consensus from the game wasn't that Oklahoma was the better team, but more so that Texas made too many mistakes and still nearly won. Something that Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt emulated on a recent episode of The Joel Klatt Show. 

"I do not think this is indicative of 'well, Texas is not back overall'. This is still a really good football team. I look at their schedule and I still think they got everything ahead of them."@JoelKlatt discusses Texas' chances of making the CFP after their loss vs Oklahoma… pic.twitter.com/SuMjBBTczO

— The Joel Klatt Show: A CFB Pod (@JoelKlattShow) October 10, 2023

Klatt went on to explain that he isn't getting the same sense from this Texas team as in years past. 

"I still feel like this Texas team is different than the previous seasons," said Klatt. "They played a Red River game really tightly and made a few too many mistakes. This is not indicative of a team that I feel like is going to continue to stub their toe."

Xavier Worthy  / © Jerome Miron, USA TODAY

Klatt went on to explain how badly their mistakes hurt them, as they practically spotted Oklahoma the lead. 

However, when looking at the comparisons between the two, Texas had more yards of total offense, won the time of possession battle, and had a chance to close out the game but gave up too many big plays at the end. It also didn't help that the Longhorns had nine costly penalties to Oklahoma's four. 

If Klatt is right and Texas can bounce back, there is a good chance that they will have an opportunity to avenge their loss if both teams are able to win out and make it to the Big 12 title game. 

They also are still well in contention for the playoff but need to learn from the loss.