Texas Longhorns Fall In Heartbreaking Fashion in Red River Showdown vs. Oklahoma Sooners

The Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners had another classic fight in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday.
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DALLAS, TX - The Red River Showdown is without a doubt one of the best rivalries in college football. 

And with the No. 3 Texas Longhorns and No. 12 Oklahoma Sooners both undefeated and fighting for a Big 12 Championship Game berth, everything was on the line in Dallas on Saturday. 

Suffice it to say, this year's edition of the rivalry did not disappoint, with the Sooners edging out the Longhorns 34-30 on a last-minute touchdown.

Things went sideways for the Longhorns early, with quarterback Quinn Ewers throwing an interception on the game's opening drive. 

Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel then answered quickly, putting the Sooners up 7-0 on a touchdown run. 

After a series of crazy events, the Longhorns would then tie the game up on a blocked punt in the end zone, which was recovered by freshman Malik Muhammad for a touchdown. 

And after an Oklahoma field goal, the Longhorns then took their first lead a few plays later on an Ewers touchdown pass to Gunnar Helm. 

Quinn Ewers vs. Oklahoma
Quinn Ewers vs. Oklahoma / © Kevin Jairaj, USA TODAY

The Longhorns eventually went into the half trailing the Sooners 20-17 - their first halftime deficit of the season. 

Then, things took a turn for the worst for Texas.

On the first drive of the second half, Oklahoma marched right down the field for a touchdown to open things up in the third quarter, taking a 27-17 lead, and giving Texas their largest deficit of the season. 

After cutting the Sooners lead to seven the Longhorns had four chances from the goal line to get into the endzone, but were unable to do so, turning it over on downs, and giving it back to Oklahoma. 

Texas then caught a major break on the next OU drive, when the Sooners came up short on a field goal attempt, giving the Horns the ball back with less than eight minutes to go, trailing by a touchdown. 

That is when the Longhorns took advantage, with Ewers leading the Horns down the field to tie the game on a drive capped off by a 29-yard Jonathon Brooks touchdown.

The Sooners then came up empty on their next possession, leaving the Longhorns with yet another opportunity.

And once again, they rose to the occasion, moving into scoring position, and taking the lead on a 47-yard Bert Auburn field goal.

From there, however, the Sooners were able to absolutely gash the Longhorns on their final drive of the game, taking the lead on Dillon Gabriel's touchdown with 15 seconds to go in the game, and sending the Longhorns packing. 

Following the loss to Oklahoma, the Longhorns will now enter a much-needed bye week, before hitting the road to face the Houston Cougars on October 21.


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Matt Galatzan
MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.