Sooners spank Longhorns

OU hands UT most lopsided loss in rivalry

? The Oklahoma Sooners have the drill down pat. They stomp rival Texas, send the Sooner Schooner circling the Cotton Bowl turf, then gather around the 20-yard line for a team photo with the scoreboard in the background.

This one read 65-13, and it provided the No. 1 Sooners with plenty to celebrate.

Jason White threw four touchdown passes, Mark Clayton set a school record with 190 yards receiving, and the defense came up with six turnovers as Oklahoma handed No. 11 Texas the most lopsided loss in the 98-game history of their Red River rivalry.

The Sooners (6-0 overall, 2-0 Big 12 Conference) also enjoyed their most points in the series while scoring at least 50 for the fourth straight game, something never done in their long, proud history — not even when Barry Switzer used to rave about “hanging half-a-hundred” on people.

“With only a few minutes left in the fourth quarter, we’re still moving the ball. I told the coaches over the headset, ‘Yeah, we’re pretty good,'” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said.

Pretty good? How about pretty dominant — OU had two touchdowns in every quarter and stretches of 20 and 38 straight points.

“They whupped us,” Texas linebacker Derrick Johnson said.

At times, the Longhorns (4-2, 1-1) made it easy.

Texas hadn’t thrown an interception all season, then starter Chance Mock and backup Vince Young each had one in the first quarter. The Sooners scored touchdowns off both.

Texas quarterback Vince Young shows his frustration during the fourth quarter against Oklahoma. The No. 11 Longhorns were pounded by the top-ranked Sooners, 65-13, Saturday in Dallas.

Young also lost a fumble that led to a first-quarter field goal, and in the second quarter threw an interception that Jonathan Jackson returned 21 yards for a touchdown.

The Longhorns also missed an extra point, ending Dusty Mangum’s school-record streak of 121 straight, and paired an 18-yard punt with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the final minute of the first half, leading to a 36-yard field goal from Trey DiCarlo as the clock ran out.

Oklahoma players celebrated by flooding off the sideline as they headed to the locker room leading 37-13. They ran right past Texas players, many of whom stood slumped with hands on hips or bent at the waist, dejectedly waiting for their turn in the tunnel.

“We just couldn’t do anything right,” Longhorns coach Mack Brown said. “We didn’t respond. That’s what’s disappointing. We had our chances.”

Oklahoma failed to convert a fourth down at the Texas 10 in the fourth quarter, then got the ball back after Mock fumbled. The Sooners drove 23 yards, with Kejuan Jones taking it the final yard for the points that made this rout surpass their 63-14 victory over the Longhorns in 2000.

“They kept fighting the whole game, they kept trying and trying and trying. It just felt like we brought more to the table,” Oklahoma defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek said.

White completed his first eight passes and finished 17-of-21 for 290 yards. Works had 112 yards on 15 carries.

Young was 11-of-21 for 135 yards and ran 15 times for 127 yards, many on a dazzling 59-yard run. It went for naught, though, as his fumble came three plays later. Of all the turnovers, that was the most devastating because it came at the Oklahoma three with Texas down only 14-7. He also had a 27-yard TD run.

Oklahoma wide receiver Mark Clayton wears the Red River Shootout trophy after the Sooners' 65-13 victory. Clayton set a school record with 190 yards receiving Saturday in Dallas.

The loss completely knocks the Longhorns out of the national-title picture one week after a fourth-quarter rally over Kansas State kept them in it. Considering how they lost, they could end a 50-week streak in the top 15.

It also means senior receiver Roy Williams and his class are the first in 15 years — since the 1985-88 group headlined by Eric Metcalf — to leave without beating Texas’ top foe. The skid is more disappointing now, too, because the Sooners and Longhorns are conference rivals.

“You want to beat every Big 12 team there is at least once,” said Williams, who had seven catches for 89 yards. “We just haven’t beaten Oklahoma.”

After Texas’ fifth turnover, the crimson-clad faithful chanted “Over rated” — a typical taunt, but one not usually heard midway through the third quarter. Then Longhorns fans began streaming out once the Sooners went up 51-13 with 2:10 left in the third.

By then, OU supporters were probably debating whether this team will use this thrashing as a springboard to a national title, like the 2000 squad did.

“I said this is our strongest team coming into this game,” Stoops said. “Everybody changed that to be that this is our best team. To be the best team, we’ll have to win 13 plus one.”