Texas Longhorns defensive struggles continue vs Oklahoma
By Matt Workman
The Texas Longhorns defense didn’t look much better with Charlie Strong taking over the play calling against Oklahoma.
Texas Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong announced that he was going to take over the defense from his defensive coordinator. Against Oklahoma, the defensive struggles continued.
Through the first half it had appeared that the move was successful as Texas forced 3 turnovers. The Longhorns had forced only 1 turnover all year. At the half, the game was close with the Sooners nursing a one point lead at 14-13.
However, the offenses woke up in the second half. Dede Westbrook had two touchdown receptions of 40 plus yards. Shane Buechele tossed two touchdowns of his own of 63 and 45 yards respectively. The Sooner defense made some great stops and the Sooners went up 42-27 going into the fourth quarter. But the Texas offense was not done yet. Texas scored on a Buechele pass to Armanti Foreman. Texas also added a field goal to bring the score within five as Oklahoma led 45-40.
The Longhorns forced the Sooners to punt and had one more change to drive down for the game winning score. But it was not meant to be as Texas ran only 3 plays for -3 yards on that drive. The final play devolved into a bunch of laterals as a last gasp for the Longhorns. Alas it was not meant to be as the Sooners held on for the 45-40 win in the Red River Showdown.
The Texas defense continues to struggle as it gave up 672 yards and 45 points. This makes the second straight game Texas has given up at least 45 points. In addition the Texas defensive gave up 12.6 yards per pass attempt and 5.1 yards per rush.
Texas schedule does not get any easier as the Longhorns still have Baylor, Texas Tech and TCU left and those teams know a thing or two about scoring points and gaining yards in bunches. The bottom line is that if Charlie Strong does not figure something out soon it could be a long second half of the season in Austin.