Red River Rout: No. 1 Texas starts slowly in Quinn Ewers’ return before rolling No. 18 Oklahoma 34-3

Saturday’s game vs. Oklahoma was Quinn Ewers’ first start since suffering a strained abdomen in Texas’ Week 3 win over UTSA. (Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images)

No. 1 Texas overcame a sluggish start to easily beat No. 18 Oklahoma 34-3 in Quinn Ewers’ first game back since Week 3.

After the Longhorns didn’t score in the first quarter, the game flipped in the second period. UT took a 7-3 lead on a seven-yard TD pass from Ewers to Gunnar Helm and then scored 14 points in less than a minute for a three-score lead that Oklahoma’s offense was incapable of overcoming.

WR Silas Bolden made the play of the game on Texas’ second touchdown. Quintrevion Wisner fumbled as he was tackled inside the OU 5 yard-line and the ball shot into the end zone. Bolden, who was more than 10 yards behind Wisner when the fumble happened, sprinted into the end zone and recovered the ball to preserve the TD.

Two plays after Texas went up 14-3, Oklahoma QB Michael Hawkins was stripped by Anthony Hill. Vernon Broughton recovered the fumble for the Longhorns and Wisner got his TD on the next play with a 43-yard run.

That score put Texas up 21-3 and Oklahoma was hopeless. Hawkins is a true freshman who took over in the Sooners’ loss to Tennessee. There are injuries on the offensive line and Oklahoma entered the game without its top five wide receivers due to injury.

Oklahoma was going to need some rivalry game chaos to have a chance at the win. And Texas ensured that didn’t happen.

Texas dominates on the groundEwers was making his first start since leaving the third game of the season with a strained abdomen. And he looked like he hadn’t played in a while on Texas’ first few possessions. The Longhorns won the coin toss and elected to receive to give Ewers a chance right away. He ended up overthrowing his receiver on a third down and the pass was intercepted by Billy Bowman Jr.

Texas punted on its next two possessions before the offense got clicking. And when it did, Texas did most of its damage with the run game rather than through the air. The Longhorns rushed for 177 yards as Wisner had 13 carries for 118 yards and five-star freshman Ryan Wingo chipped in with a 25-yard run.

Ewers finished the game 20-of-29 passing for 199 yards and the TD to Helm. He also added Texas’ last TD of the game on the ground after wide receiver Matthew Golden got a second shot at a wide receiver pass. Golden completed a long pass to Helm right before Ewers’ run after he missed a wide-open Wingo with a bad pass earlier in the game.

It’s the second time in three seasons that Texas has blown out the Sooners after UT won 49-0 in 2022. It could have been worse for Oklahoma too. Texas missed a field goal and failed on a fourth-down attempt in the red zone in the second half.

Oklahoma’s tough road aheadCan the Sooners post a winning season? It’s a fair question to ask after seeing the OU offense struggle in both of the team’s losses.

The Sooners are really banged up. And they aren’t a bad team. But the schedule does them no favors, either. Outside of a non-conference game against Maine at the start of November, there are no easy games on the Sooners’ schedule.

Four of the five SEC teams remaining for OU are currently ranked in the AP Top 25 and the only unranked one is a South Carolina team that pushed Alabama to the limit in a 27-25 loss in Tuscaloosa earlier Saturday. As Texas rides its No. 1 ranking into a massive showdown with No. 5 Georgia next weekend, Oklahoma is simply looking to get healthy and get the offense going.