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Game Recap: Football | 10.12.2024 | Chris Allen Brown

Texas beats Oklahoma by largest margin of victory since 2022

DALLAS, Texas – The clock struck 6:05 P.M. Central Time inside the Cotton Bowl and the Golden Hat Trophy was on the head of Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian as his top-ranked Longhorns were celebrating their 34-3 thumping of the No.18/16-ranked Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday afternoon. 

It took six games into the 2024 season for an opponent to take the lead against Texas (6-0, 2-0), but the Longhorns quickly overcame Oklahoma’s 42-yard field goal on the Sooners’ (4-2, 1-2) third offensive drive of the game, a drive that took 4:42 off the clock and saw OU move the ball just 38 yards on 11 plays. The drive, which began with 4:52 left in the first quarter and ended with 10 seconds left, was the only one on the day for the team up north that did not end in either a punt, turnover or end of half. 

After receiving the ensuing kickoff minutes later, quarterback Quinn Ewers, in his first action for Texas since UT’s 56-7 win over UTSA on Saturday, Sept. 14, orchestrated a 10-play, 75-yard drive that resulted in a 7-yard touchdown reception from redshirt-junior signal caller to tight end Gunnar Helm 3 minutes and 50 seconds later. The drive was the first of six different scoring possessions — on 12 offensive possessions — for the Longhorn offense that rolled up 406 total yards of offense on 61 plays against a Sooner defense that ranked 43rd in the country in total defense. 

Over the course of the final five minutes of the second quarter, Texas capped its 21-unanswered points during the second quarter with back-to-back touchdowns as Silas Bolden fell on a loose football in the end zone following a 36-yard run by Quintrevion Wisner. Wisner, again, torched the Sooner defense for another lengthy run during the Longhorns’ next offensive series as the sophomore running back out of Glenn Heights, Texas, trotted into the end zone from 43 yards out for a 1-play touchdown drive following the first of two Oklahoma lost fumbles on consecutive drives. 

Even though Ewers and wide receiver Ryan Wingo were unable to connect on a 4th-and-2 play at the Oklahoma 10-yard line during Texas’ first possession in the third quarter, Bert Auburn added to the Longhorns’ scoring total the next time the offense took the field as the senior place kicker connected from 41 yards out. The Flower Mound, Texas, native went on to make a 29-yarder with 7:44 remaining in the game to push UT’s lead out to 27-3. 

After the Texas defense stopped the Oklahoma offense, which totaled 168 yards of total offense prior its 17-play, 5:21 drive to end the game, on fourth down at its own 32-yard line with 6:21 left in the contest, Helm out-jumped two members of the Sooner secondary on a pass thrown by wide receiver Matthew Golden from 30 yards away. The Longhorn tight end fell to the ground at the 2-yard line to setup a 1-yard rush by Jerrick Gibson that proceeded a 1-yard touchdown run by Ewers. 

The rushing touchdown by the Southlake, Texas, native concluded a second half that saw the Texas offense score on its final three possessions of the game and six of its last nine dating back to the Ewers-to-Helm passing touchdown early in the second quarter.  

UP NEXT

With ESPN’s College GameDay set to come to Austin, Texas next Saturday, the top-ranked Texas Longhorns will host the No. 5/4 Georgia Bulldogs (4-1, 2-1) at 6:30 p.m. CT in a matchup presented by Truist. 

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For the latest information on the team, follow @TexasFootball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at @TexasLonghorns on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. 

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