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    FBC - OU VS. TEXAS 12

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October 7, 2006

Much improved

Clay Horning

• Defense didn’t break against Longhorn offense



DALLAS — Mack Brown was almost finished with his Cotton Bowl commitments as he gave a short monologue for the faithful, standing in front of a burnt-orange clad cameraman for a spot likely headed for Texas’ athletic Web site.

“It might be the best, most complete second half that we’ve had since we’ve been at the University of Texas,” the Longhorn coach said.

Well, Texas scored 21 of its 28 points after the break and picked up 152 of its 232 yards from scrimmage, all while holding Oklahoma scoreless.

The only odd thing about Texas’ 28-10 victory and Brown’s best-ever second half is the Longhorns managed very little of it by making a fool of Oklahoma’s defense.

“I’m really happy with our guys’ effort,” OU defensive coordinator Brent Venables said.

“As a defense, we’re getting better every game,” Sooner defensive end C.J. Ah You said. “We made strides today. Now we need to break down game film and take away positives from this game and, at the same time, see what we can improve.”

Venables, of course, was quick to come back with what the Sooners must do better: tackle, defend the counter play, cause turnovers.

Still, one of the harder things about Saturday’s game the Sooner Nation must swallow is that OU wasted one of its better defensive games.

Of the Sooners’ opponents to date, only Middle Tennessee gained fewer than the 232 yards Texas mustered. Further, there were times the Sooners were downright brilliant, like the second quarter when the Texas offense ran nine plays and gained a single yard, going three-and-out, three-and-out and three-and-out.

Only in the third quarter, when the Longhorns turned a 10-7 deficit into a 21-7 lead, and picked up more than half their total offense (120 yards) did the Sooner defense struggle, giving up scoring drives of 52 and 79 yards.

“We didn’t have the tenacity in the second half like we did in the first,” safety Nic Harris said. “We have to learn how to come out in the second half and play aggressively.”

Yet it could have been much worse.

But for Aaron Ross’ 3-yard fumble return for a touchdown, Texas did not score a point off four other Sooner turnovers.

“We can build on it,” Venables said, “and show our guys that there’s no excuse not to show up and play every week against everyone, every play.”

The Sooners will try to find that kind of consistency against Iowa State Saturday at Owen Field.

“We learned some things from this game we can take with us the rest of the season,” Harris said. “You can’t let this defeat cost us another game by not putting it behind us.”

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