Nightmare Start to Big 12 Play Continues for OU as Texas Destroys Sooners 49-0

The nightmare start to Big 12 play for OU continued on Saturday with a demoralizing smackdown suffered at the hands of Texas in the Red River Rivalry. The Longhorns dominated start to finish in a 49-0 win, giving them their largest win over the Sooners in the history of the series. Its previous series-high record for largest margin of victory over OU in the series was 1941, when it won 40-7. The 49-point final margin for the victor ties for the third-largest margin of victory by a winner in the history of the series.

OU with the loss moves to 0-3 in Big 12 play, its first 0-3 start in league play since 1998, when under John Blake it opened Big 12 play 0-4 before finishing 3-5 in league play and 5-6 on the season.

Under first-year head coach Brent Venables, OU has stumbled out of the gate this season with three consecutive wins over UTEP, Kent State and Nebraska followed by three consecutive losses to K-State, TCU and now Texas. The loss on Saturday was expected — OU was an underdog in Vegas — after starting QB Dillon Gabriel suffered a concussion last week and did not play.

Still, failing to score a single point against a rival and falling to 0-3 in league play for Venables — the first time an OU coach in his debut season has done so — was stunning to see. OU ran with Davis Beville at QB and the offense was as unproductive as I’ve ever seen from OU. As a team they completed nine of 17 passes for 39 yards passing, no touchdowns and two picks. On the ground they mustered 156 yards rushing on 42 carries, primarily using wildcat formation in large stretches because of incompetent quarterback play.

OU’s schedule will surprisingly not relent anytime soon, either. It gets red-hot Kansas next week at home — a Kansas team that is 5-1 on the season — before a bye week followed by showdowns against Iowa State and Baylor. It may be a little healthier in the coming weeks as the schedule gets more challenging, but it’s going to take a herculean turnaround for this team, at least from what we’ve seen through six games, to get into bowl eligibility territory in Venables’ first season.