Quarterback Colt McCoy walks off the field after Texas' 28-21 loss to Oklahoma on Saturday at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The Longhorns fell to 0-2 in the Big 12. by BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN
Not that you were ever gone, but drifting… yes, Saturday, before DeMarco Murray and Sam Bradford and others — including many on a late-denying defense — snapped the squad back into championship focus in the Cotton Bowl.
Stakes for the Red River Rivalry, always high, doubled when both OU and Texas lost last week. That's what happens when seasons are defined by championships, as they are in Norman and Austin.
So Saturday's meeting amounted to a Big 12 Death Match.
OU buried the Bevos.
The loser was doomed to an 0-2 conference start, a fate now fully felt by the Longhorns, after OU's 28-21 win in Dallas. The verdict spurred one wisecracker to suggest: "You can't spell Longhorns without two Ls.”
"Fortunes are out of our control right now as far as the championship at the end,” said Texas coach Mack Brown.
The Sooners, meanwhile, maintain complete control.
Last week's loss at Colorado? That was a North foe.
"I'm not worried about last week,” said OU wide receiver Malcolm Kelly.
No need to.
While the breakdown in Boulder at least temporarily blemished OU in the national title picture, it did nothing to the Sooners' status in the South — provided they reclaim Red River bragging rights.
By surging past the Longhorns, OU re-established itself as a team – the team? – to beat in the South.
Work remains in what is shaping up as a wild ride through the league schedule. Still, the goal of a championship remains intact, boosted in Big D.
"It isn't just the fact that it's Texas,” Bob Stoops warned Saturday. "Winning means nothing if we don't win next week.
"In the end, it's one game in a series of a lot that we still have to go, that we've got to win.”
One had-to-have game, now secured.
The Sooners get four of their final six league opponents on Owen Field, where no league rival has won since 2001.
The road trips: to Iowa State and Texas Tech, hardly houses of horror, although OU lost in its last visit to Lubbock.
For Texas, the Red River rub digs deep. Alarmingly in Austin, the Longhorns have now dropped four straight conference games dating back to last season.
While Oklahoma State and Texas A&M and Texas Tech have a right to talk title, barring a near-miracle, the Horns can be dismissed from championship chatter just two full weeks into league play.
Welcome back, Sooners.
So long, L-Longhorns.
