Texas had every reason to expect more than this.
Instead, the top-ranked Longhorns walked out of the Cotton Bowl with a 27-24 loss to unranked Oklahoma, and Arch Manning’s rough fourth quarter became the center of it all. Two interceptions in the final period, including one that went back for a touchdown, flipped a rivalry game Texas had no business losing.
The setting delivered everything this matchup usually does. The Texas State Fair backdrop, the crowd, the noise, the pageantry - it all held up. But the football turned on a handful of plays, and Texas made too many of the wrong ones.
Manning’s final line was 19-of-31 for 260 yards with three touchdown passes and two interceptions. That sounds strong enough at a glance, and parts of his afternoon were.
He opened with a 41-yard touchdown throw to Cam Coleman that was as clean and impressive as anything in the game. He also showed the pocket movement and running ability that have flashed all season.
But the mistakes were crushing.
With 10 minutes left in a tied game, Manning forced a throw that Oklahoma intercepted and returned 42 yards for a touchdown. Texas answered that punch with its best drive of the day, finishing it with a 15-yard touchdown pass to tie the game again.
Then came the final error: under pressure, Manning threw near the sideline, and Oklahoma safety Omarion Robinson picked it off with 19 seconds left. That set up the Sooners’ winning 47-yard field goal.
Texas defensive end Colin Simmons said it plainly: “Texas beat Texas,”
That’s the ugly truth of this one. Steve Sarkisian’s team had enough talent to win, but the offense didn’t do enough to separate, and it hasn’t been doing enough in the biggest spots.
In the last two games combined, at Tennessee and against Oklahoma, Texas has 13 three-and-outs. Sarkisian was asked afterward whether he might change his play-calling responsibilities, and he shot it down with a flat, “Absolutely not.”
That leaves the pressure where it has been building all along. Manning chose Texas in part because of Sarkisian, and the pairing was supposed to be the kind that eventually produces something bigger than this. Instead, it has looked underwhelming.
It is not all on Manning, and it is not all on Sarkisian either. But the offense is not delivering at the level Texas needs, and the defense has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting for a team that has now won plenty of games the hard way. The previous two seasons were built more on the defense than the offense, whether the quarterback was Quinn Ewers or Manning.
After the game, Manning kept his comments short and said, “We’ve got to learn to be better,”
Simmons had his own read on the quarterback’s burden: “He’s just got to be himself. He’s just got to be Arch.”
That’s easier said than done for a young quarterback carrying the weight of Texas, the Manning name, and all the expectations that come with both. His NFL future remains obvious enough that scouts already see him as a top-10 pick in the 2027 draft, with one team in that range likely to take him because it does not want to be the club that passes on a quarterback named Manning.
For now, though, Texas is stuck with the version that showed up Saturday: talented, promising, and still not enough when the moment got loud.
In Other News...
Texas Opens Red River With Early Drama Beyond The Score
The Red River Rivalry opened with the kind of first-quarter buzz that always seems to follow Texas into the Cotton Bowl. Arch Manning found Cam Coleman for a touchdown to get the Longhorns on the board early, and the game immediately settled into the familiar mix of emotion, urgency and big-game tension that defines this matchup. Even before the score line had much time to breathe, the opening stretch had already delivered the sort of energy Texas fans expect when Oklahoma is on the other sideline.
Beyond the touchdown, the early going carried plenty of its own storylines, from pregame warmups to the injury notes and key plays that shaped the first quarter. Those details mattered in a game like this because every snap can shift the tone, and Texas had to navigate all of it while trying to keep control of the moment. The scoreboard gave the Longhorns an early edge, but the first quarter made clear this one was going to be about much more than one drive. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Looked Vulnerable In Dallas For One Frustrating Reason
Texas left Dallas with a bitter 27-24 loss to Oklahoma, and the frustration had less to do with one isolated mistake than with how the game unraveled after halftime. The Longhorns offense stalled repeatedly in the second half, stringing together multiple three-and-outs before Arch Manning was picked off late, while special teams problems kept adding pressure to a team trying to stay afloat in a tight rivalry game.
The blocked punt and missed field goals only deepened the sense that Texas kept finding new ways to make the path harder on itself. In a game where every possession mattered, the Longhorns never quite settled into rhythm, and the combination of offensive inconsistency, coaching choices, and special teams breakdowns left them vulnerable in a way that should linger well beyond one afternoon in Dallas. [Read more 🡒]
Steve Sarkisians Career Turnaround Adds New Emotion To Oklahoma Week
Oklahoma week always carries its own edge in Austin, but this one comes with a little more personal history for Steve Sarkisian. The Texas coach has been open about how Nick Saban played a major role in helping steady his career after a difficult stretch, bringing him to Alabama as an offensive analyst in 2016 after Sarkisian was fired by USC. It is the kind of reminder that gives a rivalry week already loaded with meaning a more human layer.
Sarkisian and his wife, Loreal, have both expressed gratitude for Sabans support, and Saban in turn has credited Sarkisian for doing the work needed to rebuild his career and add value to the program. For Sarkisian, that connection is part of the path that brought him back to this stage, where the Longhorns are trying to manage the usual Oklahoma Week intensity while their coach carries a little extra emotion into it. [Read more 🡒]