After appearing sharp in the first quarter, OU faltered in the second half and allowed Texas to come back from two 11-point deficits.

Junior quarterback Colt McCoy threw for 277 yards and a touchdown and ran for an additional 31 yards.

McCoy’s two main receivers — Quan Cosby and Jordan Shipley — each had over 100 yards receiving, and Shipley added a kick return for a touchdown to give Texas the 45-35 win.

“Their staff and team really played an excellent game,” head coach Bob Stoops said. “They executed well throughout the game and really give credit to them. We weren’t good enough and they made the plays.”

Sophomore quarterback Sam Bradford threw for more than 300 yards for the fifth consecutive game and connected on five touchdowns, but the defense couldn’t overcome the loss of middle linebacker and emotional leader Ryan Reynolds.

The nail in the Sooners’ coffin came when Texas running back Chris Ogbonnaya burst through the line late in the fourth quarter for a 62-yard run to the two-yard line. The Longhorns scored on the next play and converted a two-point conversion to go up ten.

On that play, Ogbonnaya became the first Texas player to rush for more than 100 yards in a game this season.

Texas shut down the OU offense on its ensuing two possessions and secured the victory.

“They made the plays in the second half to win it,” Stoops said. “Again, a hard fought game and they got the better of us.”

OU began with the game’s first possession, and quickly moved down the field and scored on a five-yard touchdown pass from Bradford to Manuel Johnson — the first of the three times the duo would connect for a touchdown.

It didn’t take Texas long to respond. McCoy found Cosby for a 25-yard completion which put the ‘Horns into Oklahoma territory.

After three plays Texas kicked a 26-yard field goal to make the score 7-3.

In the second quarter, everything appeared to be going OU’s way after a Bradford pass ricocheted off Jermaine Gresham and into the hands of Ryan Broyles for a touchdown and a 14-3 lead.

But on the ensuing kickoff, Texas’ Jordan Shipley shot through the OU defenders for a 96-yard touchdown.

“The one that just got us,” Stoops said. “We had all the momentum … and it looked like we had guys in position to make the play and we get hesitant and don’t make it.”

The two teams then traded touchdowns, and Texas added a field goal after a Bradford interception to trail by only one at halftime.

OU’s defense stopped the Longhorns on their first second-half possession. Redshirt freshman Ryan Broyles then gave the Sooners’ their best special teams play of the game — returning the ensuing punt to the 40-yard line.

Bradford took advantage of the shortened field with a touchdown pass to Juaquin Iglesias to put the Sooners up 28-20.

Texas didn’t miss a step as the ‘Horns drove down the field and brought the game back to one when McCoy connected with senior wide receiver Jordan Shipley for a 2-yard touchdown.

The Sooner defense then began to fall apart after Reynolds went down with a knee injury. He had shown signs of an injury in the first half, but stayed in the game. In the third quarter, he tore his ACL and now will be out for the season.

After Reynolds left, McCoy began finding consistent passing lanes in the middle of the field. Ogbonnaya then broke his big run to essentially seal the victory for the Longhorns.

Luckily for the Sooners, it was another week of upsets throughout college football. No. 3 Missouri lost to Oklahoma State — catapulting the Cowboys to a No. 8 ranking — and No. 4 LSU lost 51-21 to Florida.

No. 2 Alabama was idle, making Texas the only team in the top five to win this weekend. The crazy weekend caused OU to only drop three ranks to No. 4, making it the highest-ranked team with a loss.

With the win, Texas is now a game ahead of the Sooners and owns the tiebreaker, which means the Longhorns will have to lose twice for OU to have a shot at the Big 12 Championship. But the OU-Texas game was the first game in a hellacious stretch for the Longhorns that features four of their next five games against ranked opponents.

Stoops is making sure his team remains focused on finishing the year strong.

“The message is: we’re only halfway through the year,” Stoops said. “The major part is coming, it’s conference play, and we got a long year ahead of us, and we’ll keep out head up and keep competing, and try to work on some things.”

Download Episode

The 5th Quarter

The 5th Quarter 10/12/08

Corey DeMoss and Steven Jones discuss the results of OU/Texas.