The most recent installment in the storied series between OU and Texas entered the history books Saturday and has since been dubbed an instant classic.

Who can really argue against that?

The shootout between then-No.1 OU and then-No.5 Texas provided enough theatre to satisfy even William Shakespeare.

Each big play was followed by the customary eruption from one half of the stadium, only to be silenced minutes later as the other team respond edwith a momentum-swinging drive of its own. The game played out with the back-and-forth action of a tennis match.

The 45-35 final score was a testament to the offensive firepower both teams displayed. But there were also several terrific defensive stands, and Jordan Shipley made certain nobody overlooked the special teams unit in the box score.

The bottom line: This game had everything.

The latest Associated Press poll released Sunday reiterated this, as OU only fell to No. 4 following its defeat at the Cotton Bowl.

I had projected the Sooners to slide to somewhere near No. 10. However, after another wild weekend in college football, OU fans couldn’t have asked for a much better situation given the Sooners’ loss to the Longhorns.

For the second consecutive week, three teams ranked in the top five lost. OU is the highest-ranked one-loss team, and Texas stands to play its next three games against No. 11 Missouri, No. 8 Oklahoma State and No. 7 Texas Tech.

Nevertheless, OU still has a lot of fixing to do if it plans on justifying the media’s ranking.

The special teams’ performance Saturday was by far the worst of the season. It felt as if Texas started every drive around its own 45-yard line — except, of course, the time Shipley returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown.

OU had 10 rushing yards at halftime. That’s right, 10. Keeping with the spirit of one-upmanship that surrounds the OU-Texas rivalry, Texas decided it wasn’t going to let OU outdo it in anything. So the Longhorns managed to top the Sooners’ ghastly ground game by rushing for a total of negative three yards in the first half.

Most importantly, the hole created at linebacker following the loss of Ryan Reynolds for the year will now place even more pressure on a young defense that most people are still uncertain about.

OU has to rebound and take care of business against No. 16 Kansas this week. There isn’t much else it can do.

And there isn’t much else it needs to do. All it takes is another weekend like the last two, when upsets across the country caused the nation’s top schools to be dethroned.

Now that’s some drama Shakespeare would appreciate.

— Eric Dama is a journalism sophomore.