DALLAS — Surrounded by a sea of crimson, cream and an emptied out Texas section, the Sooners celebrated a 55-17 beatdown of the Longhorns on Saturday.

THREE REASONS WHY THE SOONERS WON

• Defense, anyone? Oklahoma’s defense 21, Texas’ offense 10. There’s no other way to put it: The Sooners were completely dominant in Dallas. OU held Texas to 0.8 yards per rushing attempt, sacked the Longhorns eight times and — most impressively — recorded three defensive touchdowns. Junior defensive back Demontre Hurst, junior defensive end David King and senior cornerback Jamell Fleming all reached the end zone as Oklahoma set a school record for the most times its defense has scored in one game.

• The air raid. While Texas stymied OU’s ground game, the Sooners turned loose their passing attack on the Longhorns. Junior quarterback Landry Jones delivered a Heisman-like performance Saturday afternoon, completing 31 of 50 passes for 367 yards, three touchdowns and no turnovers. Jones and his arsenal of receivers gained 81 percent of Oklahoma’s offensive output as the Sooners handed Texas its fourth-worst defeat in Red River Rivalry history.

• Texas’ youth. The ’Horns pass the eye test — recruiting four- and five-star athletes certainly helps that — but they showed there are more growing pains to endure before Texas can be a title contender again. The Texas quarterbacks were slow to make decisions, the cornerbacks were often out of position and the offensive line couldn’t slow OU’s push. The Longhorns have talent, but their inexperience allowed Oklahoma to turn the game into a rout.

SUPERHEROES

• Jamell Fleming. The senior cornerback finished with a team-high 13 tackles and had two tackles for loss, but Fleming’s 56-yard fumble return for a touchdown — which happened after he ripped the ball away from Texas sophomore receiver Mike Davis — sealed his superhero status.

• The Ryan Broyles-Kenny Stills duo. You could make a case for both receivers, but the combination of the two was lethal Saturday. Broyles and Stills ran rampant on Texas’ inexperienced secondary, combining for 11 catches, 173 yards and three touchdowns.

• Frank Alexander. The senior defensive end wrecked havoc on his way to three sacks, four tackles for loss, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble that led to a defensive touchdown.

SUPERVILLIAN

• Fozzy Whittaker. Not much to be excited about if you’re Texas, but the senior running back gashed OU on a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the second quarter. Whittaker also finished with 45 yards on six carries, a 7.2 yard per carry average.

QUOTE BOARD

• Texas coach Mack Brown on losing the way the Longhorns did:
“I think you have to congratulate Oklahoma. They’re a great football team. I think you can see why they’re the No. 1 team in the country. Landry Jones played like a Heisman Trophy winner today. We had to get him off his rhythm and we could not. We hit ‘em, we blitzed ‘em, we gave ‘em different looks and they answered the bell.”

• Brown on if he’s shocked that Texas was blown out:
“I don’t think I’m shocked about anything anymore. I’m disappointed.”

• Stoops on OU’s three defensive touchdowns:
“To me, there’s nothing more fun than a defensive touchdown — when you’re on that side of it. Those are just big and huge plays. We got pressure on all of them.”

• Stoops on if OU slipping to No. 3 in the AP adds motivation:
“It’s certainly not on my mind. Now, don’t get me wrong, we want to come here and play as absolutely well as we can, and I thought we did that — other than that last touchdown, I think we could have done without that. But, my point is we’re not sitting here saying ‘oh, we’ve gotta win by this or that’ — we’re going to best the best we can, get ready for it. And it’s way too early in the year. Some other teams have been rewarded for some good games they have played, and that’s OK — they should be. I’m sure we’ll be rewarded for playing a game like this today. So it kind of goes back and forth through the season.”

• Stoops on Travis Lewis wearing the No. 12 jersey against Texas:
“Travis has been a great leader, a kind of an assistant coach on the field, very smart player, works hard at it to be able to orchestrate the defense and does a great job. So I know he took a lot of pride. He and Box, which everyone knows, were very close, coming in to school at the same time together, playing backer, so it meant a lot to him to be wearing No. 12 today.”

• Junior quarterback Landry Jones on having the receiving trio of Ryan Broyles, Kenny Stills and Jaz Reynolds to throw to:
“It just makes my job a lot easier. I don’t have to be as accurate as I need to be. I can miss a throw every once and a while, and they’re going to make a play on it. So it just takes a lot of pressure off of me knowing I have receivers that I can put the ball up to them in tight coverage and they’re going to make a play.”

• Jones on OU’s performance on defense:
”It’s just nice as an offense to get three defensive scores. They just played great. Like I said, it just gives the offense confidence and gives us peace of mind. You know, if we don’t go out there and perform the way we should on a drive, we know the defense has our back.”

• Sophomore linebacker Tom Wort on the defense getting five turnovers, three of which of touchdowns:
”It was so awesome out there to see the guys creating turnovers. It’s special. That’s what we look for on defense — trying to make plays, trying to get the ball back for our offense. So to actually get the ball in the end zone, that’s really exciting. We just need to keep improving; we can’t have an up-and-down week like we did after Florida State.”

• Wort on beating the Longhorns by 38 points:
“It’s OU-Texas. It’s a game we have circled every year — it’s like a bowl game in the middle of the season — and to have a big win like that, it’s absolutely awesome. I love every second of it.”

Chris Lusk is a journalism senior and the editor and chief of The Daily. You can follow him on Twitter at @ChrisLusk.