Football comeback falls short vs. No. 11/9 Oklahoma, 31-26

Saturday, October 11

Dallas, Texas

11 a.m.

University of Texas

2-4 , 1-2

Oklahoma

5-1 , 2-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Texas

Oklahoma

Football comeback falls short vs. No. 11/9 Oklahoma, 31-26

10.11.2014 | Football

Box Score

Swoopes engineers late rally, finishes with career-high 334 passing yards

DALLAS -- Tyrone Swoopes passed for a career-high 334 yards and two touchdowns while running for another to lead a late rally for the Football team, but the comeback bid fell just short as No. 11/9 Oklahoma hung on to defeat the Longhorns, 31-26, Saturday afternoon in the annual AT&T Red River Showdown.

Trailing 31-13 with 12:50 left in the fourth quarter, Texas put together two quick scoring drives to close the gap.

Swoopes passed for 72 yards on the first TD drive, including a 41-yard completion to Marcus Johnson that set up the Longhorns at the Oklahoma 5. Three plays later, Swoopes hit John Harris in the corner of the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown that made it 31-20 with 8:24 left in the game.

The Texas defense followed by forcing a three-and-out and Jaxon Shipley returned the punt 31 yards to the OU 48. In six plays the Longhorns drove for the touchdown, taking just 1:41 off the clock, with Swoopes running up the middle for a 12-yard TD. After a two-point conversion failed, Texas trailed 31-26 with 4:57 to play.

But with just one timeout left for Texas, Oklahoma was able to run the clock down by to 25 seconds before punting by picking up a couple first downs. The Longhorns took over at their own 20 with 0:18 left and were unable to mount a scoring drive.

Swoopes finished the game 27 of 44, setting career highs in completions, passing yards and total offense (384). Shipley turned in his first 100-yard receiving game of the season with nine catches totaling 115 yards. Harris caught five passes for 90 yards and a pair of touchdowns and Johnson had a season-high 93 yards on seven receptions.

Texas totaled 482 yards of total offense, its second-best output in the series. Malcolm Brown led the rushing attack with a season-high 78 yards on 19 rushes while Swoopes had a career-high 50 yards on 11 attempts.

The Texas defense held Oklahoma to just 232 total yards including only 103 on the ground. The Sooners, though, were able to hold the lead for much of the game thanks to big plays on special teams and defense.

After Texas opened the game with an impressive, clock-burning drive to take an early 3-0 lead on a 28-yard field goal by Nick Rose, Oklahoma delivered a quick answer. Rose's short kickoff was fielded at the 9-yard line by Alex Rose who raced 91 yards up the middle of the field for a Sooners' touchdown.

The Sooners were able to take advantage of two Texas mistakes to build a 17-3 lead. A special teams penalty on a Longhorns punt setup OU with good field position and after one first down, a 44-yard field goal from Michael Hunnicutt made it 10-3 with 13:19 left in the second quarter.

On the next drive, Swoopes was intercepted by Zack Sanchez who returned it 43 yards for an Oklahoma touchdown and a 17-3 advantage with 11:18 left in the second quarter.

Texas answered right away. The Longhorns drove 75 yards downfield, with Brown accounting for 24 yards on the ground and Swoopes delivering a 38-yard touchdown pass to Harris on third-and-12 to cut the Oklahoma lead to 17-10 with 8:17 remaining in the first half.

After forcing Oklahoma to punt, Texas again went on a long drive – going 75 yards in seven plays before the drive stalled and Rose kicked a 20-yard field goal to make it 17-13.

The Longhorns outplayed the Sooners in the first half aside from a couple of key mistakes, outgaining them 278 to 29, but headed to the locker room trailing 17-13 just before halftime.

Defensively, Texas was on the field for just 7:32 in the first half as the offense possessed the ball for 22:28. That helped the Longhorns hold OU to just 21 passing yards and 8 rushing yards on 14 plays, while going 0-for-4 on third downs.

In the second half both teams started slow with the first six possessions resulting in punts.

Oklahoma, though, put together its first offensive scoring drive on its fourth possession of the third quarter. Taking over at their own 37-yard line, the Sooners used a pair of 20-plus yard pass plays to strike, with Trevor Knight hitting Sterling Shepard for a 24-yard scoring play that made it 24-13 OU with 4:17 left in the third quarter.

On its next drive Oklahoma extended the lead with a five-play, 47-yard scoring drive capped by Samaje Perine's 13-yard touchdown drive with 12:50 to play made it 31-13.