Red River shutout: if you're still not sure whether Oklahoma's defense is good enough for another title run, just check with Texas

Sporting News, The, Oct 18, 2004 by Darryl Richards

Sure, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops loves his brother, but frankly, he was tired of hearing about him. Tired of hearing about Tommie Harris, too, and Derrick Strait and Teddy Lehman and Rocky Calmus and all those other guys who had made Oklahoma one of the baddest defenses in college football over the past four years.

That was then, won't win a game now, so let's talk about something else.

"Coming in, I thought people didn't recognize or give our guys enough credit;' Stoops says. "I felt all along that we were on the verge of really playing well defensively. But you need to see it."

You saw it against Texas. Stoops' brother Mike has gone from the brains of the defense at OU to head coach at Arizona, and all those OU All-Americans are playing in the NFL, but these Sooners did something to Texas none of those other guys ever did: They shut out the Longhorns, winning, 12-0, and running Oklahoma's winning streak to five in the Red River Shootout.

Given an opportunity to shine in front of a national audience and a multitude of recruits in the talent-rich Dallas-Fort Worth area, Oklahoma's defense asserted itself. Super freshman running back Adrian Peterson established himself as a Heisman candidate by rushing for 225 yards, but the Sooners' D shared the marquee in a grinder of a game at the venerable Cotton Bowl.

It was the first time Texas had been shut out in 282 games, but Oklahoma's domination goes a little deeper than that. The Sooners now have held the Longhorns scoreless for more than six quarters in this series--93 minutes and 12 seconds to be precise.

But for some reason, coming into the game, Oklahoma's defense just hadn't seemed dominant. Sure, the Sooners had held Texas Tech, which has scored 70 points twice this season, to 13 points, but where were the big plays? Where were the turnovers? The fumble-causing hits? Oh, and who are these guys, anyway?

There's little mystery to stopping Texas. With tailback Cedric Benson and quarterback Vince Young, the Longhorns have one of the nation's leading ground games. Oklahoma used a series of blitzes that included sending both cornerbacks and throwing linebackers and cornerbacks into the fray.

"They just gave up their read schemes and just decided to fill holes," Benson says. "When all the holes are filled, it's tough to make yards."

The strategy held Benson, the nation's leading rusher, to 92 yards, plus a fumble. It limited Young, a gifted runner but, uh, challenged passer, to 54 yards and made him cough up the ball twice. Young's second quarter fumble at the OU 14 squandered the Longhorns' best scoring opportunity.

Oklahoma had a few recognizable names--defensive end Dan Cody, free safety Brodney Poole--step up, but new playmakers also emerged. Linebacker Clint Ingram, a special teams standout the past couple of seasons, recovered two fumbles, and a junior college transfer, cornerback Chijioke Onyenegecha, (which sounds a lot like I'm-gonna-getcha) broke up two passes and had a sack.

"We put a lot of emphasis on having a great physical game," Cody says. "Up until this point, we didn't feel that our defense had played on edge."

Beyond the chants of "five in a row" and the upside-down Longhorn hand gestures as Texas went up the Cotton Bowl tunnel to its locker room, beyond the Sooners running around the field with an OU flag and planting it defiantly into the ground, this had the feel of Texas' most disappointing game in its five-game losing streak against the Sooners.

If you're a Texas player, the opportunity doesn't get much better than this. The Longhorns limited OU quarterback Jason White, last year's Heisman Trophy winner, to 113 yards passing and picked him off twice. Peterson rushed for more than 200 yards, but the Sooners only had one touchdown to show for it. Texas turned the ball over three times, but Oklahoma didn't convert a single one into points.

The Longhorns always seemed one play away from taking the lead and giving one of the most tortured psyches in college football a much-needed lift, but as the game continued, it was apparent the Longhorns simply were not going to score.

The Longhorns headed back to Austin with this knowledge: Peterson will be back next season. And it's a pretty good bet Oklahoma's defense will be, too.