Oklahoma didn’t look like the better team for most of Saturday’s Red River Rivalry. They really looked like a team hanging around, hoping Texas would give them an opening.

Then, with three seconds left, Tate Sandell made sure the Sooners didn’t waste it.

His 47-yard field goal sailed through as time expired, giving unranked Oklahoma a 27-24 win over No. 1 Texas at the Cotton Bowl. The Sooners came in at 2-2, fresh off a 41-13 loss to Georgia and looking for any offense they could trust. Texas showed up as the unbeaten No. 1 and was led by a quarterback with one of the biggest last names in the entire sport of football.

Oklahoma found a different way to win. The Sooners blocked a punt for a touchdown, returned an Arch Manning interception for another, and made just enough plays on offense when they had to. That’s how a team with 238 total yards beat a team with 382. It’s how a 17-7 halftime lead turned into Texas’ first loss. And it’s why the final kick really didn't feel like a fluke at all. It felt more like the perfect ending to a messy, stubborn Oklahoma win.

The strange part is that Oklahoma’s offense didn’t suddenly become good. John Mateer threw for 155 yards and no touchdowns. The Sooners converted just two of 13 third downs and punted nine times. Against the No. 1 team in the country, that’s usually a pretty reliable way to lose.

This Shouldn't Have Even Been Close

The Sooners’ 2-2 start made this look like a mismatch on paper, but the record didn’t tell the whole story. They’d lost 17-10 in Michigan, scraped past New Mexico 14-6 behind their defense and then turned the ball over four times in the blowout loss to Georgia. Against those two major-conference opponents, they’d scored just 23 points combined. The defense kept giving them a chance; the offense just kept getting in the way.

For a while Saturday, nothing looked different. The game’s first five possessions ended in three-and-outs, and Oklahoma punted on their first five offensive drives. Manning finally broke the stalemate when he hit Cam Coleman for a 41-yard touchdown in the first quarter. It was a one-play drive, and it really highlighted the talent on this Texas roster.

Oklahoma’s first touchdown came without their offense even touching the ball. Danny Okoye blocked Mac Chiumento’s punt near the Texas goal line, and Dakoda Fields recovered it in the end zone early in the second quarter. Texas answered with a nine-play drive capped by Manning’s 34-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Wingo. Gianni Spetic added a short field goal before halftime, and the Longhorns went to the locker room up 17-7.

That score felt about right. Texas’ defense was doing their job, and Manning had already delivered two explosive touchdown throws. Oklahoma hadn’t shown much to suggest they could put together a sustained drive, much less climb out of a 10-point hole.

Oklahoma Took Advantage of the Mistakes

The third quarter started to tilt the game a bit. Lloyd Avant broke off a 42-yard run, setting up Sandell’s 53-yard field goal. Later, a short Texas punt gave Oklahoma the ball at the Longhorns’ 47. That drive almost went sideways when Isaiah Sategna III threw a pass that Texas intercepted, but a roughing-the-passer penalty wiped it out. Avant then ran for 11 yards, and early in the fourth quarter, he finished the job with a two-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 17.

It was Oklahoma’s first offensive touchdown against Texas in 32 drives, dating back to 2024. And it meant more than just seven points. For most of the afternoon, Oklahoma’s defense had been asked to keep the team alive while the offense struggled to get moving. Suddenly, every Longhorn possession felt a little more important.

A few minutes later, Peyton Bowen made one of those possessions disappear. Manning scrambled under pressure and overthrew a pass. Bowen picked it off and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown. Oklahoma had their first lead of the game, 24-17, with 10:07 left. In just a few minutes, Texas had gone from controlling the game to needing an answer.

Manning had one. He led a seven-play, 75-yard drive and found Jermaine Bishop Jr. for a 15-yard touchdown with 6:32 to go. It was Manning’s third touchdown pass of the day.

Texas got another chance to take control after their defense forced a punt. With the score tied, the Longhorns moved from their own 27 to Oklahoma’s 35. But a five-yard loss on a run left them staring at a fourth-and-two. Steve Sarkisian sent out Spetic for a 53-yard field goal, but the kick sailed wide right with 1:54 left. Oklahoma went three-and-out again, giving Texas the ball back with 54 seconds to find a winning score.

Instead, Oklahoma’s pressure forced the mistake that decided the game. Manning got Texas near midfield, but on second down, Omarion Robinson hurried him, and Courtland Guillory intercepted the pass at the Oklahoma 39 with 19 seconds left.

All They Needed Was 19 Seconds

Nineteen seconds isn’t much time for an offense that had struggled to complete passes all afternoon. Mateer made two of them to Sategna anyway: 13 yards toward one sideline, then 20 toward the other. The first catch was ruled incomplete before replay overturned the call; the second was upheld after another review. Oklahoma ran one more play to get the ball in position, and Sandell finished the job from 47 yards out. He’d already made a 53-yarder and missed another earlier in the game. This time, the kick decided everything.

Those final seconds shouldn’t hide what Oklahoma did for the other 59 minutes. Their defense held Texas scoreless in the third quarter and limited the Longhorns to three conversions on 14 third downs. Owen Heinecke had nine tackles and 2½ tackles for loss. Bowen’s interception flipped the game on its head, and Guillory’s gave the Sooners one last chance. Special teams also came through with a touchdown at a point when Oklahoma’s offense couldn’t find one on their own.

Brent Venables sounded like a coach who understood both how big the win was and how much work was still ahead:

When we get out of our own way, we’ve got a good football team.

That’s a pretty good way to describe it. The Sooners didn’t suddenly fix all their offensive problems. They just stopped letting those problems decide the game for them.

Arch's Roller Coaster Season Continues

For Texas, there’s just no way to pin this entirely on Manning, even though his two fourth-quarter interceptions were huge. He finished 19-of-31 for 260 yards and three touchdowns. Coleman caught five passes for 110 yards. The Longhorns outgained Oklahoma by 144 yards and held the Sooners to 83 rushing yards. Their defense gave them plenty to work with.

But Texas also punted eight times, gave up seven points on a blocked punt, and couldn't score at all in the third quarter. The running game came in flashes instead of giving the offense a reliable way to stay ahead of the chains. Freshman Derrek Cooper had 41 yards on eight carries, Hollywood Smothers finished with 39 on 12. When Texas needed two yards late, they wound up trying a 53-yard field goal. Manning’s mistakes were costly, but this was a full team collapse.

Sarkisian talked about that bigger problem after the loss:

We’ve got to continue to run the ball better so it’s not all on his shoulders.

He also said they need to find some stability on offense, and that ultimately falls on him.

Manning’s season has already been up-and-down to say the least. A month ago, he helped Texas erase a 20-point fourth-quarter deficit against then-No. 1 Ohio State. Against Oklahoma, he threw three touchdown passes and led a tying drive after the pick-six. He also made two late decisions Texas couldn’t survive.

The talent and the questions were both on display in the Cotton Bowl.

Texas is still 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the SEC; Oklahoma's 3-2 and 1-1. In Sunday’s AP poll, the Longhorns fell from No. 1 to No. 7 and Georgia moved into the top spot. Texas still has some tough games on the schedule. Oklahoma hosts Kentucky next, who just upset No. 10 LSU.

One loss in October doesn’t close Texas’ path to the playoff, and one spectacular win doesn’t erase Oklahoma’s first four games. But both of these teams are headed in very different directions than they were coming into this game.

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