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Run Game Report: Oklahoma

In one sense, Texas took Oklahoma pretty seriously in this contest. They didn't really run the base offense that had vaulted them up to a no. 4 ranking in the SP+ offensive ratings and had them looking like the best offense the 40 Acres had seen since 2008 or earlier. Instead, they tried to pick at the obvious Oklahoma weaknesses from unexpected looks and didn't seem to have much confidence in some of the sets that had served them so well in previous weeks.
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Five Quick Thoughts: Out-foxed by Riley once again

For the second time in a row, Lincoln Riley successfully out-coached Tom Herman in this series and in particular caught him with his defensive staff's gameplan. Texas understandably went into this game intending to work over Oklahoma on the perimeter with the screen game early before circling back to the run game later. That didn't work out, for reasons we'll come back to later in this post, and the Longhorns were easily turned into a one-dimensional team that Oklahoma teed off against with pressures that resulted in 9 sacks over the course of the game.
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Five Quick Thoughts: Texas administers payback to West Virginia

Texas kept scoring in this game, finishing with 42 points and preventing West Virginia's attempts to exploit the Longhorns' special teams late from holding much relevance for the final outcome. You had to wonder if Tom Herman determined during or after the 2018 season that it might be better to pour on a few extra points when feasible in Big 12 contests this season. No one in this league will accept a beating like a gentleman, they will keep throwing haymakers and welcome the possibility of a 55-24 final score if it means they have a better shot at winning 56-55.
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Inside the Gameplan: Building off the bye week

The bye week for Texas came at a great time. The injuries were piling up so a week to heal and drill down some special teams specifics were unquestionably valuable for this team. Texas was also lucky with how things fell into place for October. Next up is the road trip to West Virginia, who doesn’t have the high end talent nor the infrastructure of previous seasons, and then the Red River Shootout.
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Inside the Gameplan: Live from DKR

Oklahoma State’s road trip to Austin last Saturday coincided with my own road trip down to the state capital from my abode in Michigan. It’s the first time I’d been in DKR Memorial Stadium since Collin Klein unsurprisingly gritted out a 17-13 victory over the heavily favored Longhorns back in 2011. @wethorn was able to get me into some fantastic seats and I took in the game from a new observation post that offered some new angles on Herman’s Horns than my sofa.
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Inside the Gameplan: Gundy the fox

Mike Gundy is the one problem in the Big 12 that Tom Herman has yet to solve. In 2017 the Longhorns caught Oklahoma State with a surprise haymaker, unveiling the 3-2-6 “lightning” package as a base defense and combining it with Michael Dickson’s punting to shut down the Cowboy offense. However, the Texas offense came up with next to nothing and the ‘Horns went down 13-10 in overtime when a dazed Sam Ehlinger threw an interception into the end zone.