Texas Football: 3 reasons OU will beat the Longhorns in Red River

2) Why OU will beat Texas football: Lack of offensive rhythm at key times

Hopefully the lack of offensive rhythm under recently hired offensive coordinator and former Ohio State passing game coordinator Mike Yurcich is just part of the growing pains. Because if not, the offense could be in trouble over the long run. Texas did put up impressive offensive numbers in the first two games of the season, but not in the loss to TCU.

And the offense isn’t really trending in the right direction over the course of the last two games. While it was expected that senior star quarterback Sam Ehlinger saw his performance drop off compared to how he played against UTEP, the numbers in the last two weeks are a bit concerning. His passer efficiency rating, completion percentage, total yards, and adjusted yards per passing attempt have each dropped pretty significantly in the last two games.

For the first time since the middle of last season, Ehlinger registered a completion percentage under 48.0 in the loss to TCU.

The Oklahoma defense is good enough that they can keep pace with an out of rhythm and spotty Texas offense. Since TCU essentially held the Texas offense under 30 points after giving up 37 to Iowa State, it might not be all that difficult for Oklahoma to do the same. Oklahoma didn’t have much of a problem holding Texas under 30 points in Red River last season.

The onus will be on redshirt freshman Oklahoma signal caller Spencer Rattler to take care of the football too in this game. Texas did intercept four passes in the first two games of the season, so they would be able to take advantage of Rattler having some bad passes at crucial times of the game.

Rattler is riding a streak of two straight potential game-tying or game-winning drives in the fourth quarter that ended with picks he tossed.