Texas Football: Could going for 2 vs. OU have saved the Horns season?

Could the fortunes for the Texas football program be any different this year if they had gone for two points at the end of regulation in Red River?

Foregoing on a two-point conversion to try and beat the Oklahoma Sooners on the final scoring drive in regulation is the talk of the town this week around the Texas football landscape. Fourth-year Texas head coach Tom Herman discussed the matter recently, and talked on why he kicked the extra-point instead of going for two points and trying to beat Oklahoma in regulation.

Herman seemed to take a rather nuanced approach to discussing this matter recently. And even after the game, Herman was confident in his decision. There is validation to both sides of this argument. This is a really difficult decision to make in the moment since there was so much on the line in the Red River Rivalry game between Texas and Oklahoma back on Oct. 10.

A good piece from Horns247 dove deeper on this subject including some quotes since the game ended from Herman himself. Here’s more on what this piece said regarding this subject.

"“Felt like our offense was playing really, really well,” Herman said immediately after the game. “Our defense had just held them to a three-and-out and we got the ball back, got a decent punt return and went right down the field and scored. Certainly, at the end of regulation, we all felt like that we were playing good enough defensively; we’d found a groove. We’d definitely found a groove offensively and that taking this thing into overtime — and then we score first.”Ehlinger’s 3-yard touchdown run in the first overtime at the end of a five-play drive was the third touchdown Texas scored in as many possessions. However, Herman’s primary concern at the time was putting a defense that wound up facing 97 official snaps on the day back on the field with no margin for error.“We were trying to, obviously, keep them out of the end zone,” Herman said. “Felt like — especially the way that we had played there the last couple of series in regulation — that that was the right thing to do.”"

The confidence that the Longhorns had in star senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger is made obvious by a lot of the actions from Herman this season, but going for two-points in this situation was not one of them. Granted Herman could’ve been confident in how Ehlinger could potentially command the game in overtime.

Ehlinger did lead the Longhorns to four overtimes before Oklahoma finally got the best of them, by the final score of 53-45. And it was an Ehlinger pick that sealed the win for the Sooners. Both the heroics and inconsistency of Ehlinger were apparent in this game. Live by the Ehlinger, die by the Ehlinger, was the mantra of Red River for Texas this year.

What makes the Red River Rivalry game that was played more than one month ago so interesting at this point of the season is the fact that these two teams have the chance to meet again in the Big 12 Championship Game. If Texas can take care of business against the No. 15 ranked Iowa State Cyclones on Black Friday (Nov. 27), then they have a clear path to possibly face the Sooners in the Big 12 Championship Game come Dec. 19.

Moreover, I really don’t know if it was the right move for Herman to go for two points against Oklahoma. It’s hard to argue against going with the momentum and putting the game in Ehlinger’s hands, but that’s not an easy case to make either.

What does matter for Texas in this regard is that they can still rebound in the best way possible by winning out through the three remaining games for their regular season slate. They have the Kansas schools and Iowa State remaining before the end of the regular season. Get through those three unscathed, and they could have another shot at the Big 12 Championship game and the Sooners.