Texas Football: Big 12 Title hopes slipping away after collapse vs. OK State

Another disastrous meltdown for new head coach Steve Sarkisian and No. 25 ranked Texas football had a detrimental impact on the direction of this team in the last two weekends. Texas had a clear opportunity to down both Oklahoma schools in the last two weeks but wasn’t able to capitalize in either game.

This weekend, it was Sark and the Longhorns that had a multiple possession lead over head coach Mike Gundy and the No. 12 ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys at home on Oct. 16. Oklahoma State’s offense couldn’t get much of anything going for around the first 40 minutes of this game.

In fact, Oklahoma State was once down 24-13 to the Longhorns in the third quarter. And it really felt like Texas had learned from the meltdown of a second-half loss to the Oklahoma Sooners in the Red River Rivalry game last weekend. But pretty much the same thing happened for the second weekend in a row.

Texas couldn’t ride star sophomore running back Bijan Robinson to a win over another Oklahoma school this week. Bijan was also about the only source of offense that Sark and the Longhorns could find on a consistent basis against Oklahoma State.

Texas football can’t shake the second-half collapse bug against Oklahoma State

Bijan went for 137 rushing yards on 21 carries, with two rushing scores. And then, he went for 38 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown in the air for Texas. That was about it that Texas could get going on the ground or through the air.

The leading receiver in this game was actually Marcus Washington, who came up with 60 receiving yards on two catches. Bijan was the other top wideout in terms of yards for Texas in this game.

Redshirt junior quarterback Casey Thompson looked to still have some issues with the thumb he injured on this throwing hand in the Red River loss to Oklahoma. The offensive line also played poorly in front of him once again. Oklahoma State’s defense was having no trouble getting a lot of pressure on Thompson, especially in the second half.

Thompson also tossed two costly picks in this game. It was about his worst performance of the season so far. He wound up tossing one touchdown, two picks and racked up 179 yards through the air.

All in all, this loss for the Longhorns is a real setback. This was a win that Texas really needed. Considering the insane list of visitors for the Longhorns this weekend for the Oklahoma State too, Sark and his staff needed to bounce back from the collapse of a loss to Oklahoma from back on Oct. 9.

Texas now moves to a record of 4-3 (2-2 Big 12) on the season following this 32-24 loss to Oklahoma State. Sark and the Longhorns are really going to need some help to make the path to the Big 12 Championship Game still happen this fall. But first things first, Texas will need to come out of the bye week ready to make a statement when they take on the Baylor Bears on Halloweekend.