Everything Steve Sarkisian Said After Texas' Red River Beatdown of Oklahoma

After a slow first quarter, Texas football (6-0, 2-0) put the beatdown on Oklahoma (4-2, 1-2) to reclaim the Golden Hat. The 34-3 win is tied for the third-largest margin of victory for the Longhorns over the Sooners since 1971.

Texas trailed for the first time in the season early in this game, but a 14-point burst in the final 2:21 of the first half allowed the Horns to take a 21-3 lead into the break.

Coach Sarkisian relied on an elite effort from Pete Kwiatkowski's defense in the second half to cruise to victory. The Texas defense allowed only 237 yards, including 2.3 yards per rush. The unit finished with five sacks and 11 tackles for loss, making true freshman quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. incredibly uncomfortable all afternoon.

Texas will take the Golden Hat any way they can get it, but this was far from a clean victory for the Horns.

Ewers struggled early, throwing a bad interception on the first drive and missing what would have been an Isaiah Bond walk-in touchdown on the second drive. The offense struggled in the red zone, giving Texas fans flashbacks from a season ago.

In six red zone possessions, the Horns scored two touchdowns, kicked two field goals, missed a field goal, and turned the ball over on downs. The coaching staff will address these struggles before next Saturday's monumental matchup against No. 5 Georgia.

Here is everything Coach Sark said after the Longhorns’ Red River beatdown over Oklahoma:

On the victory:

"I think we played well in all three phases today."

"Really as a team, we're a mature team. Our team really exudes a lot of poise and composure."

"Things got a little dicey early on in the ball game, and then we kind of settled in offensively and got going in the second quarter."

On the defense:

"There's a lot of credit that can go around to our veteran players. A Michael Taaffe, an Anthony Hill, a Barryn Sorrell, an Alfred Collins, a Vernon Broughton ... a Jahdae Barron. And then there's this influx of new faces, right. Whether it's a Trey Moore, Andrew Mukuba Colin Simmons."

"They're playing really good football collectively. The communication on the defensive side of the ball right now is better than we've ever had it in four years. I think that's a byproduct of Michael [Taaffe] in the back end and Anthony (Hill) in the front."

"We're tackling really well. We're not missing tackles and giving up explosive plays. And we're staying on top in the back end. We're just not letting balls get thrown over our head. We can make it hard on teams to have to drive it the length of the field."

On Quinn Ewers:

"When you wait that long to play, about a month off, there's a little rust. But I thought he settled in and made some really competitive plays especially on third down."

On Isaiah Bond's injury:

" [He's] got an ankle. He did it early and then reaggravated it later in the game. He wasn't able to go. We'll continue to monitor him."

On Silas Bolden's fumble recovery:

"He probably had his best week of practice this week that he's had since the regular season began, and it showed in his play. It was a total effort play for him to make that play in the end zone."

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