After a somewhat "boring" first half of football, the Longhorns headed into halftime down three to the Sooners.
The first few offensive drives for Texas looked incredibly bleak, with a plethora of screen plays being the main focal point of Steve Sarkisian's offense. It was apparent that Sark was trying to slow down Oklahoma's dominant pass rush from the get-go, forcing the Sooner's defensive line to track down ball-carries left and right. It seemingly worked, as it was pretty obvious that Oklahoma's pass rushers were getting pretty tired, pretty fast in the 1st quarter.
To add insult to injury for Brent Venables' defense, Texas started running the ball down the Sooners' throat with a healthy and rejuvenated Quintrevion Wisner. He averaged over 5 yards per carry in the first half, and the Longhorns' offensive line has been getting excellent movement on Oklahoma's interior defensive line.
This newfound success in the ground game has obviously allowed Arch Manning to feel more confident and has forced Oklahoma to flood the box a bit more than they normally would. In the 1st half, Manning completed 71% of his passes for 69 yards to go along with a 112.8 passer rating. Steve Sarkisian has done an excellent job of using the passing game for tough, incremental yardage while leaning on the run game to keep the chains moving. As of right now, that's all Texas needs to do.
If Pete Kwiatkowski's defense can continue to shut down Ben Arbuckle's explosive offense in the 2nd half, the Longhorns might be able to play the possession game the rest of the way. Manage the clock, shut down the Sooners' run game, and get out of Dallas with a much-needed, upset win.