No. The Red River Rivalry wasn’t supposed to look like this one-sided. The Texas Longhorns absolutely embarrassed the Oklahoma Sooners with a 34-3 win. The former still has the upper hand in the Red River Rivalry, 64-51-5, which has been played since 1900.

October 12 is a date that Sooners’s Brent Venables is going to remember for the longest time. And if you think that Venables tried to safeguard his team, then you are mistaken. After all, even after their bye-week, Oklahoma Sooners are still in the same place. So the HC couldn’t push the issues under the table. An absolute ouch moment for the Sooners, considering their track record with bye-weeks.

In Bob Stoops’ era as HC at Oklahoma, the Sooners were 19-4 coming off a bye week. And what about Venables? Well, the program was 2-0 coming out of a bye-week until they were turned into mere specks of dust by the Longhorns. The week off following Oklahoma’s 27-21 road win on Sept. 28 at Auburn came at a prime time. While injuries plagued the program, the offense has been a reason for concern.

But on Saturday it turned out that it was the defense that was most problematic for Venables’ squad. And in no way, the HC could have denied it as he took accountability. As reported by Oklahoma Sooners on YouTube, “I really felt like when we needed to play our best on defense to keep things within arms reach, we were not able to do that. I felt like times at times, we were a little bit tired and that led to bad alignments, bad eyes and not triggering as aggressively when you need to.”

The lack of energy seems questionable since the team was coming off a bye-week.

Oklahoma managed only 237 yards and failed to get into the end zone. While Venables’ squad has a good defense, they got overpowered by Steve Sarkisian’s (Texas Longhorns HC) extraordinary offense. Texas QB Quinn Ewers gave the Longhorns its first down of the day with a 26-yard completion.

It was only possible because of the poor tackling and setting the edges loose. And this setback did not come easy as Venables is now faced with a crucial question.

Déjà vu moment for Brent Venables’ Sooners?

The Week 7 Red River Rivalry ended up with the Sooners getting humiliated as Sarkisian’s tribe was rampant. They buckled up on both sides of the ball, limiting and wrapping up Venables’ offense to not even cross the 250-yard mark. Sadly, the Sooners got hit by yet another blow when their true freshman QB Michael Hawkins Jr. drooped down Oklahoma’s spirit with his lackluster performance.

Fans are now wondering if a change in the QB position would have done some good to the Sooners. Not being able to live up to the expectations, the HC was hit with the question of whether Hawkins would continue being under center. Looks like Venables had been expecting the question.

The Sooners HC came up with a straightaway “No.” It is brave for Brent Venables to stick to his decision to proceed with the QB. Let us not forget that the HC swapped Jackson Arnold for Hawkins Jr. just last month.

Further, this year’s Red River Rivalry was an absolute nightmare that must have brought in the memories of their 2022 blowout where the Longhorns crushed the Sooners 49-0. ZERO!

It was the largest margin by which Texas won against the Sooners and also their first shutout since 1965. Well, it can’t get worse than this, can it?