John Mateer struggled mightily in his remarkable return from hand surgery, throwing three interceptions in the Oklahoma's 23-6 loss to Texas in the Red River Rivalry.
DALLAS — It was third-and-12 with 13:38 remaining and OU football needed a big play.
Sooners quarterback John Mateer stood in the pocket, surveyed the field and threw a ball out of wide receiver Isaiah Sategna’s reach. The ball deflected off Sategna’s hands and into Texas defensive back Graceson Littleton’s.
The play summed up Mateer’s afternoon. The interception was his third of the game and sixth of the season.
Following a miraculous return to the field, 17 days post-surgery, Mateer struggled mightily, completing 20 of his 38 passes for 202 yards and three interceptions in the Sooners’ 23-6 loss.
It’s unclear how much Mateer was affected by the injury, but OU’s starting quarterback’s thumb was struck by a helmet in the first half and bled throughout the game, leaving his jersey bloodied.
Mateer seemed mostly unbothered in warmups, tossing 40- and 50-yard passes and to start the game, completing passes of 23 and 18 yards to Sategna and Deion Burks, respectively, on OU’s first drive. A Heisman Trophy contender before his injury, Mateer was sacked five times.
With the loss, Brent Venables falls to 1-3 against Texas as the Sooners’ head coach.
Here are four more takeaways from OU’s (5-1, 1-1 SEC) loss:
Arch Manning impresses in first Red River start
While Mateer’s play was disappointing in his return, Arch Manning quieted some doubters on Saturday.
The Longhorns quarterback’s play was underwhelming to start the season, tossing five interceptions in as many games. Manning was sacked six times and hurried 10 times last week against Florida and was caught victim holding onto the ball too long playing behind a struggling offensive line.
On Saturday, Manning — perhaps the most-hyped collegiate athlete ever — found something. He mostly evaded a daunting Sooners defense, completing 21 of his 27 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown.
In one of his best plays of the season, with just under six minutes left in the game, Manning scrambled to his right, escaped a would-be tackler and fit a 21-yard pass into a tight window near the sideline to Parker Livingstone.
Middle-eight struggles cost Sooners
At the end of the first half, Sooners coach Brent Venables let the clock run down: 14, 13, 12, 11, 10.
Timeout.
On third-and-2 at the 30-yard line with no timeouts remaining, John Mateer rolled to his right and saw an open Deion Burks in the end zone and let it loose. Mateer misfired, throwing his second interception of the game to Texas defensive back Malik Muhammad.
With two seconds left, Arch Manning kneeled. Halftime. As much as Venables preaches about winning the middle eight minutes of the game, on Saturday it was when the Sooners fell apart.
OU was in field goal range with 10 seconds remaining and instead finished the drive with zero points. Following the first drive after half, Brent Venables was irate at his defensive line and linebackers following Texas’ first drive of the second half.
Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning looked to his left and threw across the middle of the field to a wide-open DeAndre Moore Jr. in the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown.
The Longhorns chewed up almost half of the third quarter on the 14-play, 75-yard drive.
In all, Texas ran 27 offensive plays compared to OU’s four. The Longhorns had the ball for 13 minutes and 26 seconds, while the Sooners possessed it for one minute and 34 seconds.
Kendal Daniels leads Sooners defense with six tackles
Kendal Daniels was flying around from the opening whistle.
The Oklahoma State transfer, playing in his first-ever Red River Rivalry game, led OU with six total tackles and also recorded two tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry.
The Sooners’ defense struggled at times, but gave the Sooners’ offense plenty of opportunities to get back in the game.
Derek Simmons exits game in first half with apparent injury
OU offensive tackle Derek Simmons appeared to be rolled up in the first half.
Simmons immediately grabbed his knee and was in the injury tent for an extended period.
The Western Carolina transfer was able to walk to the locker room on his own power before halftime and never returned for the Sooners.
OU was already thin at right tackle entering the contest.
Logan Howland, who exited last week’s game against Kent State, didn’t travel and Jacob Sexton has missed the Sooners’ past five games after exiting the season-opener with an injury.
Colton Sulley covers the Oklahoma Sooners for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Colton? He can be reached at [email protected] or on X/Twitter at @colton_sulley. Support Colton's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football roughed up by Texas as Arch Manning outduels John Mateer
Category: General Sports
