The Texas Longhorns’ dominant defense is crucial to winning the Red River Rivalry

In fact, Oklahoma didn’t score a single touchdown in the 2024 Red River Rivalry.

Although the Sooners entered the game with the lead after a field goal in the first quarter, the scoring ended there. While a big reason for this was the Oklahoma offense’s own mistakes, including multiple fumbles, the Texas defense knew exactly how to take advantage of their rivals’ weak moments.

“As a defense, it feels good knowing they never scored a touchdown,” safety Michael Taaffe said.

In the first quarter, when the Longhorns offense was struggling, the defense showed up by short fields.

“They kept putting out fires,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “Our defense took pride in them, their style of play and real confidence. Once a week we do a sudden change exercise so they know what to expect when the time comes. Nobody panics. They just take the field and they continue playing.

Sophomore linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. led Texas in tackles with 11, seven solo and four assists. Hill’s performance was more than twice that of everyone else. The second leader in tackles was freshman Collin Simmons, who recorded five total tackles.

Although Hill or Taaffe received much credit for leading the back and front lines, Sarkisian praised the unity of the defense.

“What I love about our defense is that it’s not about one or two players,” Sarkisian said. “There are 11 guys out there who played really well together. We rotate really well and everyone has confidence in the next player coming in. I think that allows us to stay fresh.”

The Texas defense has not allowed a team to score more than 10 points in four games this season. With this game marking the halfway point of the season, there is a lot to think about, but a statistic like this says a lot about the quality of a team.

However, it looks like we haven’t seen the best yet, and after the victory celebration, it’s back to work.

“Our best ball is yet to come,” Taaffe said. “We only picked up three points today, but we’ll look at the film and see a few runs that I or others missed and we’ll clean those up… The best is yet to come.”