Following their second consecutive defeat, Texas coach Tom Herman and quarterback Sam Ehlinger lamented the team’s mistakes.
The No. 22 Longhorns committed 10 penalties, had three turnovers and made multiple special-teams miscues in a 53-45 four-overtime loss to rival Oklahoma on Saturday in Dallas.
“A lot of them are self-inflicted wounds, and I’m disappointed,” Herman said. “It’s my job to make sure that they don’t happen.”
Ehlinger, who last week said following a loss to TCU that “this university deserves better,” was left frustrated with many of the same types of problems that plagued Texas in the previous loss.
“We showed the football team we are at the end when we stay out of our own way, when we don’t have penalties and a lot of different mistakes that are self-inflicted,” Ehlinger said. “It’s unfortunate and we’ve got to get better.”
Asked if he believed the Longhorns (2-2, 1-2 Big 12) are a good team, Ehlinger said: “Yeah, this is a good team.”
“We have the talent; that’s not the issue,” Ehlinger said. “We have the schemes; that’s not the issue. We always seem to be tripping ourselves up. Getting in our own way, making mistakes at crucial times and the best teams don’t do that.”
The Longhorns saw a punt blocked, a field goal blocked and the game ended on an interception thrown by Ehlinger, who accounted for a game-high 399 yards and six touchdowns. The Sooners (2-2,1-2) made their fair share of mistakes as well, committing 11 penalties, three turnovers and missing a field goal.
But after what Herman termed “a great week of practice” and the “best Sunday after a loss that we’ve ever had in our program,” the Longhorns were still ruing their own problems.
“It’s unfortunate, but we can’t change the past,” Ehlinger said.
Said Herman: “Now what we have to do is we have to find a way mentally to do the things to translate what we work on and we execute at a very high level in practice, to do that in a game. And that’s all I know how to do.”