Published: October 08, 2006 12:38 am            

Mistakes hurt

DALLAS — The recipe for Red River Rivalry success is no secret. Keeping the mistakes to a minimum has been the key ingredient since Oklahoma and Texas first met in 1900.

Anyone who needs more proof got it Saturday in the Sooners’ 28-10 loss to the Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl.

OU shot itself in the foot with 11 penalties and then went after its toes with five turnovers.

“Those were the biggest factors in the game to me,” OU coach Bob Stoops said.

It didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to come up with that deduction. It only takes a very short history lesson to figure that out.

From 2000-2004, OU dominated Texas.

Longhorn coach Mack Brown knew why.

“When we come out of this game with a huge deficit it’s usually because of turnovers,” Brown said.

Take them away and OU played well enough to win. Texas only gained 232 total yards and its heralded rushing attack produced just 157. Redshirt freshman quarterback Colt McCoy was just 11-for-18 for 108 yards.

But his afternoon didn’t include an interception. The Longhorns’ 32 rushing attempts occurred without a fumble.

OU outgained them by 101 yards. Adrian Peterson rushed for 109 and Thompson threw for 209.

Those were winning numbers. But think what they would have been if the Sooners hadn’t had four drives snuffed out due to false starts. What would they have been like if they hadn’t fumbled six times and lost three.

“Our goal is to be a sound offense,” offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said. “That means you don’t turn it over. You don’t have the negative play, especially the sacks. And you don’t have penalties, especially pre-snap penalties where we have three or four jumps.”

Those were the kinds of things Texas used to do when OU was on the other side of the field. But for the last two seasons, the Sooners have had the suicidal tendencies.

Over the last two games, OU has committed seven turnovers to the Longhorns’ two.

        

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