The Oklahoma Sooners just pulled off a massive upset in the Red River Rivalry. The Texas Longhorns entered the Cotton Bowl at 4-0 and ranked No. 1 in the country, while Oklahoma was 2-2.

Things change fast in college football. The Sooners are now 3-2 with a win over their biggest rival. Key players made key plays in all three phases for Oklahoma. As Brent Venables said after the game, all three phases went to work. You have a special teams touchdown, a defensive touchdown, an offensive touchdown. The whole team played well. Even in a win like this, there are still things to point out. Calling someone a “loser” here isn’t meant to be derogatory. It just means their stock didn’t rise because they didn’t play well.

Sooners winners from the Red River Rivalry upset over Texas

John Mateer, QB

It wasn’t perfect, but Mateer executed on the final drive, and that matters most. He finished 18-of-26 for 155 yards, with no touchdowns or interceptions. He also ran 12 times for minus-6 yards. The stat sheet doesn’t tell the whole story, though. He didn’t make a catastrophic turnover, and he was perfect when OU needed him to be, including two big throws to Isaiah Sategna, one of them a back-shoulder ball.

Isaiah Sategna, WR

On the final two drives, Sategna was the best player on the field, and I don’t think it was close. He ended with five receptions for 64 yards and no touchdowns. However, his last two catches, one on each sideline, were about as good as it gets. Both were reviewed, but neither was in doubt. He is the Sooners’ best offensive player, and he showed up when it mattered most.

Courtland Guillory, CB

This one has some history. Early on, Oklahoma had Tristan Haynes on Texas wide receiver Cam Coleman, and Haynes gave up a touchdown. Once the Sooners moved Guillory onto Coleman, the separation disappeared. Guillory even picked off Arch Manning on a play where he blanketed Coleman. He also faced Coleman last year at Auburn and played him well, except for a few plays. This time, he was almost perfect.

Peyton Bowen, S

Does anything need to be said here? Bowen returned an interception 42 yards for a touchdown. He was also second on the team with seven tackles, six of them solo. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Lloyd Avant, RB

The Sooners didn’t have a rushing attack coming into this game. Avant changed that with 10 carries for 72 yards and a touchdown, good for 7.2 yards per carry. His 42-yard run opened the game. He made defenders miss left and right, and that’s all you can ask for behind a struggling offensive line.

Owen Heinecke, LB

Heinecke led the team with nine tackles and added two tackles for loss. He was outstanding against the run and solid in coverage at times. The linebacker unit shut down the middle of the field, and Heinecke was a big part of that. Getting him back for another year is paying off for this defense.

David Stone, DT

Stone got injured in this game, came back, and played great. Late in the game, Texas went for it on third-and-short with a run play. Stone threw the center out of the way and tackled the running back for a loss. He had only five tackles, but he controlled the interior of the Longhorns’ offensive line.

Ben Arbuckle, OC

The first half wasn’t pretty. Oklahoma opened with four straight three-and-outs. But the second half looked like a completely different offense from anything we’ve seen this year. The play-calling down the stretch was spectacular, and he deserves his flowers for it.

Dakoda Fields, DB

Fields scored the special-teams touchdown and made several other plays on the punt team, including a standout tackle. That’s how you make it onto the field in a Venables program.

Sooners losers from the win over Texas

The offensive line

The first half was terrible, especially in pass protection. Many of the unusual things we’ve seen from Mateer come from his lack of faith in the line to block for him. To be fair, this is a patchwork group with a lot of backups playing. But it has to be better. Getting healthy would help a lot.

The tight end room

Rocky Beers didn’t show up much and had a drop. Hayden Hansen was flagged for holding and struggled when helping against Colin Simmons. Nobody shuts down Simmons, so that isn’t all on Hansen. Still, Oklahoma paid a lot for these two tight ends in the transfer portal, and you would have liked to see more. Some of it was game script, and some of it was just bad play.

Everybody else walks away a winner. The Sooners leave Dallas with much more respect in the SEC after beating a No. 1-ranked Texas team for the first time ever. They had never done it before. Now they have.