{"id":289296,"date":"2025-10-09T13:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T13:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/289296\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T13:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T13:10:10","slug":"can-the-sooners-beat-the-longhorns-without-john-mateer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/289296\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the Sooners beat the Longhorns without John Mateer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Red River Rivalry<\/a> is returning for its annual bout at the Cotton Bowl. <\/p>\n

No. 6 Oklahoma<\/a> (5-0) takes on Texas<\/a> (3-2) in the 121st iteration of the Red River Rivalry on Saturday. <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s matchup brings a few intriguing storylines. Will Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer make an early return from hand surgery<\/a>? How will Texas bounce back from an upset loss against Florida<\/a>? How will Arch Manning<\/a> fare in his first Red River start? <\/p>\n

All of those questions will be answered on the field Saturday. For now, columnists, writers and editors from The Dallas Morning News make their picks for this weekend\u2019s game. See their predictions below.<\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

Get the latest D-FW sports news, analysis and opinion delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte.<\/p>\n

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Lia Assimakopoulos, college sports insider<\/p>\n

Is Arch Manning better than an injured John Mateer or a healthy Michael Hawkins? Saturday will tell, but the results so far don\u2019t say so. The Sooners would get a big boost if Mateer can play, but it shouldn\u2019t matter in the end. Texas\u2019 College Football Playoff hopes may come to an end at the Cotton Bowl. Oklahoma 24, Texas 17<\/b><\/p>\n

Tim Cowlishaw, columnist<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got John Mateer trying to play hurt and Arch Manning just trying to play well. Either way, this is nothing like the missing QB and receiver issues Venables had to deal with before in this game, and Oklahoma has clearly been the superior team through five weeks. Sooners, 27, Longhorns 19<\/b><\/p>\n

R.J. Coyle, trending sports producer<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just not a great time for Arch Manning and the Longhorns to be stepping into the Cotton Bowl. Manning appeared to lose his confidence again at The Swamp after briefly regaining it vs. Sam Houston, and Oklahoma\u2019s defense \u2014 which has compiled 14 sacks in its past two games \u2014 won\u2019t make things any easier on him. The last two blowouts in this series (2024 and 2022) have gone the way of the Longhorns. The Sooners get theirs on Saturday. Oklahoma 48, Texas 23<\/b><\/p>\n

Selby Lopez, college sports editor<\/p>\n

Even without John Mateer, Texas will need a superb outing from its defense to come away with a win. The same Texas defense that allowed a struggling Florida offense to score 27 points. Between that and the well-documented struggles for Arch Manning and the Texas offense, it\u2019s hard to see the Longhorns pulling this one out. Oklahoma 21, Texas 13<\/b><\/p>\n

Shawn McFarland, sports reporter<\/p>\n

The Longhorns haven\u2019t fielded a cohesive offense against either of the two power conference games that they\u2019ve played. The Sooners may or may not have their star quarterback available or at full health. The defenses on each end are strong but Texas has a slight edge. That\u2019ll decide this. Texas 24, Oklahoma 21. <\/b><\/p>\n

Emma Moon, sports intern<\/p>\n

While Texas has not had a statement win this season, the Longhorns\u2019 defense should be enough to push them past an Oklahoma team likely without quarterback John Mateer. Texas has allowed seven touchdowns this season and is only giving up 12 points per game. Texas\u2019 defense will need to continue this performance if the Longhorns want their first signature win of the year. Texas 23, Oklahoma 20<\/b><\/p>\n

Kevin Sherrington, columnist<\/p>\n

Steve Sarkisian plans for John Mateer to start at quarterback, and if he\u2019s right, it\u2019s bad news for Texas. If Mateer were available, the line would be double digits. Mateer\u2019s almost certainly out, and there\u2019s still no good news for the Longhorns. Oklahoma 24, Texas 20<\/b><\/p>\n

Brad Townsend, sports enterprise reporter<\/p>\n

Thought this might be a 10-7 game until seeing Florida consistently gouge Texas\u2019 defensive front. If Mateer plays and is anywhere close to full strength, OU wins by double-digits. Oklahoma 21, Texas 16<\/b><\/p>\n

Find more Oklahoma coverage from <\/b>The Dallas Morning News<\/b> here<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Find more Texas coverage from <\/b>The Dallas Morning News<\/b> here<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Red River Rivalry is returning for its annual bout at the Cotton Bowl. No. 6 Oklahoma (5-0)…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":289297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[23603,10857,1318,48425,1317,1315,1316,21286,62,9662,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-289296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-arch-manning","9":"tag-colleges","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-john-mateer","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football","14":"tag-ncaafootball","15":"tag-oklahoma-sooners","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-texas-longhorns","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115344377395937687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}