Longhorns have finishing kick in holding off Sooners

Texas tight end Andrew Beck (47) wears the Golden Hat, symbolic of victory in the Red River Rivalry, as he and his teammates celebrate with their fans after the Longhorns defeated Oklahoma 48-45 before 92,000 Saturday in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

DALLAS — Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger flashed the "Hook 'Em Horns" sign to the ecstatic burnt-orange end of the stadium after his third rushing touchdown, and soon after that he threw his second scoring pass.

A year after briefly putting the Longhorns ahead late in their Red River Rivalry game against Oklahoma when he started as a freshman, Ehlinger had Texas ahead by three touchdowns going to the fourth quarter Saturday.

But Ehlinger still needed one more drive to win the game, and he delivered, orchestrating a nine-play, 52-yard drive with three completions and three quarterback runs. That set up freshman Cameron Dicker's 40-yard field goal with nine seconds left that gave 19th-ranked Texas a 48-45 victory over the No. 7 Sooners after Kyler Murray had rallied Oklahoma with three touchdowns in a sixminute span.

"The first three quarters were very impressive. But maybe that last drive was the most impressive to me because when we had really given up a lot of the energy … to let them back in," Texas coach Tom Herman said of Ehlinger. "For him to go shut the door, with his teammates, that says a lot about his grit."

Ehlinger was 24-of-35 passing for 314 yards and ran 19 times for 72 yards. He converted third-and-3 on Texas' final drive with a 4-yard keeper, and his 8-yard draw to the middle of the field set up the winning kick in the highest-scoring game in the 113-game series.

The victory gave the Longhorns (5-1, 3-0 Big 12) their first five-game winning streak since 2013. Oklahoma (5-1, 2-1) lost to the Longhorns for the third time in six seasons.

"Obviously, it's not a good feeling," Murray said. "I feel like if I didn't turn the ball over, we'd have a better shot at winning the game."

Then Murray outlined his two harmful turnovers, including a crucial fumble in the backfield in the third quarter. But after the Longhorns were up 45-24 in the fourth quarter, Murray threw a 19-yard TD pass to Lee Morris and ran 67 yards for a score on a later oneplay drive. Trey Sermon then ran 7 yards for the tying touchdown with 2:38 left.

"To get it back there in a tight game and have a great chance to win a football game says a lot about what we have in the locker room and says a lot about the culture that we have here at Oklahoma," Riley said. He called the game "one of the epic ones that people will be talking about for years and years and years."

Texas receiver Lil'Jordan Humphrey had nine catches for 133 yards and a touchdown and also threw a 2-yard TD pass to Collin Johnson. And on a 3rd-and21 in the third quarter, he carried half the population of Norman for a 19-yard feat of effort and heft that set up a fourth-and-two and, soon after, a touchdown.

"That, to me, was the play of the game," Herman said. He said the coach chatter on the headsets went like this: "That's a culture play, right there."