Steve Sarkisian admits he was glad John Mateer played, preventing ‘what if’ questions

For the second consecutive season, Texas came away with a dominant victory over No. 6 Oklahoma in the ‘Red River Rivalry’. Although it fell behind 6-0, the Longhorns outscored the Sooners 23-0 over the final two-and-a-half quarters to earn their first victory over a Power-Four program this season.

All week long, the major storyline heading into the game was regarding Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer. Mateer injured his hand in Oklahoma‘s win over Auburn on Sept. 20 and underwent surgery just days later. His status for the game was up in the air all week, but he did indeed start and play quarterback for the Sooners on Saturday.

The Texas defense caused havoc for the returning Mateer in Dallas, as he completed just 20/38 passes for 202 yards. He was held without a touchdown and tossed three interceptions (along with five sacks) in the loss. Following the win, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian admitted that he was glad Mateer played so he could avoid ‘what if’ questions.

“First of all, I’m glad the quarterback played and John Mateer is a heck of a player,” Sarkisian said. “But I didn’t want to come up and hear and answer ‘what if he would have played.’ The fact that we created three turnovers. We got five sacks. When you look at our defense, there were a lot of great playmakers today and a lot of guys did some different things.”

Texas’ defense dominated in the 23-6 win over Oklahoma

Mateer never quite got the passing game going and Texas‘ defense completely bottled up the run game. Oklahoma attempted 30 carries in the loss, but recorded just 48 yards (1.8 AVG). Sarkisian’s team has been looking for his performance all season and they got it Saturday afternoon.

“The pain level was nothing. There’s no excuse,” Mateer said postgame via SoonerScoop. “I was ready to go, physically. Mentally, I just didn’t perform. My eyes weren’t as good as they needed to be. When your quarterback doesn’t play good football, hard to win in this league. That’s what happened. Honored to play in the game and see the atmosphere. I just didn’t play good enough.”

With the win, the Longhorns now sit at 4-2 on the season. With a schedule consisting of matchups against No. 5 Texas A&M, No. 10 Georgia and No. 20 Vanderbilt remaining, a 10-2 (7-1) Texas team would have a strong case to make its third consecutive College Football Playoff appearance.

The Longhorns will look to turn their ‘Red River’ win into two wins next weekend in Lexington against Kentucky.