BERRY TRAMEL

Berry Tramel: Longhorns had trouble tackling CeeDee Lamb

Berry Tramel

The 2018 OU-Texas game was notable for the Sooners’ inability to tackle UT receiver Lil’ Jordan Humphrey. The Longhorns won 48-45. The 2019 OU-Texas game was notable for the ‘Horns’ inability to tackle OU receiver CeeDee Lamb. The Sooners won 34-27.

Lamb scored three touchdowns, two of them by running away from or through a pack of defenders. Five Longhorns surrounded Lamb on what became his second touchdown; three surrounded Lamb on what became his third TD.

“We have definitely already addressed the tackling,” Texas coach Tom Herman said Monday on the Big 12 teleconference. Herman said UT didn’t work out in pads Sunday but still went through tackling drills, and he said Texas will “tackle live tomorrow. It was obviously really bad and we got exposed by some really good athletes, but we’ve got some good athletes ourselves that we need to teach how to tackle better.”

The Longhorns are 4-2, having also lost to LSU, and Herman said, “We’re extremely close. We’ve lost two games to two top-five teams and each of those was seven-point games. When you’re playing really good people, really good teams like Oklahoma, the details and tiny minute’ things really matter and become magnified. We’re learning that. We understand it. Now it’s a matter of putting that understanding into execution.”

Oklahoma's CeeDee Lamb (2) runs after a catch as Texas linebacker Joseph Ossai (46) chases him in the second quarter during the Red River Showdown college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the Texas Longhorns (UT) at Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. OU won 34-27. [Sarah Phipps/The Oklahoman]