DALLAS, Texas — The Sooners suffered their worst loss of the season — and since 2022 — during Saturday's 34-3 loss to the Longhorns.

The offense never got going, the defense missed a bunch of tackles, and the Sooners leave Dallas with a whole lot of questions and not much in the way of answers.

As always, Pro Football Focus offers a glimpse into understanding what took place at the Cotton Bowl. Here's a look at the snap counts and grades for the Sooners, along with some takeaways:

(Editor's note: The offense played 72 snaps. The defense played 64).

QUARTERBACK

Michael Hawkins — 72 (50.1 performance grade)

RUNNING BACK

Jovantae Barnes — 43 (64.6)

Gavin Sawchuk — 25 (59.6)

Taylor Tatum — 18 (50.5)

Xavier Robinson — 2 (63.1)

WIDE RECEIVER

Brenen Thompson — 50 (60.5)

Zion Kearney — 42 (69.2)

Zion Ragins — 29 (46.8)

JJ Hester — 28 (56.4)

Ivan Carreon — 18 (61.5)

Jaquaize Pettaway — 16 (56.4)

Jacobe Johnson — 3 (58.2)

OFFENSIVE LINE

Jake Taylor — 72 (56.1)

Febechi Nwaiwu — 72 (55.8)

Jacob Sexton — 72 (50.9)

Branson Hickman — 50 (56.7)

Heath Ozaeta — 47 (56.3)

Michael Tarquin — 25 (42.3)

Troy Everett — 22 (65.2)

TIGHT ENDS

Bauer Sharp — 46 (61.7)

Jake Roberts — 40 (70.5)

DEFENSIVE TACKLE

Damonic Williams — 36 (55.9)

Jayden Jackson — 32 (69.5)

Da'Jon Terry — 27 (67.7)

Gracen Halton — 25 (67.8)

David Stone — 2 (60.7)

DEFENSIVE END

Ethan Downs — 43 (53.3)

R Mason Thomas — 28 (67.2)

Caiden Woullard — 15 (62.5)

Adepoju Adebawore — 6 (63.4)

Trace Ford — 4 (50.8)

LINEBACKER

Danny Stutsman — 61 (68.6)

Kip Lewis — 37 (68.3)

* Samuel Omosigho — 26 (55.5)

Kobie McKinzie — 21 (75.9)

Jaren Kanak — 8 (68.4)

Lewis Carter — 6 (49.7)

CORNERBACK

Eli Bowen — 57 (85.0)

Kani Walker — 37 (51.2)

*Dasan McCullough — 26 (52.0)

Dez Malone — 19 (49.1)

Jacobe Johnson — 7 (52.0)

Woodi Washington — 6 (65.0)

Makari Vickers — 4 (52.8)

Devon Jordan — 3 (61.5)

SAFETY

Billy Bowman Jr. — 64 (74.2)

Peyton Bowen — 50 (54.1)

Robert Spears-Jennings — 49 (58.1)

Michael Boganowski — 3 (64.3)

Jaydan Hardy — 2 (61.7)

1. Eli Bowen was the best player on the defense

The true freshman made his first career start, and he was fantastic.

Not only did Bowen finish with the highest-performance grade on the team. He had the highest run-defense grade (89.9) and the second-best coverage grade (79.7) while leading the Sooners in tackles (8). He also had more snaps than any OU cornerback.

The arrow had been pointing up for Bowen, who played 23 snaps against Tennessee and 29 against Auburn. It was only a matter of time before the snaps shot way up, and it was no surprise that Bowen was the only player that Brent Venables praised in his postgame press conference.

Bowen has earned a starting spot and likely the lion's share of the snaps moving forward.

2. The rotations at defensive tackle and defensive end have shrunk

The Sooners have basically committed to a four-man rotation on the interior, led by Jayden Jackson, Damonic Williams, Gracen Halton and Da'Jon Terry. David Stone has yet to play more than five snaps in a game this season, while Ashton Sanders, Davon Sears and others have been non-factors.

At defensive end, the rotation shrank significantly shorter. Ethan Downs and R Mason Thomas took the bulk of the reps. There was almost no playing time for Adepoju Adebawore, Caiden Woullard or Trace Ford. The lack of snaps for Ford was particularly noticeable considering he played 62 snaps against Tennessee and Auburn.

It makes sense for the rotations to shrink a little, but fatigue is certainly going to be something to monitor moving forward.

3. Jacobe Johnson plays both ways

After not logging a snap against Auburn, the sophomore did log his first snaps at wide receiver. He entered the game early in the second quarter and played three snaps before the offense went three-and-out and punted.

On the next drive, Johnson was out at cornerback. But he didn't play much on either side of the ball, combining for 10 snaps on offense and defense. He didn't re-enter the game on offense after that second-quarter series.

"I think he’s a really good athlete and he played both sides of the ball," OU defensive coordinator Jacobe Johnson said. "We don’t want to lose him at corner and we need him at receiver so he’s going to continue to play both and be a useful part to both of him. I felt like he played pretty good when he came out with us too. Obviously I didn’t get to see the offense so I don’t know on that side of the ball but I felt like he did pretty well."

— The number of missed tackles were alarming for the Sooners, who were credited with 15 by Pro Football Focus. Most notably, the Sooners had a tackle grade of 48.4, which is by far their lowest grade of the season.

"We’ve got to tackle better," Alley said. "It think that’s the number one thing I see is just the physicality and the way that we played. There were drives that were like three-and-out, three-and-out and then 10-play, 75 -ard touchdown drive and we missed eight tackles. We had an opportunity. Just a couple times I felt like we got a little soft on the edges. They did a good job setting edges and turning the ball back to the tacklers and then pursuing it."

— Troy Everett made his season debut, playing 22 snaps. Heath Ozaeta also played 47 snaps in relief of Michael Tarquin, who had one of his worst games of the season.

— Woodi Washington played just six snaps as his snap count continues to dwindle.

— True freshman running back Xavier Robinson made his first appearance of the season. He didn't log a carry but he did catch two passes for 12 yards.

Kalib Hicks has yet to play this season.

— The running back rotations are again all over the place. Jovantae Barnes, as expected, operated as the lead running back, but it was Gavin Sawchuk who took the snaps behind him. Taylor Tatum didn't make an appearance until the 2:21 mark of the second quarter, then he promptly fumbled after a 13-yard gain.

— Three of the seven wide receivers who logged snaps were true freshmen. Zion Kearney led the wide receivers in both receptions (4), yards (45) and performance grade (69.2).

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