updated 2:55 a.m. ET Oct. 10, 2004

DALLAS - No one knows how to bring Oklahoma’s stout defense to life like Texas.

Tired of being asked if the loss of three national award winners and the dismissal of a star defensive tackle had weakened their trademark defense, the No. 2 Sooners showed up in Dallas on Saturday and once again turned into the bully that pummels its southerly neighbor once a year.

Oklahoma limited Texas’ rushing attack, which entered the game as the nation’s best at 353.5 yards per game, to 154 yards and handed the Longhorns their first shutout loss in 282 games — ending the longest active NCAA streak — in a 12-0 slugfest at the Cotton Bowl.

“I don’t think our defense has played on that edge until today,” Sooners defensive end Dan Cody said. “For whatever reason, guys were making plays. I think we looked to this as an opportunity to prove, not to anyone else, but to ourselves, that we can step up and make plays like that.”

Oklahoma had been steady, but not its usual spectacular self through the first four games. The Sooners, a team that had finished each of the past four seasons ranked in the top 10 in total defense, were keeping opponents off the scoreboard but still giving up 324.2 yards per game.

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And so the questions persisted. Would the loss of award winners Tommie Harris at defensive tackle, Teddy Lehman at linebacker and Derrick Strait at cornerback have a lingering effect? And what about letting talented defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek go? Oklahoma answered all those questions Saturday.

“We lost some key guys in certain spots and some people questioned our toughness and questioned our defense as a whole,” Oklahoma defensive end Jonathan Jackson said. “We just took it upon ourselves to come out and step up and play as a unit and play together and just make great plays as a team.”

Texas had its chances. Six times, the Longhorns had the ball in Oklahoma territory but never came up with any points. Two of the drives ended with quarterback Vince Young getting sacked out of field-goal range on third down. Two others ended with fumbles by Young and Cedric Benson.

“You can’t turn it over against OU,” Texas coach Mack Brown said. “You can’t get taken out of field-goal range and have a chance to win.”

After losing four straight to Oklahoma, Texas appeared to have its offense in order coming into the game. There was no quarterback controversy and Benson was the nation’s top rusher on the best rushing team.

But that also let Oklahoma know what it was up against.

“We knew they were going to come in and run the ball. That’s been their big thing all through the year,” Cody said. “We put a lot of emphasis on that.”

The Sooners stacked extra men at the line of scrimmage and held Benson, who had been averaging 186.5 yards through Texas’ first four games, to 92 yards on 23 carries. Oklahoma was inviting Texas to pass, but Young finished with only 86 yards on erratic 8-for-23 passing. He had 54 rushing yards on 16 carries.

“We knew coming in we had to stop the running game,” Jackson said. “They were the leading rushing team in the nation. Benson was the leading rusher in the nation. We focused on it all week, and we came out here and took care of it.”

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