​DALLAS — Tate Sandell walked it off, drilling a 47-yard field goal worthy of the Golden Hat. OU topped No. 1 Texas 27-24 on Saturday at the Cotton Bowl, reclaiming supremacy in a rivalry that Texas had thus far owned in the Brent Venables/Steve Sarkisian era.Let’s get to the grades: More: Why Brent Venables showed OU football players ‘Superman’ play before Sooners face TexasJohn Mateer: A-The Sooner quarterback played his best game of the season.Now, the bar wasn’t all that high considering Mateer’s struggles in the first month of the season, but he avoided his biggest buggaboo: turnovers.He fumbled on the first possession of the game, and even though the Sooners recovered the ball, it was easy to wonder if that was a sign of things to come for the turnover-prone Mateer.But he didn’t put the ball on the ground again.And he didn’t throw any highly interceptable passes either.He played turnover-free football, which was huge. Mateer threw for 155 yards on 18-of-26 passing, and while he didn’t run it all that well even if you take away his sacked yards — 13 rushing yards on nine carries, sans the sacks — he had some tough yards when they were needed.But again, not having any turnovers was the best part of Mateer’s day. While Texas quarterback Arch Manning had two, and both resulted in OU points, Mateer held onto the ball.— Jenni CarlsonLloyd Avant: A Given the state of OU’s run game — and all-around offensive woes — Lloyd Avant’s 72 rushing yards felt massive. His 42-yard run early in the third quarter was OU’s longest play of the day and longest rush of the season. There wasn’t much going outside of that. OU’s other two backs, Tory Blaylock and Jonathan Hatton Jr., combined for 19 yards on seven carries. Avant, a Colorado State transfer from just outside of Houston in Humble, Texas, showed out in his home state. — Joe MussattoMore: Brent Venables faces a defining moment as OU football coach vs Texas | MussattoRun defense: ATexas looked to have a huge advantage in the run game, both because of its running backs and because of its run defense.But the OU run defense was spectacular.The Sooners allowed the Longhorns only 122 yards on 32 carries, an average of 3.8 yards a carry. And the OU run defense was so stingy that it forced Texas to the air late in the game — and that’s when Manning made his fatal mistakes, a pair of interceptions.No Texas tailback had more than 41 yards, and their longest run was 16 yards.The Longhorns had no rushing touchdowns either.— Jenni CarlsonTrystan Haynes: B  Trystan Haynes didn’t even play at Michigan, and here he was in the Cotton Bowl making his first-career start. The former Carl Albert star got the nod in place of Eli Bowen, who suffered an injury during the bye week and didn’t play Saturday after being listed as a game-time decision. The sophomore Haynes, appearing in only his fifth career game, had one of the toughest matchups possible opposite Texas