Freshman cornerback offers lone bright spot in Oklahoma Sooners blowout loss to Texas Longhorns

It was a pretty brutal day for the Oklahoma Sooners in a dismal showing against the Texas Longhorns, but there were a few bright spots to take away from that game.

Oklahoma's defensive line handled Texas's offensive line for most of the game, harassing Quinn Ewers repeatedly and blowing up multiple plays.

However, the brightest spot for the future of the Sooners was the play of freshman cornerback Eli Bowen.

Bowen, the younger brother of Sooners star Peyton Bowen, earned his first start against Texas after some strong performances against Tennessee and Auburn .

Boy did he deliver.

Bowen just didn't leave the field, playing 57 snaps in the entire game and virtually shut down his side of the field.

Across the entire game, Bowen was targeted five times, allowing three catches for just eight yards. Bowen forced two incompletions and didn't allow any touchdowns or first downs in coverage. The longest play he gave up was a total of six yards.

He also made several plays in the run game. Bowen led the team in tackles with nine and made six total run stops, which also led the team.

After the game, head coach Brent Venables made it a point to specifically name Bowen as a bright spot of the team.

Moving forward, I wouldn't expect Bowen to leave the starting lineup. The Sooners have plenty of options at the other cornerback spot, but haven't had consistent play from anyone there.

I wouldn't be surprised if Jacobe Johnson earns that job as time goes on when he moves back to cornerback as the receivers get healthier.

For the Sooners, there are plenty of lessons to learn after getting blown out by Texas in this one. On the bright side, they learned they have a key star in the secondary to build around moving forward.