A career day from a young quarterback, big plays by the wide receivers and a surprisingly good performance by the offensive line. Those aspects of the Texas offense highlighted a performance good enough to win in Saturday's Red River Showdown loss to Oklahoma.

The Texas offense scored 26 points against Oklahoma, the most that unit has scored since the 31 it put up in the season opener against North Texas. Â© USA TODAY Sports Images

Quarterback

Tyrone Swoopes appeared to grow up during this game. As the game wore on, he actually improved instead of regressed. The Horns also seemed to find a go-to running play against the Sooners, maximizing Swoopes' downhill running ability with the inside zone read.

To be clear, Swoopes still has a lot of work to do but he showed signs of improvement yet again. I really liked the way he began to step up into the pocket to create his own throwing lanes and give himself a split-second more to make a decision with the ball.

Think about it this way: I think Swoopes played better than his OU counterpart.

Grade: B

Running Backs

Johnathan Gray and Malcolm Brown both maximized yardage as well as they've done all year. And they also picked up the blitz extremely well, which against the Sooners is always a tall order.

But they still haven't hit the big play. Sure, part of that is on the offensive line, but big-time running backs tend to make at least a couple of off-schedule plays a game regardless of the situation around them.

Grade: C+

Wide Receivers

Outside of two drops – one big one by Marcus Johnson – the group is playing better than any unit on the offense. John Harris and Jaxon Shipley are as reliable as it gets and are making big plays, especially Harris who had two touchdown catches and a couple of big third-down conversions.

Johnson must still pick his game up and the young receivers need to learn to come back to the ball better. Dorian Leonard saw his first extended action and performed reasonably well.

Grade: B-

Tight Ends

The group was confined to blocking most of the day because of the Horns' awareness of Sooner sack specialist Eric Striker. And they performed reasonably well. M.J. McFarland still whiffs on a block here or there, but he is improving.

Grade: C+

Offensive Line

The move of Taylor Doyle to center over Jake Raulerson paid large dividends. Doyle's size really helped negate the Sooners' interior from disrupting too many plays in the backfield, especially in pass rush situations.

Outside of the comedy of errors on the first two possessions, which included five penalties on the offensive line, the starting five performed well enough to win. Not great, not dominating but good enough.

Grade: C+

Offense Overall

The Horns had a solid game plan and decent execution. But a few plays cost them. The fumbled snap in the red zone. The pick six. The drop by Johnson. The hold against John Harris.

Texas scored 26 against the Sooners. Not bad. But just not quite good enough, because the Horns didn't score enough touchdowns even though they controlled the clock for most of the contest.

Grade: C+