DALLAS -- Chuck Long's debut as Oklahoma's offensive coordinator didn't exactly get off to a rollicking start.

The 10th-ranked Sooners netted 231 yards and just 10 points against Arkansas, but that was enough in a 10-3 Cotton Bowl victory Tuesday.

Long, promoted to offensive coordinator in December after Mark Mangino left to become head coach at Kansas, saw the Sooners drive 63 yards for a touchdown on their second possession. But they didn't get to the end zone after that.

"It's a starting point," Long said. "It keeps you hungry as a coach going into the offseason. But first and foremost we won the game."

The Oklahoma defense gets a big assist for that. Arkansas managed only 50 yards on 55 plays, and the Sooners matched a team record with nine sacks.

"That good field position the defense created for us in the second half, we have to punch those in," Long said. "We have to do better than what we did."

The Sooners (11-2) drove for a field goal on their first possession after halftime. The drive started at the 20-yard line and included a 36-yard completion from Nate Hybl to Josh Norman on a third-and-14 play. But it ended at the 15 when Hybl threw too high in the end zone for tight end Trent Smith, who was open in the back corner.

Hybl wound up 24 of 32 for 175 yards. He was sacked four times, but didn't throw any interceptions, and said he generally was pleased with his performance.

"I'm trying to ask myself why didn't we score any, because it seemed like we were doing things," he said. "There were times we struggled, but I thought we did pretty well offensively. We just struggled getting the ball in the end zone."

One question going into the game was whether Oklahoma's offense would differ much from when Mangino was in charge. The answer is that it did not. The Sooners used the I-formation a few times, and placed Smith in closer to the tackle instead of split out wide. Otherwise, it looked the same.

"We didn't want to do any drastic changes," Long said. "We have a great base offense. It's been productive in the past. It's won 24 games for us the past couple of years, and we just need to improve upon that."

Hybl has been the target of criticism since the final game of the regular season, when he threw three interceptions and Oklahoma lost 16-13 to Oklahoma State. That game cost the Sooners the Big 12 South title and ended their hopes of repeating as national champions.

Hybl contributed to some of the sacks Tuesday by holding the ball too long, and he missed some. But most of his throws were on the mark.

In the touchdown drive, he had third-down completions of 10 and 18 yards to keep the drive going, then threw a 4-yard completion to Smith on a fourth-and-1 bootleg.

"We had a more conservative game plan than we've been having because we felt that strong about our defense," coach Bob Stoops said. "We would have liked more points, but Nate was still very solid, a very good game. The yardage is what people will try to be critical of, but we didn't have bad plays."

The majority of Oklahoma's nine penalties were against the offense, which contributed to long-yardage situations on second and third downs. The Sooners also lost one fumble.

"We're a little dissatisfied. We wanted to put up a lot more yardage," Hybl said. "But it's over now, so we'll learn from it."