By John Shinn
Oklahoma waited the entire regular season for a dominant performance. Saturday, in their regular-season finale against Bedlam rival Oklahoma State, the Sooners got it.
OU’s defense dominated from the start and running back Adrian Peterson rushed for 237 yards in a 42-14 rout of Oklahoma State at Owen Field.
“We wanted to finish strong,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “We came out and really played well.”
How well?
Oklahoma State only had 139 yards of total offense and four first downs. Much of it came on a falling-down 56-yard pass-and-run completion in the second quarter. Take it away and the Cowboys averaged 1.43 yards per play.
“Basically, they outplayed us in every segment of the game,” Oklahoma State offensive tackle Charlie Johnson said. “Not only up front but offensively they pounded us, defensively they shut us down, and they shut down special teams.”
The Sooners, who finished the regular season 7-4 and 6-2 in the Big 12, rolled up a season-high 560 yards with a season-high 354 coming on the ground.
Rhett Bomar completed 13-of-21 passes for 206 yards with three going for touchdowns.
“I felt comfortable out there from the very start,” Bomar said. “The line was giving me great protection. I wasn't getting hit at all. That makes my job a lot easier when I just have to drop back and scan the field to find second and third receivers.”
He wasn’t sacked and the Cowboys were not even credited with a quarterback hurry.
Bomar connected on six of his first eight attempts and paced the Sooners to a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter.
Allen Patrick ripped a 27-yard touchdown run on the Sooners’ first possession and Bomar added a 12-yard touchdown toss to Juaquin Iglesias and a 26-yarder to tight end Bubba Moses to start the romp.
Oklahoma State, which finished the season 4-7 and 1-7 in the conference, spun its offensive tires throughout the first half.
In the first quarter, 12 plays yielded 12 yards.
But Alex Pena, who threw for 126 yards and completed 10-of-27 attempts, scrambled out of the pocket and hit Luke Frazier for a 56-yard completion to the OU 4. Four plays later, Julius Crosslin scored on 1-yard plunge to make it 21-7.
That was it for the Cowboys early.
“They were incredible the entire first half outside that last play off the scramble by Pena,” Stoops said. “We were almost as perfect as can be. Even in the second half it was very good. We tackled well and our coverage was excellent.”
The Sooner defense wasn’t needed after the half.
Peterson only rushed for 27 yards in the first half, but ripped off 210 after the break. His second-half total was the most ever by a Sooner in a half and ran his season total to 1,024.
“There’s not enough words to describe the guy,” OU offensive tackle Davin Joseph said. “When he gets hot, he gets hot. In that fourth quarter, he got hot.”
After scoring their third touchdown, the Sooners were only able to pick up three first downs in their next seven possessions.
That ended when Peterson burst through the right side of the Sooner offensive line and outran the Cowboy secondary for an 84-yard touchdown late in the third quarter.
Oklahoma State picked up a 2-yard score from Crosslin early in the fourth quarter to make it 28-14, but couldn’t stop OU from hitting plays.
OU lifted the lead back to three touchdowns 17 seconds later on Peterson’s 71-yard sprint.
“He is amazing,” Stoops said. “He makes great cuts and has incredible acceleration and bursts. He has great power and will pick up 6 or 8 yards on a run when somebody else would only pick up 1 or 3. It’s fun watching him.”
Unless you’re wearing orange.
“We were making headway until he took the game over,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said.
Bomar added a 55-yard touchdown pass to Manuel Johnson with 6:41 left to complete the scoring.
The Sooners will now wait for a bowl invitation.
Bowl bids will be announced Dec. 4 and most believe OU will end up in the Holiday Bowl or the Alamo Bowl. Whatever the destination, the Sooners will bring lots of confidence.
“We really found our rhythm,” fullback J.D. Runnels said. “I don’t know if it was us just wearing them down, but I know it felt like the old OU. It felt really good.”
John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com
