Oklahoma was looking for real improvement Saturday. Through the first half it was still looking. But when it came into view in the second half, the 15th-ranked Sooners finally looked like a squad capable of contending for a Big 12 title.

Paul Thompson threw a pair of touchdowns to Malcolm Kelly and Adrian Peterson piled on 165 yards and two more scores in OU’s 37-20 victory over Washington at Owen Field.

It was a breakout performance for the Sooner offense.

Thompson threw for 272 yards and was 21-for-33. Six of those tosses went to Kelly, who set a career high with 121 receiving yards.

“It definitely feels good to get out there and show everybody that we’re all right, we’re fine,” Thompson said. “I think that the people scared were people on the outside of this team. Everyone within this organization felt real comfortable about where we were at.”

But they didn’t feel that way until the second half.

OU allowed Kenny James to rumble for 54 yards and a touchdown on Washington’s first play from scrimmage and Michael Braunstein added field goals of 32 and 24 yards to keep the Huskies on top for most of the first half.

It took a huge special teams plays to keep OU from falling into a huge hole.

Reggie Smith returned a punt 62 yards to set up Kelly’s first touchdown grab and Garrett Hartley added a 44-yard field goal and a 37-yard boot with less than a minute to play in the first half to tie it at 13-13.

But unlike last week’s 24-17 victory over Alabama-Birmingham, OU exploded after intermission.

Thompson hit Kelly for a 35-yard touchdown on OU’s first second-half drive and the defensive miscues that plagued the Sooners in the first half were gone.

“We did make some adjustments at halftime and when we came out everyone felt more comfortable,” Thompson said. “We had a good opening drive and kind of tilted the game our way.”

It did in a big way. The Sooners rolled off 24 unanswered points to bury the Huskies and improve to 2-0.

“I am pleased with the good win and very pleased with the play for the most part,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “The guys really played well the second half.”

After being scorched for 175 yards in the first half, the Sooner defense got stingy. It limited the Huskies to three first downs on their first five drives after the half.

The Sooners kept Washington quarterback Isaiah Stanback in check, holding him to 9-of-22 passing for 139 yards.

What damage the Huskies did came on the ground. Louis Rankin rushed for 112 yards and James and Stanback combined for 87 more.

“We felt good going into the second half,” Washington coach Tyrone Willingham said. “We just didn’t execute against the pressure well from an offensive standpoint and from a defensive standpoint.”

OU led 23-13 thanks to a Hartley field goal midway through the third quarter. But it gave the Huskies a golden opportunity to get back in the game.

With 3 minutes left in third quarter, Thompson was hit in the end zone by Chris Stevens and the Huskies’ Scott White pounced on the ball at the Sooner 4.

Any points would have made it a one-possession game. Instead, OU’s Zach Latimer stripped Stanback on the next play and Demarrio Pleasant recovered the ball.

“That was huge,” Willingham said. “When you have an opportunity to be three points down and you’re first and goal, that’s one of those situations that you have to cash in on that. But they did exactly what a good football team does.”

The Sooners followed it up with a 6-play, 92-yard drive capped by Peterson’s 17-yard touchdown. He added a 1-yard plunge with less than three minutes remaining to put the game away.

“We had to put some points on the board and make some big plays,” he said. “We had to run it down their throats.”

Washington didn’t have a reply until backup quarterback Carl Bonnell engineered a 6-play, 63-yard drive late in the fourth quarter.

The final drive irked Stoops, but not enough to steal all the pleasure from a convincing victory. OU will head into next Saturday’s showdown with No. 20 Oregon knowing it can be a very good football team and trying to be one for 60 minutes.

“It’s a good win,” Stoops said. “It puts us the position to go to work. We know we can play better. It’s frustrating — we know we’re close, but there is so much more potential on this team and ability to play better, so it’s frustrating when you don’t. We’ll keep working towards it.”

John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com