John Shinn
For about three hours Saturday, Oklahoma appeared to leave all its problems behind against Iowa State.
Its maligned defense was back in dominant form, while quarterback Paul Thompson was firing strikes all over Owen Field. Even the Sooners’ only constant — running back Adrian Peterson — wasn’t having any problems finding room to run.
It amounted to a convincing 34-9 victory over the Cyclones and one the 23rd-ranked Sooners should have been able to relish.
They improved to 4-2 overall and 1-1 in the Big 12 Conference. The penalties and turnovers that plagued them the previous week were nearly non-existent.
OU didn’t have a turnover and committed only three penalties.
But there was little to celebrate Saturday afternoon. The announcement Peterson had broken his collarbone and would miss, at minimum, the rest of the regular season, hung over OU like a storm cloud Saturday afternoon.
“It’s a huge loss for the team,” wide receiver Malcolm Kelly said after catching two touchdown passes.
Winning seemed to be far from OU’s mind.
But that’s what they did against the Cyclones (3-4, 0-3).
Peterson rushed for 183 yards and capped his day with a 53-yard touchdown run to seal the win. Thompson threw for 195 yards and was 16-for-27. He was a Jason White-like 14-for-17 in the first half.
The Sooner defense dominated throughout, holding the Cyclones to 238 yards and harassing quarterback Bret Meyer into two interceptions.
“When you play as hard as we have, good things are going to happen,” OU defensive tackle Carl Pendleton said. “We have been close all season, and we saw improvement today.”
Meyer threw for 149 yards, but was also sacked three times.
A lot of his yards came on one first-quarter drive. He hit Austin Flynn for 37 yards and found Todd Blythe for a 31-yard touchdown late in first quarter.
Other than that one possession, OU dominated on both sides of the ball.
“There were a lot of plays that they were just physically better then we were,” Iowa State coach Dan McCarney said.
Peterson rushed for 183 yards and ripped off a 40-yard run on his first carry. Two plays later he carried it in from 6 yards to give the Sooners a 7-0 lead.
It was the first of three first-half touchdowns for OU.
Thompson hit Kelly for a 9-yard strike with 5:08 left in the first quarter. The two hooked up again in the half’s final minute to culminate a perfect two-minute drill and give the Sooners a 24-7 halftime lead.
“I thought that in the first half we were excellent in everything that we were doing,” OU coach Bob Stoops said.
OU’s passing game slowed to a standstill in the second half. Thompson only had two completions.
Peterson and the defense took care of the rest.
Playing in a college game with his father in the stands for the first time, the junior racked up 122 yards in the second half with the final yards coming a 53-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter.
Iowa State had only 71 yards of offense after the intermission. Its only points came when Thompson and Peterson botched a hand-off in the end zone, resulting in a safety.
“We came out there in the second half and clicked,” OU safety Reggie Smith said. “Everyone was playing hard, running to the ball and making plays. It makes it easier on all of us. When the d-line and d-ends are getting pressure, the quarterback has to lock on to a receiver, run out of bounds, or throw the ball away. It goes both ways. When we have good coverage, it allows them time to get to the quarterback. It goes hand-in-hand.”
The big plays that had been missing from OU’s defensive repertoire also returned.
Rufus Alexander intercepted a pass that led to Garrett Hartley’s 35-yard field goal late in the third quarter.
After Peterson’s touchdown run, safety Darien Williams swiped another pass to put the final stamp on the performance.
It was breakout performance for Williams. Besides the interception, he had nine tackles, including two sacks.
“This was one of my best games, but I can still get better,” Williams said.
Stoops was thinking the same thing about the Sooners in general. They may have won their first conference game, but the coach was concerned about what was missing.
“I feel we are capable of more and I want to see it,” Stoops said. “As a coach you are pleased to win, and don’t get me wrong, the guys felt good in there. They understand the good things, but there is just some frustration in there. I don’t like it when we give things or when we do some things that we can control and be better at. We have got to keep trying to be better at it.”
Of course that was before the severity of Peterson’s injury was confirmed.
And winning seemed to take a back seat to what OU had lost.
John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com
