Clay Horning
C OLLEGE STATION, Texas — Well, it looked like it was going to be a rout. But it was no rout. And for a while there, it looked like the Sooners might even lose.
On the other hand, after the officials did them in at Eugene and the Longhorns did them in at the Cotton Bowl and the unforgiving natural turf of Owen Field’s north end zone did in Adrian Peterson’s collarbone in three weeks ago, you’ve really got to hand it to Oklahoma.
The Sooners won by a point. It was plenty.
Because it’s always something with this team.
It used to be a bad thing. Not anymore.
Paul Thompson was efficient against UAB and much better against Washington, but the Sooner defense sure was suspect. Everything was terrific at Oregon … when the secondary wasn’t giving it up. Defense came around at Texas but the offense imploded.
But ever since …
By all accounts, Texas is the Big 12’s best team. If not quite head and shoulders above everybody else, the Longhorns are still looking down at their nearest pursuer. But the conference’s two best stories?
Well, not very long ago, the best one was Missouri and the next best, just maybe, might have been Texas A&M.; Sure, the Aggies should have lost to Army, but they didn’t. Pretty much, all they’ve done is win.
Maybe Dennis Franchione’s going to work out after all.
But knowing how to win just isn’t good enough against the Sooners these days. No championship to play for, no Adrian Peterson in the backfield, a springtime wide receiver running the offense and, still, look at OU go.
In back-to-back weeks, the conference’s two biggest stories have both gone kaput, even on their home fields. First Mizzou and now the Aggies. Guess that makes the Sooners the best story in the conference.
OU’s 17-16 victory was workmanlike, but no less impressive.
A&M; was given two fantastic chances. One in the third quarter and one in the fourth when fumbles from Patrick and then Thompson gave the Aggies the ball inside Sooner territory. But that was just in time for the Sooner defense to offer its finest hour of the season. In the space of six plays from scrimmage, A&M; went back 31 yards.
Then, just as OU’s defense caught fire, the offense went in the tank. So the Sooners had to come up with two more huge fourth-quarter stops.
Finally, at the very end, Bob Stoops showed everybody, for the first time in a while maybe, why he has to be so much fun to play for and so much easier to root for than a coach like, say … Franchione.
The Aggies made it a one-point game on the strength of two fourth-quarter field goals from Layne Neumann and each time you could feel some of the life sucked out of Kyle Field. The first time around, Franchione went for three points from the 2-yard line with 7:41 to play. The second time around, it was fourth-and-6 from the 22 with 3:28 to play.
Both times, the A&M; coach chose to put the game in Sooner rather than Aggie hands. Both times, a touchdown would have tied it, but Franchione didn’t have the nerve.
With 1:29 to play, the shoe was on the other foot. OU faced fourth-and-inches at its own 29. Officially, irony of ironies, at the home of the 12th man, A&M; handed OU its first down for having too many men on the field. Unofficially, it was a different story.
Even after his defense had stepped up time and again, Stoops refused to give the ball away. And even after Thompson was stopped at the line of scrimmage, he bounced back and left to give it another go. He picked up 2 yards. Flag aside, Stoops’ confidence and Thompson’s resilience put the game away.
It’s always something with this team.
Lately, that’s a very good thing.
Clay Horning
366-3526
cfhorning@normantranscript.com
