Clay Horning
I t was like waiting for the other shoe to drop Saturday night at Owen Field. Sooner or later, the game had to break. Which way was the only question.
For a moment, Texas Tech appeared poised to pull away. Antonio Huffman stepped in front of a pass intended for Manuel Johnson and returned it 54 yards and the Red Raiders led by two touchdowns 1:43 before the half.
But the lead would not hold.
After the half, it was going a different way.
Less than 3 minutes into the fourth quarter, the Sooners grabbed the lead. Certainly there was more where that came from. But the scoreboard would not change. On the clock, it was only 10:30, and yet It seemed like the score was 27-24 Sooners for hours.
Finally, facing third-and-goal at the 2, Chris Brown — who the heck is Chris Brown? — put OU over the top. His second touchdown of the game capped an 84-yard night achieved in limited action. So if you’re looking for a story, Brown’s not a bad way to go. The headline’s easy.
What can Brown do for OU?
But don’t forget the Sooner defense, which gave up 281 yards, but just 107 of them after the half while pitching a shutout after the half. Tech’s offense scored 17 points before the half and that was it, even getting three turnovers beyond the pick Huffman ran back.
So that’s another good one.
Between them, it might be enough.
Chris Brown coming out of nowhere to run for 84 yards and two touchdowns and a defense that stepped up against an offense that scares the hell out of everybody.
Nothing wrong with that, because Brown had a nice game and the defense came through. It just wasn’t the story.
Lost in the middle of the Sooners’ fifth straight win and their third against quality opposition was the biggest reason OU won this game.
Nearly forgotten by the offense since attempting 26 passes against Colorado back on Oct. 21 was Sooner quarterback Paul Thompson, who, even kind of quietly, played the biggest and best game of his life, throwing for a pair of scores and a career best 309 yards, completing 24 of 31 along the way on his last chance at Owen Field after winning the Don Key Award earlier in the day.
There’s the story.
Heck, there’s the storybook.
Thompson might have been lost without Malcolm Kelly, but he still had to throw the passes in the neighborhood.
More, he played the game of his life after making one of the worst decisions of his life, throwing short to Johnson, allowing Huffman to take it the distance.
“We had that mindset,” Thompson said. “We were down 14 and we just said, let’s go get a touchdown.”
So, just 1:33 after Huffman’s pick and only 10 seconds before the half, Thompson hit Kelly in perfect stride down the left sideline from 40 yards away.
“When I let it go, it felt good,” Thompson said.
And after being stuck on that three-point lead for what seemed like forever, Thompson led the Sooners down the field on the drive of the season, hitting Juaquin Iglesias once, Kelly three times and Dane Zaslaw — Dane Zaslaw! — once, without an incompletion for 63 yards of a 14-play, 80-yard march that chewed 6:57 off the clock and handed the ball over to the Red Raiders needing 10 points to tie with only 2:21 to play.
Asked about his quarterback’s performance, Stoops tried to deflect credit to the rest of the team only because he didn’t like the question. He didn’t want to say Thompson had never quite played this well.
Later, Stoops admitted this was one time the pressure fell squarely on Thompson’s shoulders.
“He shouldered it and handled it in a great way.”
Thompson may not have known it.
He said he did, but moved right on to everybody knowing the passing game had to get going again. So who really knows if he really understands how so much of Saturday night was on him.
He just made it happen.
Clay Horning366-3526cfhorning@normantranscript.com
