Oklahoma was almost out of running backs and almost out of luck Saturday night. The running game that pounded Iowa State, Colorado, Missouri and Texas A&M; into submission ground to a near standstill with Adrian Peterson and Allen Patrick out with injuries.

The Sooners, however, kept chugging along with a 34-24 victory over Texas Tech at Owen Field.

Quarterback Paul Thompson made his final game at Owen Field a memorable one, throwing for a career-high 309 yards and two touchdowns.

“I felt pretty calm the entire game, even in the second half,” Thompson said. “I don’t know what it was. Sometimes I just get like that.”

The mode he was in was near perfection. He went 24-for-31 and conducted the offense like a symphony.

After falling behind 24-10 late in the second quarter, the Sooners rolled off 24 unanswered points to improve to 8-2 overall and 5-1 in the Big 12.

The fact the 17th-ranked Sooners won wasn’t surprising.

How they did it was.

The performance came one week after Thompson was just 3-for-12 for 39 yards at Texas A&M.;

“Last week was an anomaly,” OU coach Bob Stoops. “Paul can throw the ball, we can catch the ball and we can protect the quarterback. We wanted to make sure this week we had the balance we’ve had in the past.

“And we showed it.”

Malcolm Kelly was the biggest beneficiary. He pulled in 11 passes for 153 yards. He voiced some displeasure after the Texas A&M; game. But he seemed pretty content Saturday.

“After I caught that first one, I felt like, ‘Let’s go get this,’” Kelly said.

It took the Sooners a while to get to that point though. They turned the ball over four times and the Red Raiders (6-5, 3-4 Big 12) turned them into 21 points.

Jacob Gutierrez, who made his first start of the season at running back, fumbled midway through the first quarter to set up Graham Harrell’s 30-yard strike to Robert Johnson.

The touchdown gave Texas Tech a 7-3 lead and started what turned into a shootout.

“The game was wild — back and forth — and that’s just how it was,” Texas Tech coach Mike Leach said. “Two good teams played tonight.”

Thompson hit Manuel Johnson for a 32-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter to give the Sooners the lead.

It didn’t last long.

Alex Trlica hit a 32-yard field goal to tie it 10-10 and more turnovers threatened to ruin the Sooners’ night.

Manuel Johnson fumbled the ensuing kickoff, setting up Robert Johnson’s 6-yard touchdown catch and Antonio Huffman swiped a Thompson pass and returned it 54 yards to give the Red Raiders a 14-point lead with 1:43 left in the first half.

The mistakes looked like a knockout blow on a night Top 25 teams were being bludgeoned all over the country.

But the Sooners got off the canvas quickly.

Thompson hit Kelly for a 40-yard touchdown with 10 seconds left in the half.

“(Thompson) put that ball on the money and I ran right up under it,” Kelly said. “It was right before the half and we needed it.”

OU rode the momentum the rest of the way.

The Red Raiders entered the game No. 6 in total offense, averaging 457.1 yards a game. But they were held to a season-low 281.

“At the half, we felt like we (the defense) were at fault for the score deficit,” defensive end Calvin Thibodeaux said. “We didn’t execute in the first half. We made some moves to the inside to get them out of their comfort zone. We were trying to do anything we could to get their quarterback out of his comfort zone.”

Harrell was 26-for-48 for 250 yards, but only 98 came after intermission.

Garrett Hartley knocked in a 23-yard field goal to cut the gap to 24-20 late in the third quarter and the final period belonged to the Sooners.

Freshman Chris Brown, who was scheduled to redshirt until Peterson suffered his injury four weeks ago, rushed for 84 yards and did most of the damage in the fourth quarter. He gave the Sooners the lead with 40-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter and sealed the win with a 2-yard tote with 2:21 left.

“Coach just teaches everyone to be ready to play at any time, and I was ready tonight,” Brown said.

And with a little help, OU is in position to make a run at the Big 12 championship game. Texas lost to Kansas State Saturday night. Meaning the Longhorns are tied with OU for the Big 12 South lead.

Texas still holds the tiebreaker with its win over the Sooners. But OU’s chances of winning a conference title are significantly brighter after Saturday night.

John Shinn366-3536jshinn@normantranscript.com