Shocker

Boise State uses trick plays to upset OU in Fiesta Bowl

John Shinn

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Oklahoma came to the Fiesta Bowl wanting to cap a successful season and go out on a high note. Boise State arrived in University of Phoenix Stadium wanting to prove an undefeated team from the Western Athletic Conference deserved to be mentioned with college football’s elite.

Only Boise State got what it sought Monday night.

The seventh-ranked Sooners rallied from an 18-point deficit and were seconds away from claiming their first BCS bowl victory since the 2003 Rose Bowl, but instead suffered a 43-42 overtime loss.

The Broncos’ Ian Johnson darted into the end zone on a two-point conversion attempt to cap one of the wildest games in bowl history.

“It just wasn’t meant to be,” OU coach Bob Stoops said after the Sooners finished the season 11-3.

He looked like he’d just been through a wringer. He should have. The last 2 minutes and the overtime alone provided enough thrills to for an entire season. The two teams combined for 37 points during that span.

Most of the attention was focused on the return of Adrian Peterson to the Sooner backfield. The junior running back missed the last seven games with a broken collarbone and many believe the Fiesta Bowl will be his last game before declaring himself eligible for the 2007 NFL draft.

He found the end zone twice, including a 25-yard jaunt on OU’s first play of overtime. But he finished with a disappointing 77 yards on 20 carries.

“My head is just spinning right now,” he said.

It was dizzying night.

Instead it was Johnson who was the star of the game. The Boise State running back was the second-leading rusher in Division I during the regular season and battled his way to 101 yards on 16 carries.

The Sooners entered the game with an eight-game winning streak, but didn’t bare much of a resemblance to that team until the second half.

Paul Thompson threw for 233 yards and two touchdowns. But he also tied a BCS bowl record with three interceptions. When he threw his third, and Boise State’s Marty Tadman returned 34 yards for a touchdown, it looked like he was overseeing a disaster.

“I think I might have been trying to do too much, (it) being a big game, instead of playing within myself,” Thompson said. “Guys stayed focused toward the end of the game. It started off rough. I wasn’t really nervous, I was just trying to do too much.”

At that point, the Sooners were down 28-10 and it appeared they were heading for a route resembling the 55-19 loss to USC in the 2005 Orange Bowl.

But the Sooners tightened defensively and loosened up offensively.

An 8-yard touchdown from Peterson and a 28-yard field goal by Garrett Hartley narrowed the gap to 28-20 early in the fourth quarter.

It remained there until Thompson engineered a six-play, 77-yard drive that ended with Quentin Chaney’s grab of a tipped pass with 1:26 left to draw it 28-26.

Thompson hit Juaquin Iglesias for the two-point conversion to tie it at 28-28 and the thrills were just beginning.

And appeared to be coming to an end moments later.

Sooner cornerback Marcus Walker picked off Jared Zabransky and went 33 yards for a touchdown with 62 seconds left.

“Even though we made mistakes we dug a hole and dug out of it,” Stoops said. “We make the two-point conversions and Marcus makes a great play after giving up a big play early in the game.”

But the Broncos weren’t done.

They tied it with a miraculous 50-yard touchdown on fourth-and-18 with 7 seconds left. Zabransky hit Drisan James at the Sooner 35, and James pitched the ball to Jerard Rabb, who raced into the end zone.

“Our players, they’re warriors,” Boise State coach Chris Petersen said. “They never quit.”

OU gave them a chance when Peterson scored on a 25-yard run on its first play of the overtime.

But the Broncos dipped into their bag of tricks in the extra period and pulled a winner. Wide receiver Vinny Perretta threw a fourth-down touchdown pass to Derek Schouman. Boise State shunned the extra point and went for the two-point conversion and the win.

Johnson’s run around the corner on a Statue of Liberty play delivered it.

Linebacker Rufus Alexander said the Sooners had seen the play on tape during pregame preparations, but it didn’t do any good.

“We were kind of in awe of the way he did the misdirection,” he said. “I was just kind of going over the top and they executed their play. Hats off to them and we didn’t play defense like we should have.”

Johnson scooted untouched to the corner of the end zone as Boise State’s boisterous fans went into bedlam.

The victory lifted the Broncos to 13-0 and if No. 2 Florida upsets top-ranked Ohio State in the BCS title game, Boise State will be the only undefeated team in Division I.

“Give them credit,” Stoops said. “They deserve it.”