John Shinn
BOULDER, Colo. — Oklahoma entered Folsom Field with an aura of invincibility. What it left with wasn’t an aura as much as it was stench Saturday afternoon.
The third-ranked Sooners let a 17-point second-half lead fly off like a bald eagle soaring from the mountains that serve as the backdrop for Colorado’s home field.
Any chance of winning, or being able to control their own destiny in the national title race sailed away when Colorado kicker Kevin Eberhart hooked in a 45-yard field goal as time expired to give the Buffaloes a 27-24 victory and leave the Sooners befuddled.
Actually it was 8,000 Sooner fans that made the trip to Boulder that were shocked. OU entered Saturday’s Big 12 Conference opener with what many considered the best offense in college football. Averaging over 60 points through the first four games and winning all of them by more than five touchdowns breeds confidence.
The Sooners saw the writing on the wall much earlier.
“It’s never a shock when you’re the one competing,” OU coach Bob Stoops said while thousands of Colorado fans were going crazy on the field. “We needed to play well to win and we didn’t.”
The offense went from overpowering to overhyped, gaining just 230 yards, 330 less than their average.
Sam Bradford went from the biggest surprise in college football to the quarterback Sooner fans hoped he wouldn’t be. He was just 8-for-19 for 112 yards and threw two interceptions.
The receivers that ran wild throughout the non-conference season looked like they were in the same cage that contained Colorado’s mascot, Ralphie.
Juaquin Iglesias led the Sooners with two catches. Those grabs totaled 15 yards. Malcolm Kelly didn’t have a catch and only had a handful thrown his way.
“Colorado did a good job covering him up,” Bradford said. “Anytime we had a chance to throw to him one on one we take it but we didn’t get that chance today.”
Still, OU had chances to limp back home with an ugly win.
OU safety D.J. Wolfe picked off a pair of Cody Hawkins passes setting up a two touchdowns.
The first led to Bradford’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Iglesias late in the first quarter and gave OU a 7-0 lead.
The second came one play before Allen Patrick’s 17-yard touchdown run early in third quarter gave OU a 24-7 lead.
But the Sooner offense never put together sustained drives. It’s only other touchdown was a 34-yard run by Patrick midway through the second quarter. It ended a three-play drive.
OU’s longest scoring drive was 11 plays and it ended with Garrett Hartley’s 28-yard field goal. The rest ended quickly.
Patrick rushed for 96 yards, but the Sooners were as ineffective running the ball as they were throwing.
Colorado (3-2, 1-0) wasn’t a marvel of offensive efficiency. But it snapped the ball 36 times more than the Sooners. Having to play that many snaps took a toll on OU in the fourth quarter.
Cody Hawkins was 22-for-36 for 220 yards and started and got hot in the fourth quarter. He was 5-for-6 in the final 15 minutes.
Tyson DeVree caught one of the passes for a 4-yard touchdown on fourth down early in the fourth quarter. Hawkins added a second with a 15-yard connection with Dusty Sprague to tie the game at 24-24 with 4 minutes left.
Hawkins, who is the son of Colorado coach Dan Hawkins, grew up in Boise, Idaho, where his father coached Boise State before coming to Boulder last season.
“A lot of my friends in Boise got on me last year, and I was a little upset I didn’t get a piece of Oklahoma,” the quarterback said, referring to last season’s Fiesta Bowl. “(Colorado linebacker Jordan) Dizon told me to give them some of that Boise State mojo, and I said the heck with that, let’s get some Colorado mojo.”
All of OU’s was gone in the fourth quarter. The Sooners had three possessions in the final 15 minutes. They ended with two punts and an interception. There was only one first down.
“We got up 24-7 and then they outplayed us in a big time way the rest of the game,” Stoops said. “I give my compliments to them, they hung in there and made the plays. They executed the last quarter and a half a lot better than we did. They outplayed us and outcoached us in the second half.”
Because of it the Sooners enter next week’s showdown with Texas reeling from a loss. The Red River Rivalry looked like one of the biggest games in college football Saturday morning. By late afternoon it became just a big game in the Big 12 South.
Texas got whipped by Kansas State, 41-21, setting the stage for two teams that are 0-1 in the conference next Saturday at the Cotton Bowl.
“We have to bounce back from the loss like good teams do,” Iglesias said. “We think we’re a great team.”
But there was little evidence of it at Folsom Field.
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
