TCU hadn’t changed very much in the four years since it last faced Oklahoma. It was still harder to run through than a brick wall.
But the difference Saturday night in the second-ranked Sooners’ 35-10 victory over the 24th-ranked Horned Frogs was they didn’t have to run through that wall to win.
They had Sam Bradford. He was the ace in the hole OU couldn’t play when it tumbled 17-10 back in 2005.
“You have to give it to Bradford,” TCU linebacker Jason Phillips said, “he made some great throws.”
Great throws were something the sophomore has made on a regular basis the last two seasons. Saturday’s 411-yard performance was the third highest in school history. Manuel Johnson was the beneficiary, setting a school record for receiving yards with 206. Bradford’s four touchdown passes ran his season total to 16 and gave him 52 in 18 career starts.
But he had to do it under more duress than he’s faced in just about any of those 18 games. TCU tired to beat Bradford to pulp and was willing to do so at just about any cost. It crowded the line scrimmage with eight players and sent six sprinting at him just about anytime he dropped back to pass.
The philosophy rendered OU’s running game useless. It only collected 25 yards on the ground and averaged an anemic 0.7 yards per carry.
“Regardless of how someone is play, you still should be able to move the football and create some seams,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “It’s o-line, it’s tight ends, it’s back, it’s everybody.”
Everybody but Bradford.
He was battered and even bloodied, thanks to some cleats that scraped his right leg. He was sacked four times and hit at least 10 more. But he stood up to all of it.
“I really can’t complain about getting sacked when we won like we did,” Bradford said. “It is part of the job and comes with the position. It’s always worth getting a little beat up when the outcome is a win.”
Defensive coordinators go into most games hoping a quarterback isn’t willing to take that kind of abuse. They believe the constant pressure of flying towards a quarterback will create bad decisions. The anticipation of a hit will supersede the willingness to wait for a receiver to come open.
OU couldn’t stand up to it the last time the teams met. Paul Thompson and Rhett Bomar didn’t handle the heat back in 2005.
Bradford hasn’t faced that challenge many times in his career. He was only sacked about a dozen times last season. Heading into Saturday’s game he hadn’t been sacked at all in the first three games.
Put he stood up the shots like Rocky Balboa.
“He made some really good deep throws,” Phillips said. “I think they caught us on two or three of those when we were putting pressure on him early. He just sat in there and threw them perfectly.”
Who knows if OU was face the same scenarios the rest of the season. Bradford’s performance proved a heavily blitz package isn’t enough to take him off his game.
A more consistent running game would have helped.
“We know that we obviously need to work on the running the ball better,” Bradford said. “If we come out and run it like that in conference we are going to get beat.”
But at least the whole conference knows Bradford is willing to take the heat and can’t wait to see it again.
“As many good receivers as we have, we like our chances when teams want to play us man-to-man across the board,” he said.
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Sooners rout TCU
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