My 100th straight OU game! Here's the best from my first 99
Published: 10/14/2011 2:50 PM
Last Modified: 10/17/2011 10:52 AM
Bob Stoops and Jason White talk during the 2004 A&M game. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World file
That pales in comparison to Merv Johnson's 400 in a row, but hey, I've only been on the beat since the start of the 2004 season.
Anyhow, I’ve finally reached triple-digits. Seen a lot of big wins, a lot of shocking losses, and some otherwise unforgettable sights. OU's record with me in the press box is 79-20 (.798).
To celebrate my good fortune, I offer the following list of superlatives:
Best Game
2006-07, Fiesta Bowl, Boise State 43, OU 42
Even for someone who’s been watching football for 33 years, there’s never been anything quite like the Fiesta Bowl. Broncos lead big, Sooners come all the way back to take the lead, Broncos hit 4th-and-28 hook-and-lateral for 50 yards to send it to OT. Adrian Peterson comes back from injury and goes out with style (a 25-yard TD on his last carry), Boise scores on a halfback pass, wins in on an impossibly gutsy Statue-of-Liberty 2-pointer. Ian Johnson proposes to his cheerleader girlfriend. Just wow.
Best Rushing Performance
2004, Adrian Peterson, OU 38, OSU 35
I could’ve picked any number of Peterson games. Could’ve picked from a couple against the Cowboys. But his big day in Stillwater—33 carries, 249 yards—was as good as it gets. Just when OSU came back to make it 28-21, Peterson took a sweep left, spun out of the tackle of a 280-pound defender and sprinted 80 yards for a TD. On the Sooners’ next offensive play, he went 56. The next year against OSU he scored on runs of 71 and 84 yards and finished with 237.
Best Passing Performance
2010, Landry Jones, OU 23, Nebraska 20
Tempting to say Sam Bradford’s 468-yard, three-touchdown day against Kansas in 2008, or Landry Jones’ 468-yard, four-TD night against OSU in 2010. But neither of those defenses were any good. I think Jones’ performance the following week against Nebraska was better. The Cornhuskers had the nation’s No. 2-ranked pass defense, a couple of future NFL defensive backs, a just-plain-mean defensive line and a 17-0 lead. Jones was 23-of-41 for 342 yards with a long touchdown pass and a short TD run after what should have been another long TD pass.
Best Receiving Performance
2010, Ryan Broyles, OU 43, Colorado 10
Broyles caught nine passes for a school-record 208 yards and three touchdowns. He (and many others since 2004) frequently caught more passes, but like yards, touchdowns and big plays. The king of the bubble screens averaged 23.1 yards per catch in that game thanks to Landry Jones bombs of 81 and 64 yards. No, Colorado’s defense wasn’t any good, and no, the game wasn’t close. But it was a virtuoso performance by Broyles nonetheless.
Best Defensive Performance
2007, Curtis Lofton, Week 6-Week 13
Hard to argue against Frank Alexander last week against Texas: Six tackles, four for loss, three QB sacks, one forced fumble, one recovered fumble, one deflected pass, one QB pressure. Or Jamell Fleming last week against Texas: 13 tackles, two for loss, one forced fumble, one recovered fumble, one touchdown, one QB pressure. But I’ll go with Lofton’s superhero run: six tackles and a game-changing forced fumble against Texas; 18 tackles and a game-changing fumble return for a TD against Missouri; 11 tackles and a goal line pass deflection for an interception at Iowa State; eight tackles and a forced fumble against Texas A&M; 11 tackles against Baylor; 12 tackles and an interception at Texas Tech; eight tackles and two forced fumbles against OSU; and nine tackles, three for loss, one sack, one interception and a quarterback in a shell in the Big 12 title game against Missouri. Without Lofton, OU doesn’t win the Big 12 that year.
Best Clutch Performance
2004, Jason White, OU 42, Texas A&M 35
White missed two days of practice because he and his sister drove to eastern Missouri to attend their grandfather’s funeral. White and his grandfather were close, and it was a hard week emotionally. In the game, the Aggies twice led by 14 — the first time all season the Sooners had trailed by more than one score — but White fired TD passes both times to bring the Sooners back. Then, facing third-and-10 in a tie game with just over six minutes left, White scrambled away from pressure and found Mark Bradley, who split two defenders for a 39-yard TD. White’s numbers: 19-of-35, 292 yards, 5 TDs.
Biggest Swing
OU goes from absolutely embarrassing Colorado 42-3 in the 2004 Big 12 championship game — the Sooners had 498 yards and 26 first downs; CU had 46 and three—to the USC Orange Bowl debacle. One game, the team looked like they couldn’t lose to the Chicago Bears. The next, they looked like they couldn’t beat Goldie Hawn’s Wildcats.
— John E. Hoover
Written by
John E. Hoover
Sports Columnist
