Malcolm on the griddle
9/13/2006 4:36:43 PM
I could cover college football for the next 200 years and still fall short of the insight Dave Sittler brings to his columns. So when he writes, as he did this morning, that OU's best chance to survive its trip to Oregon is to hand Adrian Peterson the ball until he drops, well, you can take that as gospel.
At the same time...
Sooners offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson predicts the Ducks will bring out a nine-man defensive front designed to pin down the Sooners' Superman. They will force Paul Thompson, quarterbacking his first road game in hostile Autzen Stadium, to win a game they don't think he can.
Here's the thing, though: With a lot of help from one of his friends, maybe Thompson can get the job done. And I don't mean Peterson.
Anyone at Owen Field last Saturday for the OU-Washington game witnessed a roasting -- the Huskies doubled down on the line of scrimmage and left their poor cornerbacks in single coverage on Malcolm Kelly. Kelly responded by running by that coverage all afternoon en route to a 121-yard day that could have easily been 221, were it not for an underthrown deep ball, a 20-yard drop and a blatant (uncalled) hold on a sprinting-into-the-open Kelly as Thompson uncorked another bomb.
It is becoming clearer with each passing (literally) week that Kelly is outgrowing single coverage. Now comes Oregon, who lost its best cornerback to a broken leg last week, and whose remaining corners are freshmen or junior college transfers. In other words, out of Kelly's league.
If Wilson is right and the Ducks stick to a defense which asks its safeties to ignore the pass and stop the run, Kelly should be running free again.
Dave is absolutely right -- the stage is set for Peterson to officially break into the Heisman Trophy race this Saturday.
But I have a feeling if the Sooners win in Eugene, they'll be talking just as much about Kelly as their Heisman candidate.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
OU Sports Writer
