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Sooners crush Huskers

OU’s Quentin Chaney and Chris Brown celebrate after Brown scored against Nebraska onSaturday in Norman. MICHAEL WYKE/Tulsa World

 
By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Published: 11/2/2008  3:26 AM
Last Modified: 8/20/2009  9:40 AM

OU scores most points ever against Nebraska.



NORMAN — The temptation may have been there for Oklahoma to turn one eye to Lubbock, Texas.

Instead, the Sooners set their full attention on Nebraska. Poor Nebraska.

OU embarrassed the Cornhuskers 62-28 on Saturday at Owen Field, changing early turnovers into easy points and rolling to one of the most lopsided Oklahoma triumphs in the history of the series. It was the most points an Oklahoma team has scored in 84 meetings with Nebraska.

“We just really came out firing, with everybody,” said OU coach Bob Stoops. “Our guys were really focused in and couldn’t have come out much better.”

The Sooners could have been watching the scoreboard, where deep in the heart of Texas it was a showdown between No. 1 Texas and No. 6 Texas Tech. The Red Raiders survived a UT comeback, 39-33, and scored the winning touchdown with one second left, setting o0 a raucous celebration on the OU concourse, where thousands of Sooner fans lingered for 30 minutes and hovered around television sets to take in the drama.

While players may not have paid attention to the events in Lubbock, fans clearly did. A scoreboard ribbon atop Memorial Stadium’s lower bowl kept the gathering of 85,212 — the fifth-largest crowd ever at OU — very much tuned in as cheers arose sporadically with updates throughout the evening.

To keep conference and national championship hopes alive,OU needed Texas to lose to create a second-place logjam the Big 12 South standings with Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State all losing just once.

Three weeks remain in the regular season, and the Sooners, Red Raiders and Cowboys still have games against each other that will decide the winner. Oklahoma can take the South by winning its last three games (starting at Texas A&M next week) and hoping for another Texas loss.

If the Sooners and Longhorns win out and Texas Tech loses only to Oklahoma on Nov. 22 in Norman, it would create a three-way tie for first. The highest-ranked of the three in the Nov. 30 Bowl Championship Series standings would represent the South in the Big 12 Championship Game on Dec. 6.

Back in Norman, No. 4- ranked OU improved to 8-1 overall and 4-1 in Big 12 play, while Nebraska fell to 5-4 and 2-3.

The Sooners still showed they have defensive deficiencies to correct — all of Nebraska’s 28 points came after gains of 67, 23, 41, 36 and 57 yards — but it was an opportunistic OU defense that collected two interceptions and a fumble that became three first-quarter touchdowns.

The Huskers committed three turnovers on their first five plays and trailed 28-0 just 5½ minutes into the game.

OU led 49-14 at halftime, the most points ever allowed by a Nebraska team in a half.

The Sooners compiled 508 total yards.

“That is a heck of a football team,” said Nebraska coach Bo Pelini. “They are a damn good football team. I give all the credit to Oklahoma. They beat us in every phase of the game tonight.”

Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford completed 19-of-27 passes for 311 yards — his sixth 300-yard game of the season — and threw five touchdown passes (the sixth time he’s tied the school record), but suffered an endzone interception. Quentin Chaney caught five passes for 128 yards and a touchdown, and Jermaine Gresham caught two TD passes.

OU’s ground game continued its recent surge as well, with Chris Brown (89) and DeMarco Murray (57) combining for 146 rushing yards and five touchdowns (two receiving).

Murray also had 119 yards on two kickoff returns.

“Sam, again, was just exceptional,” Stoops said. “And we ran the football well. De- Marco and Chris were great.”

But this game was won by Oklahoma’s defense and the early takeaways.

After Murray’s 62-yard kickoff return set the Sooners on a short march (capped by Brown’s 2-yard touchdown run), Dominique Franks jumped a screen pass and returned Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz’ first throw 18 yards for a touchdown to make it 14-0.

“That really ignited us,” Stoops said. “He read it well and anticipated it.”

Two plays later, Keenan Clayton forced a fumble (recovered by English) after a short pass completion, and Bradford found Chaney behind the defense for a 48-yard touchdown and a 21-0 lead.

Two plays later, Ganz’ third throw was tipped by NU running back Marlon Lucky, and Lendy Holmes intercepted and returned it to the Huskers’ 9-yard line. On the next play, Bradford tossed a score to Gresham that made it 28-0 with 9:27 to play in the opening period.

The Sooners extended the lead to 35-0 with 4 seconds left in the quarter when Bradford culminated a 97-yard drive — OU’s longest of the year — with a 1-yard TD toss to Brown. That made for the most points ever scored in a quarter by a Nebraska opponent.

The Sooner defense appeared to suffer another injury setback when 2007 sacks leader Auston English left the game with what Stoops called a sprained knee.



John E. Hoover 581-8384
john.hoover@tulsaworld.com



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sierrajoe, Langley (11/2/2008 7:26:59 AM)
I felt a bit of compassion for the Huskers, but loved the win. Does anyone else think our defense still looked weak? They seemed to run on us easily. Also what are the sooners going to do when they actually are forced to play in the second half? I understand not running up the score, but can't we at least play for three full quarters before going to first and run up the middle? We have only played four quarters in one game and folded when it counted. What's up with our kicker, he is getting some distance but now can't hit a extra point. Tech and OSU are now looming larger than ever, let's hope we can pull it off! Except for the penalties, didn't Chaney look great?
 

 
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