The Sooners are officially bowl eligible. Big deal! That is a mark the schools like Baylor and Oklahoma State celebrate. At this point the goal of Oklahoma's season is to run the table to finish 10-2, make it to a legit bowl game and stay in the conference title hunt until it become mathematically impossible to win.
To achieve those goals the Sooners are going to have to go out every Saturday and just take care of business and that is what they did yesterday in Columbia. While the critics were saying that Paul Thompson couldn't carry the team without Adrian Peterson, Oklahoma's rushing attack would sputter with Allen Patrick and the defense was only padding their stats against mediocre teams Oklahoma went to work.
Paul Thompson threw for 127 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran the ball six times for 28 yards and another score. Allan Patrick set the mark, for the second time in two weeks, for most carries in a game this season rushing 36 times for 162 yards. All the defense did was hold a team that was averaging 33 points per game to only 10 points by forcing four turnovers and holding the Tigers on a goal line stand.
On the other hand the Tigers were 7-1 coming into this game and Chase Daniel was being billed as the best quarterback in the conference. While Daniel is full of talent he showed that he is not capable of putting the team on his back and leading them to a big win just yet.
Under the pressure of Oklahoma's defense the Tigers offense resembled more of a junior college attack than anything else. Make all the excuse for them that you want but when a team does things that are uncharacteristic of them it is often resulted by the team they are playing. OU pressured Daniel all day and made him throw on the run. They made big hits and forced turnovers and they did it on the road. Give them their due credit!
Parting Shot
Two interceptions, a fumble, a blocked punt and a roughing the kicker penalty set up every score for Oklahoma yesterday. While some would say these were gifts from the Tigers I saw they were breaks that the Sooners forced and earned.
OU has youth all over the field and everything they experience this season, good or bad, makes them a better team next season. There were a lot of good things that happened on the field yesterday and one game into the toughest part of their schedule the Sooners have a lot of momentum going their way.
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