It started ugly for the Sooners but by the end of the day they accomplished what they needed to. A 37-20 win over Washington was a sigh of relief after the Sooners entered the locker room tied at 13.
Oklahoma's first half defense was very similar to what we saw last week against UAB, missed tackles and blown assignments. However, the second half brought us what we had been waiting six quarters of football to see, domination!
Paul Thompson was 9-of-11 for 170 yards, Adrian Peterson ran for 107 yards and two touchdowns as Oklahoma outscored Washington 24-7 in the second half. The defense completely held Washington in check for most of the second half, not allowing the Huskies to mover the ball or score until late in the fourth quarter when the Sooners were up 37-13.
Thompson was impressive again, completing 22 of 33 passes for 278 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Again, he's not Jason White but anyone who wants to continue to say that Paul Thompson can't play quarterback is just ignorant. He does need to continue on efficiency and ball protection.
Malcolm Kelly had his breakout game today, 6 catches for 120 yards and 2 touchdowns. Everyone in Sooner land knew how good he was now opposing coaches will have another threat to prepare for.
Garrett Hartley was solid as well going 3 for 3 on field goals and booming kick-offs through the end zone.
Adrian Peterson was a beast again! He gets better and better as the game goes on and was dominant in the second half. For the game Peterson ran the ball 32 times for 165 yards and two touchdowns.
The offensive line was solid again today. Not great but solid. They have a running back go for over 150 yards and gave up no sacks.
In all the offensive performance was better than last week and somewhere between good and great. 37 points and 454 yards will win you a lot of football games. The most exciting thing to me about the offense is that I don't think we have seen it in its entirety yet. We haven't seen Paul Thompson roll out much or run nor have we seen all the formations. Look for part of the unveiling this weekend at Oregon.
I could grade the defensive performance by halves but I'm not. They were poor in the first half and stellar in the second. OU must play defense against Oregon like they did in the second half against Washington. Missed tackles, dropped interceptions and blown assignments are no longer acceptable.
The defensive ends were more active today and the Sooners were able to put a lot of pressure on a very athletic quarterback and the ends played a huge role in that. I don't expect D.J. Wolfe to start at corner opposite of Reggie Smith next week rather Lendy Holmes will get a shot at the starting spot.
Darien Williams led the Sooners with seven solo tackles and Rufus Alexander added five of his own.
One more player of note, Reggie Smith had another great game! He had three punt returns for 80 yards, one kick-off return for 22 yards, provided great defensive coverage and caught a pass on offense for 13 yards.
Was Reggie the most valuable player today or was it someone else? Make sure you vote in this week's poll located on the right sidebar.
Like I said last week, a win is a win and I'll take it. The Sooners are now 2-0 and we'll find out how good this team really is against Oregon next weekend. Tune in to the Machine all this week for daily updates and reports on the Sooners and the Ducks.
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