He’s human after all
Look, down on the field. It’s Superman. It’s RoboQuarterback. No, it’s Sam Bradford, human being. Sudden Sam finally turned human in the second quarter. On back-to-back throws, Bradford first threw incomplete, then threw an interception. Both have been rare sightings in this Sooner season. Bradford’s incompletion was his first of the day, ending a streak of 21 straight completions spread over two games. But that’s not even Sudden Sam’s best streak of this young season; he hit 22 straight passes against North Texas and Miami. The incompletion was a bad throw, but not a dangerous toss, a deep ball to a well-covered Malcolm Kelly. The throw was well in front of him but had no chance of being intercepted. Not so with Bradford’s next toss. A Utah State pass rusher popped Bradford as he threw, and the ball sailed high to Juaquin Iglesias, who got a hand on it and caused a deflection. Utah State defenders Roy Hurst and Daryl Fields collided as they scrambled for the ball, but Hurst held on to pin Bradford with his first collegiate interception. Still, Bradford’s start — 11 of 13, 167 yards, two TDs, the interception — should keep him safely ahead of Louisville’s Brian Brohm in the NCAA’s passing efficiency ratings.
Sooners play shell game
Have you ever seen those old shell games, where a coin or token or something is placed under a cup, which sits among two other cups, and then the gamemaster mixes up the cups and you have to figure out which one has the cup. Total scam, of course. Usually, the coin has disappeared, so you always lose. And opposing defenses seem to always lose with the Sooner shell game. Is Sam Bradford going to throw to Malcolm Kelly? To Juaquin Iglesias? To Jermaine Gresham? Or to none of the above. Bradford is 11 of 11 for 167 yards as OU jumped to a 21-0 lead on Utah State, and here are the receiving totals: Iglesias 4 for 82, Finley 3 for 45, Kelly 3 for 42. Finley and Kelly have TD catches. Iglesias ran for a touchdown. It’s a shell game. Where’s the ball? Is it going to Kelly? To Finley? To Iglesias. And we haven’t even brought up Jermaine Gresham, the tight end who caught eight passes last week vs. Miami.
Sudden Sam still sizzles
OK, this is getting ridiculous. Sam Bradford is 5-of-5 passing for 105 yards. That means he’s 45 of 53 for the season; 84.9 percent. The only percentages that can beat that are the NBA’s best foul shooters and George W.’s approval rating at a National Rifle Association convention. Bradford now has 15 straight completions; earlier this season, he had 22 straight completions. This is absurd. No quarterback in football history has ever been this hot. Sure, Utah State is no competition. The Aggies are better than North Texas, but that’s as far as I’m willing to go. Still, Bradford is hitting receivers in stride, and he’s making some throws, too. His 28-yard floater to Juaquin Iglesias was gorgeous.
Sooners have some tricks
On OU’s fourth play of the game, flanker Malcolm Kelly took a pitch from Sam Bradford, then Kelly pitched the ball to Juaquin Iglesias on a double reverse. The result? A 35-yard touchdown run. And it got me to thinking. Lost in the avalanche of Miami last week was the trickery OU used and didn’t use. And same with the week earlier against North Texas. The Sooner offense is working so well, the coaching staff can afford to try some things. Reverses. Fake reverses. All kinds of looks designed to do one thing: Make Texas think. Swing pass to Manuel Johnson? Does that mean Johnson is trying to take it to the house, or is Johnson going to pull up and throw the ball himself, as he did to Kelly last week? These games have become all about planting caution in the minds of Longhorns, and every other future foe as well.
Parrish the thought
Sudden thought. What if Parrish Cox hadn’t intercepted that pass early in the first quarter? It might be 34-10 with 5:27 left in the first half. Troy just went 80 yards in nine plays to take a 27-10 lead and faced only one third down: a 3rd-and-3 in which the Trojans used a double pass to score. Gary Banks took a lateral, then lofted an easy 17-yard touchdown pass to MyKeal Terry. Troy’s offense hasn’t been that spectacular; it just methodically has butchered the OSU defense. Troy has 13 first downs, 258 total yards and still has 41/2 minutes left in the half. The Cowboys are getting embarrassed.
Terrible call in Troy
In 2001, Les Miles called a fake punt on 4th-and-13 deep in his own territory at Texas A&M. Scott Elder was stopped way short. I thought it was one of the worst calls I’d ever seen. I said then and say now, I wouldn’t fake a punt like that even if Barry Sanders was running the ball. Troy just pulled a similar stupid stunt. I don’t know if it was called or if punter Adrian Vera lost his mind and tried it on his own, but he tried to pick up a 4th-and-11. The play was open, but to make 11 yards, a punter has to run 26 yards, without zig-zagging. OSU’s Zach Carter made a nice play and knocked Vera out of bounds four yards. Terrible, terrible call. Troy led 20-3, yet gave OSU a short field and the Cowboys scored to make it a game.
Where have you gone, Bobby Reid
OK, when does Mike Gundy call for Bobby Reid? Turns out Zac Robinson has not been the magic elixir the OSU offense needed. State has had six possessions and has three points, seven first downs and 134 total yards. Robinson hasn’t played bad, but he hasn’t done much, and he’s getting little help from teammates or coaches. Troy’s defense came into this game having been run over by Florida and Arkansas, and OSU ran well in the first quarter, yet when the Cowboys came out for their first possession of the second quarter, it was incomplete pass, incomplete pass, incomplete pass. Punt. Hey, Larry Fedora. Run the ball! On OSU’s next possession, Fedora finally ran it, and consecutive gains went for 7, 7, 8 and 16 yards. The second play was a Robinson option, and Toston fumbled on the fourth, his second tunover of the game.
Unqualified disaster
Let’s see. The offense hasn’t done anything. The defense has turned leaky. Now OSU is getting burned on kicking teams. Leodis McKelvin just returned an OSU punt 74 yards for a touchdown, and the rout is on. Troy leads OSU 20-3 50 seconds into the second quarter. This has been a total disaster so far. The Cowboys don’t look inept so much as they look overmatched. The atmosphere at Movie Gallery Stadium doesn’t seem all that intimidating. It’s just an old-fashioned butt-whipping. Troy is making plays; OSU is not. This punt return was wide open; so was the previous punt return, but a big runback was wiped out by a Troy penalty.
One bad quarter
In baseball, after a game is delayed by rain, the teams almost always come out and play faster. You can see some 2:10, 2:15 games. But the OSU-Troy started out with a crawl. The 58-minute first quarter was plagued with turnovers, penalties and injuries. And shoddy, shoddy play by OSU. Troy leads 13-3 and is driving yet again. This is not the show the Cowboys want to present on national television. This is not the reputation the Big 12 wants to build. Frankly, the Cowboys are playing very poorly, and it’s offensive as well as defensive. So much for Zac Robinson’s magic; he’s playing halfway good, 5-of-8 passing for 51 yards and a nifty 9-yard run, but OSU hasn’t reached the end zone. Four possesions: one turnover, two punts and a field goal after 2nd-and-5 at the Troy 6-yard line.
Defense gets some blame
Troy just 79 yards on 13 plays to take a 13-3 lead, and only one play was longer than nine yards, a 12-yard pass from quarterback Omar Haugabook. Bad news: the Trojans faced only one third down. More bad news: Troy’s first-down plays gained 9, 8, 7, 2, 7 and 3 yards. That’s no way for a defense to get off the field. Worst bad news: Texas Tech comes up next week.
